17 July 2014
Last updated at 21:06
Belinda Bauer received the award at a ceremony in Harrogate on Thursday
A novel about a student with Asperger’s syndrome who investigates a murder has won a top award for crime writing.
Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer has been named crime novel of the year at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
Bauer’s fourth novel, it tells the story of Patrick Fort, an anatomy student who suspects the body he is dissecting is a murder victim.
It beat books by Denise Mina, Malcolm Mackay, Elly Griffiths and Stav Sherez.
Mina was going for a hat-trick after winning the prize for the past two years.
Bauer’s win comes four years after her debut novel Blacklands won the British Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger Award.
The award ceremony kicked off the four-day Harrogate festival, which will also feature a talk by JK Rowling about writing crime fiction under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
THEAKSTONS CRIME NOVEL AWARD SHORTLIST
- Winner: Rubbernecker – Belinda Bauer
- The Red Road – Denise Mina
- The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter – Malcolm Mackay
- The Chessmen – Peter May
- Dying Fall – Elly Griffiths
- Eleven Days – Stav Sherez