The Red Envelope

by Robert Lopresti

In 1958 Thomas Gray, fresh out of business school in Iowa, moves to Greenwich Village where he has inherited a coffeehouse. While still adjusting to this new world, he has to cope with an artist getting murdered just outside his cafe. Lucky for him, one of his regulars is Delgardo, a beat poet with no fixed first name, an obnoxious attitude, and some experience solving mysteries... "The Red Envelope" won the Black Orchid Novella Award in 2012. The BONA is given out jointly by Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and the Wolfe Pack, the society dedicated to Rex Stout and the Nero Wolfe stories. Like the Wolfe stories "The Red Envelope" is a fair play mystery with wit, humor, and crime. None of Stout's characters were harmed (or involved) in the making of this tale. It is about 17,000 words long. Robert Lopresti has been a fan of Rex Stout since fifth grade. He is the author of Greenfellas and Such A Killing Crime, plus more than sixty short stories. Besides the BONA he has won the Derringer Award twice, and the Lane Saunders Memorial Research Award. HIs works have appeared in the Best American Mystery Stories and Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, and his books have been published in Italy and Japan.

68 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 11, 2018

About the author

Robert Lopresti is a retired librarian and a writer. He mostly writes mystery fiction.