There are a lot of literary awards every year, and mystery writers will find no shortage of honors given in their genre, but some are more heartwarming than others.

The Mysterious Press has just announced the winner of the first Sara Ann Freed Award for a debut mystery novel. The fortunate, and possibly talented (I don’t know, as I haven’t yet seen the work) author is Karen E. Olson, for her novel “Sacred Cows.” The prize is a $10,000 advance and publication in hardcover by the Mysterious Press in September 2005.

Unless you are a publishing professional, you probably have never heard of Sara Ann Freed, who died too young in September 2003. Obscurity is the fate of most editors, who work behind the scenes. The author’s name, quite properly, is on the book, but an editor must discover that author, and frequently must do a great deal of work to get a manuscript into publishable form.

One of Ms. Freed’s great strengths as an editor was her ability to spot new talent, hence this specific award for first-time novelists. I look forward to reading Ms. Olson’s book, and sincerely hope “Sacred Cows” is worthy of this memorial to one of mystery fiction’s finest editors, one whose dedication, taste, and expertise were as rare as the fingers on a clumsy lumberjack.

The unusually modest Ms. Freed would have said that it is better to deserve honor and not have it than to have it but not deserve it. She deserves it, and it does honor to the publisher that this award has been named for her.

***

Another recently presented award was the Nero, which was given to “Fear Itself” (Little, Brown, 320 pages, $21.95) by Walter Mosley.

The annual award is named, not surprisingly, for Nero Wolfe, the great detective created by Rex Stout in 1934. It is presented at the Black Orchid Banquet by the Wolfe Pack, the group of aficionados that has more than 400 members in the United States and overseas.

This is the 25th anniversary of the award, which has been given in the past to Lawrence Block (the first winner) for “The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling,” as well as Dennis Lehane, Linda Fairstein, Laurie B. King, and former U.S. Senator Fred Harris.

The other finalists for the 2004 Nero were “The Vanished Man” (Pocket) by Jeffrey Deaver (who won it in 1999 for “The Bone Collector”), “Burning Garbo” (Simon & Schuster) by Robert Eversz, “Where the Truth Lies” (Random House) by Rupert Holmes, and “Fat Ollie’s Book” (Pocket) by Ed McBain.

If you’re like me and think that Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels are one of the half-dozen best detective series ever written and would like to join the Wolfe Pack, or at least learn more about it, make contact with the club’s president, Jonathan Levine, at JRLevine1@aol.com.

It issues a quarterly newsletter, plans several culinary events during the year, and is generally as cool as wearing a string bikini at Coney Island on New Year’s Eve.

***

On the subject of awards, may I digress for a moment to comment on the Nobel Prize for Literature? That it does not honor mystery writers is one of the many shortcomings of the Swedish Academy, but what is a mystery is how it decides which writers are worthy.

It appears that the major criteria nowadays are that the author be of the proper political profile, gender, and ethnic origin. In 1997, the prize was given to Dario Fo, an Italian communist-anarchist. The following year, it went to the Portuguese communist Jose Saramago. It was given in 1993 to the mediocre Toni Morrison, who overcame the liability of being American by having the correct sex, color, and political opinion.

This year, in what may well be the nadir of the award, henceforth known as the Ignoble Prize, it was given to Austrian novelist and playwright Elfriede Jelinek, whose works (at least those few that have been deemed worthy of translation into English) are little more than pornographic journeys into sadomasochism and sexual violence.

From 1974 to 1991, Ms. Jelinek was a member of the Austrian Communist Party when it was essentially an arm of the KGB. When the Soviet Union disintegrated, it no longer had much reason to exist, so Ms. Jelinek left the party. But she did not abandon her political position. Her most recent bucket of bilge, “Bambiland,” has all the warm charm of a Mexican snuff film. It is a virulently anti-American play, told in what is allegedly stream of consciousness but is, in fact, a virtually incomprehensible jumble of soporific political diatribes.

The Swedish Academy has disgraced itself frequently in recent years, but its mentally negligible (as Jeeves once said of his master, Bertie Wooster) members have finally succeeded in making it a joke.

***

On a happier note, the Mystery Writers of America have announced its 2005 Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement – the highest honor the organization gives. It goes to Marcia Muller, frequently referred to as “the founding mother” of the modern hardboiled female private-eye novel.

Her novel “Edwin of the Iron Shoes” was published in 1977 and opened the door for such future superstars of the genre as Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky, and Patricia Cornwell. If you are not familiar with her Sharon McCone series (available in reissues from the Mysterious Press), this would be the perfect time to correct the oversight.

Mr. Penzler is the proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan and the series editor of the annual “Best American Mystery Stories.” He can be reached at openzler@nysun.com.