Monday, December 07, 2009

Teller Takes It

New York lawyer-turned-novelist Joseph Teller has won the 2009 Nero Award for his novel The Tenth Case (Mira). That announcement came during the annual Black Orchid Weekend, hosted in New York City by the Nero Wolfe fan organization, The Wolfe Pack. The other two crime novels in contention were The Dark Tide, by Andrew Gross (HarperCollins), and The Fault Tree, by Louise Ure (Minotaur Books).

This prize commemorates Nero Wolfe, the large, mostly house-bound but brilliant detective who made his debut in 1934’s Fer-de-Lance and went on to feature in more than 40 novels. Wolfe was created by author Rex Stout, who was named as a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1959. The Wolfe Pack was founded in 1978 and is dedicated to celebrating the very best of Nero Wolfe, not only his fiction but also his notorious likes and dislikes.

Also given out this last weekend was the Black Orchid Novella Award, presented jointly by The Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine “to celebrate the novella format popularized by Rex Stout.” The 2009 winner is Steve Liskow for his story “The Strangle Hold.”

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)

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