Two Way Split - Allan Guthrie - Birlinn - received £3,000 and a handmade, engraved beer barrel from sponsors Theakstons Old Peculier presented by T R Theakstons' Executive Director Simon Theakston
The Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year is the only award of its kind to be voted for by the general public.

Two Way Split - Allan Guthrie - Birlinn

Edinburgh, dead of winter Robin Greaves is an armed robber whose professionalism is put to the test when he discovers his wife has been sleeping with a fellow gang member. Robin plans the ultimate revenge, but things go from bad to worse when the gang bungles a post office robbery, leaving carnage in their wake. Suddenly they are stalked by the police, sleazy private eyes, and a cold-blooded killer who may be the only one not looking for a cut of the money. This lean and muscular crime caper with a seriously twisted dark side was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger in the UK.

The shortlist:
.Dead Place - Stephen Booth - HarperCollins

Soon there will be a killing. Close your eyes and breathe in the aroma. I can smell it right now, can't you? So powerful, so sweet. So irresistible. It's the scent of death.
The anonymous caller who taunts the Derbyshire Police with talk of an imminent killing could be just another hoaxer. The macabre descriptions of death and decomposition could be someone's sick fantasy. But after listening to the voice, so eerily calm and controlled as it invites the police to meet the 'flesh eater', Detective Diane Fry is certain she's dealing with a killer ! And it may already be too late to save the next victim.
DC Ben Cooper, meanwhile, is looking into Derbyshire's first case of body snatching. It is an investigation that will take him into the world of those whose lives revolve around the dead and their disposal, from funeral directors to crematorium staff and a professor whose speciality is the study of death.

. All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses and Eye - Christopher Brookmyre - Little, Brown

As a teenager Jane Bell had dreamt of playing in the casinos of Monte Carlo in the company of James Bond, but in her punk phase she'd got herself pregnant and by the time she reaches forty-six she's a grandmother, her dreams as dry as the dust her Dyson sucks up from her hall carpet every day. Then her son Ross, a researcher working for an arms manufacturer in Switzerland, is forced to disappear before some characters cut from the same cloth as Blofeld persuade him to part with the secrets of his research. But they are not the only ones desperate to locate him. A team of security experts is hired by Ross's firm: headed by the enigmatic Bett, his staff have little in common apart from total professionalism and a thorough disregard for the law. Bett believes the key to Ross's whereabouts is his mother, and in one respect he is right, but even he is taken aback by the verve underlying her determination to secure her son's safety as she learns the black arts of quiet subterfuge and violent attack. The teenage dreams of fast cars, high-tech firepower and extreme action had always promised to be fun and games, but in real life it's likely someone is going to lose an eye

. Blood and Honey - Graham Hurley - Orion
The discovery of a headless corpse on the rocks below cliffs on the Isle of Wight is only the beginning of a journey for DI Joe Faraday to the centre of the grim trade in human cargo from the crippled societies of the Balkans. From cheap labour to prostitution, Portsmouth, like every other city in the UK is home to untold human misery; a black economy built on illegal immigration. Joe Faraday is determined to find the real criminals that lie behind the tabloid hysteria. Detective Constable Winter on the other hand is determinded only to find a way out of the disciplinary action that threatens his entire career. A burgeoning relationship with a young prostitute isn't exactly helping his cause. Graham Hurley has written another vivid novel of all too human policeman struggling against an overwhelming tide of crime. This is crime writing with a vivid edge of documentary realism.

5. The Death Ship of Dartmouth - Michael Jecks - Headline
When a body is found lying in the middle of the road, many in the little haven of Dartmouth assume that a drunk had fallen and killed himself. At the same time, the town is on alert because a ship, the St. John, has been found ravaged by pirates out at sea, the crew killed or captured. Is this the beginning of a new onslaught by pirates, or is something more sinister happening? Sir Baldwin de Furnshill has been told by Bishop Stapledon of spies and messengers being sent to the great traitor Roger Mortimer in France. If the messengers reach Mortimer, civil war in England will soon break out. Bailiff Simon Puttock and Baldwin must uncover the truth about the deaths and they must be quick. Powerful and ruthless men in the kingdom will not tolerate their failure. This is the most important investigation of their lives: it could result in their own execution if they fail to learn the facts. But if they succeed, other men will want them silenced forever.

6. Cold Granite - Stuart MacBride - HarperCollins
It's DS Logan McRae's first day back on the job after a year off on the sick, and it couldn't get much worse. Four-year-old David Reid's body is discovered in a ditch, strangled, mutilated and a long time dead. There's a killer stalking the Granite City and the local media are baying for blood. If that wasn't enough, Logan also has to contend with a new boss, DI Insch, who doesn't suffer fools gladly and thinks everyone's a fool, and his own ex-girlfriend, the beautiful but chilly Isobel MacAlister, who also happens to be the chief pathologist. The only good news is WPC 'Ball Breaker' Watson, Logan's new guardian angel. The dead are piling up in the morgue almost as fast as the snow on the streets, and Logan knows time is running out. More children are going missing. More are going to die. If Logan isn't careful, he's going to end up joining them. Set in Aberdeen, where the rainy season lasts all year, criminal gangs vie for supremacy on the streets and the oil industry brings an influx of wealth and vice, this is a gritty, powerful and page-turning debut thriller by a writer with a wonderfully observant eye and a characteristically Scottish sense of gallows humour.

Visiting www.harrogate-festival.org.uk/crime where further information about the prize, the unique ‘Whodunit’ online crime novel to solve and details of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival can also be found.

To mark the announcement and for the first time, The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival have created a special web ‘whodunit’; Challenging crime fans across the globe to solve a mystery written exclusively for the Festival by celebrated crime author, Natasha Cooper.

Web competition
Written especially by Natasha Cooper clues for the ‘Whodunit?’ competition will appear on www.harrogate-festival.org.uk/crime as well as at www.theakstons.co.uk and www.waterstones.com . Budding sleuths will be invited to email their final suspect at the end of the tale. If you’ve missed any clues email competition@harrogate-festival.org.uk

The reward for the competition winner is an exclusive prize including a full weekend package to the Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate plus a personal tour of the Theakstons brewery in Masham by Executive Director, Simon Theakston.