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We are thrilled to announce that the winner of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2026 is The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths, with Frances Crawford winning the McDermid Debut Award (and a Highly Commended going to Mel Pennant), and David Baldacci being awarded the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award.
The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year is the UK and Ireland’s most prestigious crime fiction award. It was presented by Harrogate International Festivals at a special ceremony compèred by writer and broadcaster, Steph McGovern, on the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.
The Frozen People is the first book in a new series with a time-travelling spin, as an unsolved mystery takes cold cases investigator Ali Dawson back to the frozen Victorian London of January 1850 to explore a series of killings that have twenty-first century consequences for politicians and Ali’s own family. The judges described The Frozen People as ‘bold,’ ‘superbly plotted’ and ‘highly original’.
Crime fiction phenomenon Elly Griffiths, from Sussex, has been shortlisted for the Award eight times and was Highly Commended in 2023 for The Locked Room. She received the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award in 2025. Griffiths is the author of the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries; the Brighton Mysteries and the Detective Harbinder Kaur series. Her intricately plotted novels told with wry humour and featuring engaging characters have sold over 5 million copies worldwide, winning her fans across the globe.
Elly Griffiths receives a £3,000 prize, as well as an engraved beer cask handcrafted by one of Britain’s last coopers from Theakston’s Brewery.
The Frozen People was selected by a judging panel made up of journalists, broadcasters and representatives from the Award’s sponsors, with the public vote counting as the eighth judge. This incredibly strong shortlist also included The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani, The Death of Us by Abigail Dean, Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney, Clown Town by Mick Herron and Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Khan.
The McDermid Debut Award, named in recognition of world-famous crime writer Val McDermid, was won by Frances Crawford for her novel A Bad, Bad Place.
A gritty and atmospheric thriller set in 1970s Glasgow, A Bad, Bad Place centres around 12-year-old Janey Devine who discovers the body of a murdered woman – the daughter of a local gangster – while walking her dog on a disused railway track and becomes irrevocably tangled up in the police investigation. Scottish writer Frances Crawford graduated from Glasgow University aged sixty, before becoming a writer. She receives a £600 cash prize and an engraved beer casket.
Playwright Mel Pennant was awarded ‘Highly Commended’ for A Murder for Miss Hortense, a mystery novel featuring a formidable retired nurse turned amateur detective, whose sharp eyes and sharper wit uncover truths buried deep within her quiet Birmingham suburban community.
Globally bestselling US novelist, David Baldacci, received the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition for his exceptional contribution to the crime thriller genre, honouring a remarkable career that has captivated millions of readers worldwide and helped shape modern suspense fiction.
The award winners were revealed at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate, during the opening ceremony for the world’s largest celebration of crime writing, Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival (23-26 July), which this year features a stellar line up including Ardal O’Hanlon, Andi Osho, Denise Mina, Adam Kay, Abir Mukherjee, Elly Griffiths, Anthony Horowitz, Holly Jackson, Jane Harper, Nadine Matheson, Alice Feeney, Ann Cleeves and Brenda Blethyn.
The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2026 is presented by Harrogate International Festivals and sponsored by T&R Theakston Ltd, in partnership with Waterstones, and was open to full-length crime novels published in paperback between 1 May 2025 and 30 April 2026.