Leader of the Pack

Although this news seems not to have been widely broadcast (even the Wolfe Pack’s Web site was silent on the matter, at last check), Maine author Julia Spencer-Fleming has won the 2007 Nero Award for her novel All Mortal Flesh (St. Martin’s Minotaur/Thomas Dunne). The announcement was made on Saturday night, during the 30th annual Black Orchid Banquet in New York City.

Also contending for that prize were Kidnapped, by Jan Burke (Simon & Schuster), and A Stolen Season, by Steve Hamilton (St. Martin’s Minotaur/Thomas Dunne).

The Nero is presented every year by the New York-based fan organization The Wolfe Pack to “the novel that best reflects the Nero Wolfe tradition in detective writing.” Past recipients include Laura Lippman, Linda Fairstein, S.J. Rozan, Walter Mosley, Lee Child, and last year’s winner, Tess Gerritsen.

Thanks to Jane K. Cleland, author and The Wolfe Pack’s literary awards chair, for this information.

ARCHIE UPDATE: After this post went up, Crime Scraps blogger Uriah Robinson wrote to remind us that the winner of this year’s Archie Goodwin Lifetime Achievement Award, named in honor of Nero Wolfe’s detective partner and legman, was also supposed to have been announced during this last weekend’s Black Orchid Banquet. Robinson wanted to know which of the five renowned 20th-century crime writers on the list of finalists had won.

Well, ask and ye shall receive, sir. According to Ms. Cleland again, the Archie goes to ... Dorothy L. Sayers, the British creator of amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. Members of The Wolfe Pack picked the winner. The other nominees this year were Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ngaio Marsh, and Edgar Allan Poe. Previous recipients of the Archie can be found here.