A FORMER Holmfirth journalist is in the running for a crime writing award.

Stephen Booth, 53, has had his book One Last Breath nominated for the Crime Novel of the Year Award.

The award, sponsored by Theakston's Brewery, carries a prize of £3,000.

One Last Breath is about young Derbyshire police detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry who are hunting a convicted murderer who disappears after being released from jail.

It is the fifth novel by Mr Booth, who lived at New Mill and Scholes while working as a journalist on the Holmfirth-based Express and Chronicle series.

His wife Lesley taught at Lydgate Special School in New Mill.

The couple moved to Nottingham several years ago and Mr Booth works there as a full-time writer.

One Last Breath is one of 20 books which have been nominated for the Crime Novel of the Year award.

Readers are being asked to vote for a shortlist of six books.

They will vote again for the winning book, to be announced at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival in July.

The Cooper and Fry detective novels have won Best British Crime Novel of the Year twice in the USA.

* Readers who vote will be entered into a draw for a weekend break for two at the Harrogate festival, which includes three nights in a four-star hotel and tickets to the event.

People can vote until May 31 in Ottakars book shops or online at www.ottakars.co.uk or www.harrogate-festival.org.uk/crime