Abir Mukherjee Scoops Coveted Crime Fiction Keg

Well-loved arts patron Simon Theakston presents the award

Crime fiction fans from across the land gathered last night in Harrogate, clamouring to find out which of six shortlisted authors had won the prestigious Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. The awards ceremony is held at the Old Swan Hotel, where Agatha Christie famously stayed in 1926 and where the biopic Agatha was filmed, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Dustin Hoffman.

The winner, determined by a public vote, was picked from a selection of novels spanning various sub-genres from cosy crime to psychological thrillers, but it was Abir Mukherjee's Hunted, which impressed readers the most: a topical thriller set in London and the US during the final week of a toxic presidential campaign. Mukherjee deftly explores the impact on two devastated parents when they find themselves in a race against time – and the FBI - to track down their children, suspected of terrorist atrocities.

The £3,000 prize is not be sniffed at, but the true draw for hopeful writers is surely the handsome and handcrafted wooden cask, which is basically the crime writer's equivalent of a BAFTA.

Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival will welcome nearly 20k visitors in July, bringing a significant boost to the local economy and proving that the U.K. book industry is still thriving (despite its reported nervousness).

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