The Maladie of Death

A collection of 15 short stories by Tonino Benacquista will delight both lovers of paradoxes and lovers of the detective genre. The book’s title stumps you, but everything is simple: out of small girls and boys who believe in love and friendship grow up villains and scoundrels capable of any mean trick and betrayal.

The story’s heroes are not quite ordinary people. An actor who became famous because he actually experienced everything he played on stage—even dying from poison. A master of tattoos who became not a draftsman but an artist and paid for it with his life. A person who hates tests and doesn’t understand logic as such—who lost his beloved because of stupid logical puzzles and is ready to take revenge on whoever devised these puzzles.

Contents:
01 The Garden of the Bullies
02 Romeo’s Balcony
03 A Criminal Fair
04 No Exit Through the Back Door
05 Logical Sequence
06 Notes on the Culture of Growing Oil Palms in Belgian Congo
07 A Game of “Cluedo”
08 This Wicked Nature
09 The Only Tattooist in the World
10 Pizza from Italy Square
11 Red Paradise
12 Father Courage
13 Unbending
14 Two Heroes in Infinity
15 Requiem for the Upper Tenant