"Manic Monday"

by Barbara Baraldi

"Italian crime-fiction and comic-book author Barbara Baraldi has had stories and novels translated into English, Dutch, and German. She's a winner of Italy's Gran Giallo citta di Cattolica for short crime fiction and the Nebbia Gialla for novel-length fiction. She's been a creative consultant for the Disney company and is an author of the Dylan Dog comic-book series."

When EQMM editor Janet Hutchings challenged me to find and translate stories for "Passport to Crime" from languages other than Dutch and Flemish, I began searching the internet for crime writers working in other languages, and one of the people I came up with was Italian author Barbara Baraldi. Barbara sent me this story, and it was straightforward enough that I was able to translate it pretty easily, despite my command of Italian being of the I-can-order-a-hotel-room-for-the-night-and-a-meal-in-a-restaurant variety.

Barbara's original title was different. Given the facts of the story, though, and the fact that the action happens on a Monday, "Manic Monday" seemed like an obvious choice for the English version ... and, as it turned out, Barbara loves the song and was happy with the change.

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