The Botanist by M.W. Craven has won the £3,000 (about $3,875) 2023 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, presented by Harrogate International Festivals. Organizers said The Botanist, featuring D.D. Washington Poe, "follows the disgraced detective as he is tasked with catching a poisoner sending the nation's most reviled people poems and pressed flowers, whilst his close friend, pathologist Estelle Doyle, seeks his help when she is arrested for the murder of her father."
Elly Griffiths was recognized as "highly commended" for the penultimate mystery in her Dr Ruth Galloway series, The Locked Room. "Set in the early days of the pandemic, Dr Galloway is locked down in her Norfolk cottage, working to uncover why her late mother had a photo of the cottage dated years before she moved in, when DCI Nelson, who is investigating a series of deaths of women that could be murders or could be suicides, breaks curfew to visit her."
In addition, Ann Cleeves received the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of her impressive writing career. Cleeves, the author of more than 35 novels, is the creator of detectives Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez, and Matthew Venn, who have been subjects of popular TV series in the U.K.