Maltese Falcon Society winning author receives a certificate of merit and a falcon sculpture crafted in wood. Maltese Falcon Society The Maltese Falcon Society is an organization for admirers of Dashiell Hammett, his novel "The Maltese Falcon," and hardboiled mystery books and writers in general. Founded in San Francisco in 1981, the organization is no longer active in the United States; however, a chapter in Japan has been active continuously since 1982. The Japanese branch of the society presents the Falcon Award, Japan's highest honor in the mystery field, to honor the best hardboiled mystery novel published in Japan. The Maltese Falcon Society
Strega (novel) for mystery and crime novels, and the 1989 Falcon Award by the Maltese Falcon Society of Japan. Strega (novel) Strega (Italian for "witch" or "sorceress") is a hardboiled detective novel written by American author and attorney Andrew Vachss, first published in 1987. The story features the pursuit and destruction by the protagonist Burke, an ex-con private investigator, of a pedophile ring involved in trading child pornography via telephone modems. The novel was written and published long before social concern over the use of the Internet for spreading or trading child pornography became widespread. It is the second novel in the