Adrian McKinty has won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award for his novel The Chain. Previously nominated in 2011, 2014 and 2016 for his Sean Duffy series, McKinty will receive £3,000 (about $3,760) and an engraved oak beer cask, hand-carved by one of Britain's last coopers from Theakstons Brewery.
Simon Theakston, executive director of T&R Theakston, called McKinty "a writer of astonishing talent and tenacity, and we could not be more grateful that he was persuaded to give his literary career one last shot because The Chain is a truly deserving winner. While we might be awarding this year's trophy in slightly different, digital circumstances, we raise a virtual glass of Theakston Old Peculier to Adrian's success--with the hope that we can do so in person before too long, and welcome everyone back to Harrogate next year for a crime writing celebration like no other."
McKinty commented: "I am gobsmacked and delighted to win this award. Two years ago, I had given up on writing altogether and was working in a bar and driving an uber, and so to go from that to this is just amazing. People think that you write a book and it will be an immediate bestseller. For 12 books, my experience was quite the opposite, but then I started this one. It was deliberately high concept, deliberately different to everything else I had written--and I was still convinced it wouldn't go anywhere... but now look at this. It has been completely life changing."