Ware is following in the footsteps of Ian Rankin, Lee Child and Val McDermid as programming chairman of the festival.

The world-famous event, supported by the Daily and Sunday Express and now in its 21st year, will take place in Harrogate, North Yorks, from July 18 to 21 next year.

Tickets for weekend breaks are due on sale from Tuesday.

Ruth’s 2015 debut thriller In A Dark, Dark Wood, about a bachelorette party gone disastrously wrong, was a Richard and Judy book club choice and a top 10 bestseller in the UK and America. Since then, her novels have sold more than six million copies and been translated into over 40 languages.

Ruth, who lives near Brighton, said: “When I first began writing, one of my most cherished dreams was a panel at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. To be invited to chair the festival is truly an honour ­I could ­never have imagined and it’s been my privilege and delight to work alongside the phenomenal committee to create a programme that showcases the strength, diversity and sheer ­­literary inventiveness of our ­ brilliant ­ and bloody craft.”