Harrogate International Festivals has announced the 18 titles longlisted for the 2024 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2024, the UK and Ireland’s most prestigious crime fiction award now in its twentieth year.

The prize was created to celebrate “excellence, originality, and the very best in crime fiction from UK and Irish authors” whose novels were published in paperback during the eligibility period.

 The winner receives £3,000 and a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakston Old Peculier. 

The public are now invited to vote for a shortlist of six titles here; voting for that closes May 16. Then the shortlist will be posted and winner voting will open June 13. The prize winner will be revealed July 18.

The Longlist in full:

• The Last Dance by Mark Billingham (Sphere; Little, Brown Book Group)
• The Cliff House by Chris Brookmyre (Abacus; Little, Brown Book Group)
• In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan (Simon & Schuster UK)
• The Close by Jane Casey (Harper Fiction; Harper Collins)
• The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves (Pan Macmillan)
• Fearless by M W Craven (Constable; Little, Brown Book Group)
• The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (Baskerville; John Murray Press)
• Killing Jericho by William Hussey (Zaffre, Bonnier)
• None of This is True by Lisa Jewell (Century; Cornerstone)
• Conviction by Jack Jordan (Simon & Schuster)
• A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh (Sphere; Little, Brown Book Group)
• The Broken Afternoon by Simon Mason (riverrun; Quercus)
• Past Lying by Val McDermid (Sphere; Little, Brown Book Group)
• Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent (Sandycove; Penguin Ireland)
• The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Pan Macmillan)
• The Last Goodbye by Tim Weaver (Michael Joseph; Penguin Random House)
• You Can Run by Trevor Wood (Quercus)