The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year is the UK and Ireland’s most prestigious crime fiction award, now in its twentieth year.
The winner will be revealed on the opening night of Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, 18th July, receiving £3,000 and a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by T&R Theakston Ltd.
For information on how to reserve books and ebooks please visit our library services page online https://www.wokingham.gov.uk/libraries/library-services
The Last Dance by Mark Billingham (book available)
A double murder in a seaside hotel sees a grieving Miller return to work to solve what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. Just why were two completely unconnected men taken out? Despite a somewhat dubious relationship with both reality and his new partner, can the eccentric, offbeat Miller find answers where his colleagues have found only an impossible puzzle?
The Cliff House by Christopher Brookmyre (book available)
Jen’s hen party is going to be out of control. She’s rented a luxury getaway on its own private island. The helicopter won’t be back for 72 hours. They are alone – or so they think. As well as Jen, there’s the pop diva and the estranged ex-bandmate, the tennis pro and the fashion guru, the embittered ex-sister-in-law and the mouthy future sister-in-law. It’s a combustible cocktail, one that takes little time to ignite, and in the midst of the drunken chaos, one of them disappears. Then a message tells them that, unless someone confesses her terrible secret to the others, their missing friend will be killed. Problem is, everyone has a secret. And nobody wants to tell.
In The Blink Of An Eye by Jo Callaghan (book and audio available)
In the UK, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds. Just gone. Vanished. In the blink of an eye. DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificial Intelligence Detective Entity) Lock, Kat’s instincts come up against Lock’s logic. But when the two missing person’s cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal. AI versus human experience. Logic versus instinct. With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic? ‘In the Blink of an Eye’ is a dazzling debut from an exciting new voice and asks us what we think it means to be human.
The Close by Jane Casey (book and ebook available)
At first glance, Jellicoe Close seems to be a perfect suburban street – well-kept houses with pristine lawns, neighbours chatting over garden fences, children playing together. But there are dark secrets behind the neat front doors, hidden dangers that include a ruthless criminal who will stop at nothing. It’s up to DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent to uncover the truth. Posing as a couple, they move into the Close, blurring the lines between professional and personal as never before. And while Maeve and Josh try to gather the evidence they need, they have no idea of the danger they face – because someone in Jellicoe Close has murder on their mind.
The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves (book available)
When Jem Rosco – sailor, adventurer and local legend – blows into town in the middle of an autumn gale, the residents of Greystone, Devon, are delighted to have a celebrity in their midst. The residents think nothing of it when Rosco disappears again; that’s the sort of man he is. Until the lifeboat is launched to a hoax call-out during a raging storm and his body is found in a dinghy, anchored off Scully Cove, a place with legends of its own. This is an uncomfortable case for DI Matthew Venn. He came to the remote village as a child, its community populated by the Barum Brethren that he parted ways with, so when superstition and rumour mix and another body is found in the cove, Matthew soon finds his judgement clouded. As the stormy winds howl and the village is cut off, Venn and his team start their investigation, little realising their own lives might be in danger.
Fearless by M.W. Craven (book available)
Ben Koenig is a ghost. He doesn’t exist any more. Six years ago it was Koenig who headed up the US Marshal’s elite Special Ops group. They were the elite unit who hunted the bad guys – the really bad guys. They did this so no one else had to. Until the day Koenig disappeared. He told no one why and he left no forwarding address. For six years he became a grey man. Invisible. He drifted from town to town, state to state. He was untraceable. It was as if he had never been. But now Koenig’s face is on every television screen in the country. Someone from his past is trying to find him and they don’t care how they do it.
The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths (book available)
When builders renovating a cafe in King’s Lynn find a human skeleton behind a wall, they call for DCI Harry Nelson and Dr Ruth Galloway, Head of Archaeology at the nearby University of North Norfolk. The bones are identified as the remains of Emily Pickering, a young archaeology student who went missing in the 1990s. Emily attended a course run by her Cambridge tutor. Suspicion falls on him and also on another course member – Ruth’s friend Cathbad, who is still frail following his near death from Covid. Just when the team seem to be making progress, Cathbad disappears. The race is on – first to find Cathbad and then to exonerate him.
The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (book available)
Monochrome is a busted flush. Beginning as an investigation into the historical misdeeds of the intelligence services by a vindicative prime minister, Monochrome is now circling the drain, much like the careers of the two civil servants – Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle – charged with overseeing the inquiry. And then the OTIS file falls into their hands. What secrets does this hold that see a long-redundant spy being chased through Devon’s green lanes in the dark? What happened in a newly reunified Berlin that someone is desperate to keep under wraps? And who will win the battle for the soul of the secret service – or was that decided a long time ago?
Killing Jericho by William Hussey (ebook available)
Scott Jericho thought he’d worked his last case. Fresh out of jail, the disgraced former detective is forced to seek refuge with the fairground family he once rejected. Then a series of bizarre murders comes to light – deaths that echo a century-old fairground legend. The police can’t connect the victims. But Jericho knows how the legend goes; that more murders are certain to follow. As Jericho unpicks the deadly mystery, a terrifying question haunts him. As a direct descendant of one of the victims in the legend, is Jericho next on the killer’s list?
None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell (book and ebook available)
Celebrating her 45th birthday at her local pub, podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie is also celebrating her 45th birthday. They are, in fact birthday twins. A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for Alix’s series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life. Alix agrees to a trial interview. Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep digging. Slowly Alix starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life – and into her home. Soon she begins to wonder who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?
Conviction by Jack Jordan (book and ebook available)
Wade Darling stands accused of killing his wife and teenage children as they slept and burning their house to the ground. When the case lands on barrister Neve Harper’s desk, she knows it could make her career. A matter of days before the case, as Neve is travelling home for the night, she is approached by a man. He tells her she must throw the case or the secret about her husband’s disappearance will be revealed. Failing that, he will kill everyone she cares about, until she does as she is told. Neve must make a choice – go against every principle she has ever had, or the people she loves will die.
A Game Of Lies by Clare MacKintosh (book available)
Stranded in the Welsh mountains, seven reality show contestants have no idea what they’ve signed up for. Each of these strangers has a secret. If another player can guess the truth, they won’t just be eliminated – they’ll be exposed live on air. The stakes are higher than they’d ever imagined, and they’re trapped. The disappearance of a contestant wasn’t supposed to be part of the drama. Detective Ffion Morgan has to put aside what she’s watched on screen, and find out who these people really are – knowing she can’t trust any of them. And when a murderer strikes, Ffion knows every one of her suspects has an alibi – and a secret worth killing for.
The Broken Afternoon by Simon Mason (book available)
A four-year-old girl goes missing in plain sight outside her nursery in Oxford, a middle-class, affluent area, her mother only a stones-throw away. Ryan Wilkins, one of the youngest ever Detective Inspectors in the Thames Valley force, dishonourably discharged three months ago, watches his former partner DI Ray Wilkins deliver a press conference, confirming a lead. Ray begins to delve deeper, unearthing an underground network of dark forces in the local area. But will he be able to get closer to the truth of the disappearance? And will Ryan be able to stay away?
Past Lying by Val McDermid (book and audio available)
Edinburgh, haunted by the ghosts of its many writers, is also the cold case beat of DCI Karen Pirie. So she shouldn’t be surprised when an author’s manuscript appears to be a blueprint for an actual crime. Karen can’t ignore the plot’s chilling similarities to the unsolved case of an Edinburgh University student who vanished from her own doorstep. The manuscript seems to be the key to unlocking what happened to Lara Hardie, but there’s a problem: the author died before he finished it. As Karen digs deeper, she uncovers a spiralling game of betrayal and revenge, where lies are indistinguishable from the truth and with more than one unexpected twist.
Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent (book and ebook available)
Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died. Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the media and police, but also a sinister voice from the past. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, recluse Sally steps into the world for the first time, finding independence and learning that people don’t always mean what they say. But when messages start arriving from a stranger who knows far more about her past than she knows herself, Sally’s life is thrown into chaos once again.
The Square Of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (book available)
A girl known only as Red, the daughter of a Cornish fortune-teller, travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient method: the Square of Sevens. When her father suddenly dies, Red becomes the ward of a gentleman scholar. Now raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendour of Bath, her fortune-telling is a delight to high society. But she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him? The pursuit of these mysteries takes her from Cornwall and Bath to London and Devon, from the rough ribaldry of the Bartholemew Fair to the grand houses of two of the most powerful families in England. And while Red’s quest brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads into her grave danger.
The Last Goodbye by Tim Weaver (book and ebook available)
One day ago. On the night Tom Brenner and his nine-year-old son Leo visit the Seven Peaks theme park, they head straight for the ghost house. They go in. But they don’t come out. Somewhere inside the ride, impossible as it seems, the two of them simply vanish. Forty years ago. When Rebekah Murphy was three, her mother walked out of their childhood home and never returned. Nearly four decades on, Fiona Murphy is still missing. But then, out of the blue, a letter arrives in the post. It says it’s from Fiona. What is the connection? Missing persons investigator David Raker is hired by Rebekah to find out if the letter is actually from Fiona – and, if it isn’t, why someone would pretend to be her. But this is a mystery whose secrets were never meant to be found. And as Raker starts to connect the dots from Fiona to the Brenners, he begins to realise he can’t trust anyone.
You Can Run by Trevor Wood (book available)
Ruby’s surprised when her reclusive father invites a strange soldier into their house. Intrigued, she tries to eavesdrop on their conversation, but is alarmed when she hears a fight break out. She rushes to save her dad, but he’s not the one in trouble. The soldier has been stabbed and is bleeding. Refusing her pleas to call an ambulance, her dad urges her to pack a bag – they have to run. As they try to escape, her dad is shot and Ruby is chased by one of the soldier’s comrades but is hidden by Lucas, a village lad she has ignored up till now. They see a military-style ambulance whisk her dad away. She is desperate to find him but the village is quickly under siege. The roads in have been blocked and soldiers are patrolling the streets, urging everyone to stay indoors for their own safety. Ruby must work out who took her father and why. But what if learning the truth means discovering the life she once knew was a lie?
wokinghamboroughlibraries 