Crime writing giants to do battle over Theakstons Old Peculier Award

Some of the biggest names in crime writing will go head-to-head over the 2012 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, which recognises the finest thrillers written in English over the last 12 months.

Genre stalwarts including Ian Rankin (The Impossible Dead), Robert Harris (The Fear Index) and John Connolly (The Burning Soul) have made the 18-strong longlist for the award, which carries a GBP 3,000 prize and will be awarded at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate.

They will go up against S. J. Watson, who won the thriller and crime prize at the 2011 Galaxy National Book Awards for Before I Go to Sleep, and Val McDermid, who won the Theakstons Old Peculier Award in 2006 with The Torment of Others and is nominated once again for The Retribution.

Former Man Booker Prize nominee Neil Cross, who will be discussing his hit TV series Luther at this year's festival, is also longlisted for The Calling.

Festival chair Mark Billingham, who has won the Theakstons Old Peculier Award twice, will be among the judges responsible for whittling down the longlist to a shortlist of six books.

These titles will then be put to the public vote on July 5th, with the winner of the prize announced by broadcaster Mark Lawson on 19th July, the opening night of the festival.

As well as the GBP 3,000 prize, the winner will be presented with a handmade, engraved Theakstons Old Peculier beer barrel.