23 Jul 2012 10:41:11
Denise Mina's story of suicide and murder during the financial crisis, The End of the Wasp Season, has won the Theakstons Old Peculier crime novel of the year award, beating John Connolly, Christopher Brookmyre and SJ Watson to take one of the UK's top crime fiction prizes.
Described as a "thoroughly deserving winner and a great example of 'tartan noir'," the Scottish author is the first woman to have won the Theakstons award since 2008 for what judges called a "hugely atmospheric and haunting book". The End of the Wasp Season is the story of the heavily pregnant DS Alex Morrow's investigation into a savage murder in a wealthy Glasgow suburb, which turns out to be linked to the suicide of a millionaire banker in Kent.
"It's about the financial crisis, it's about tectonic shifts in society," Mina said on Friday about her ninth book. "I think it's quite a surprising book – it talks a lot about suicide, and the meanings of suicide, which is not something that is talked about much. The idea of suicide is of a very set narrative, as if killing yourself is a definitive statement. But it can be just as meaningless as throwing a stone in a river."
The novelist, who left school at 16 before returning to study law at Glasgow University and writing her first novel while doing a PhD, said she was "quite stunned" to win a prize that has previously been awarded to Mark Billingham, Val McDermid and Lee Child. "I dragged my arse down here, I thought I'd go and be nice about the winner – I didn't even have to practise my good loser's face," she said. "I thought John Connolly would win, and SJ Watson was my hedged bet."
Collecting her £3,000 prize, and a handmade oak cask, at the Harrogate crime writing festival on Thursday night, Mina said: "I was really blown away by being on the shortlist. I'm so astonished I can't even swear … There's something lovely about the collegiate attitude of crime writers and together it makes us ballsier."
She was chosen as winner by mix of a public vote and a panel of experts including the author and Harrogate chair Mark Billingham, Theakstons executive director Simon Theakston and DI Tom Thorne actor David Morrissey. Thursday night's ceremony also saw the presentation of the Theakstons Old Peculier outstanding contribution to crime fiction award to Inspector Morse creator Colin Dexter.
