The Award celebrates excellence, originality and the very best in crime fiction from UK and Irish authors. A highlight in the literary calendar, past winners include Clare Mackintosh, Mick Herron, Val McDermid, Lee Child and the 2024’s winner Jo Callaghan.

Awarded annually as part of Harrogate International Festivals’ Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, the winner of the most wanted accolade in crime fiction receives a cheque for £3,000 and an engraved oak beer cask, hand-carved by one of Britain’s last coopers from Theakston’s Brewery, nestled in the heart of North Yorkshire in the beautiful village of Masham.