Verdon Finds His Nero

New York writer John Verdon has won the 2015 Nero Award for Peter Pan Must Die (Crown), the fourth novel in his series about retired homicide detective Dave Gurney. This announcement was made last night during a banquet hosted by the New York City-based Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin fan organization, The Wolfe Pack. The Nero Award is presented annually “for the best American mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories.”

Also in contention for this year’s prize were Herbie’s Game, by Timothy Hallinan (Soho Press); The Detective & the Pipe Girl, by Michael Craven (HarperCollins); First Light, by Al Lamanda (Five Star); and The Detective, by James Patrick Hunt (Cengage Gale).

Last year’s Nero Award beneficiary was David Morrell, who won it for his first Thomas De Quincey historical mystery, Murder as a Fine Art.

In addition to the Nero, the Wolfe Pack also presented Mark Thielman with its Black Orchid Novella Award (BONA) for “A Meter of Murder.” The BONA is given annually to a work of 15,000 to 20,000 words in length “that conforms to the tradition of the Nero Wolfe series.” The Black Orchid is sponsored jointly by The Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and the winning author receives $1,000 as well as publication in that magazine.

(Hat tip to The Gumshoe Site and Classic Mysteries.)