Clare Mackintosh takes crime novel of the year award

I Let You Go, the former police officer’s new book, sees off shortlisted authors including JK Rowling and Mark Billingham

Police officer turned crime author Clare Mackintosh has seen off JK Rowling’s alter ego Robert Galbraith and two-time winner Mark Billingham to win the Theakston Old Peculier crime novel of the year award for her debut novel, I Let You Go.

Mackintosh, who worked for 12 years as a police officer, began writing full-time after leaving the force in 2011. I Let You Go, which was selected as the winner from a longlist of 18 books and a shortlist of six, is about a woman who moves to a remote part of Wales after her child is killed in a hit-and-run accident, and the detective who is investigating the case. A New York Times review called it “cunning” and “genuinely shocking”.

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