The winner of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2026 is The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths, with Frances Crawford winning the McDermid Debut Award (and a Highly Commended going to Mel Pennant), and David Baldacci being awarded the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award.
The Frozen People is the first book in a new series with a time-travelling spin, as an unsolved mystery takes cold cases investigator Ali Dawson back to the frozen Victorian London of January 1850 to explore a series of killings that have twenty-first century consequences for politicians and Ali’s own family.
Elly Griffiths, from Sussex, had been shortlisted for the Award eight times and was Highly Commended in 2023 for The Locked Room.
She received the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award in 2025.
Leave a comment