Herron, McDermid, Mina shortlisted for Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year

Mick Herron's lauded espionage thriller Spook Street (John Murray), already a CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger winner, as well as a recent winner at CrimeFest, has now also been shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (£3,000).

Also making it through to the final six in the running for the prize is Denise Mina's true-life inspired tale of a Glasgow killer The Long Drop (Harvill Secker), itself already a winner of the Gordon Burn Prize and the McIlvanney Prize. Mina has won Crime Novel of the Year twice before, in 2012 and 2013.

Val McDermid also makes the shortlist with her latest Tony Hill and Carol Jordan novel Insidious Intent (Sphere).

The three remaining contenders are Abir Mukherjee, with his Raj-set debut A Rising Man (Harvill Secker), winner of the CWA Historical Dagger; Stav Sherez's The Intrusions, a tale of stalking dubbed by Ian Rankin "a Silence of the Lambs for the internet age"; and Susie Steiner's second Detective Manon Bradshaw novel Persons Unknown (Borough Press), a pick for the Richard & Judy Book Club summer selection.

The shortlist will feature in a six-week promotion in libraries and W H Smith stores. The winner, decided partially by the results of a public vote (20% of the final verdict) and also by the deliberation of a judging panel, will be announced at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate on 19th July. The judges are festival programming chair Lee Child, Nick Johnson of W H Smith, Matt Nixson of The Mail on Sunday, BBC Radio 2 Book Club producer Joe Haddow and Theakston executive director Simon Theakston.