Marco Malvaldi (born 27 January 1974, in

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

) is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

crime writer True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events. The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 per ...

Short biography

Marco Malvaldi is an

chemist and novelist, who began his writing career in 2007 with his first mystery story ''La

briscola Briscola (; lmo, brìscula; scn, brìscula, nap, brìscula) is one of Italy's most popular games, together with Scopa and Tressette. A little-changed descendant of Brusquembille, the ancestor of Briscan and Bezique, Briscola is a Mediterrane ...

in cinque'' (''Game for Five'', 2014), published by the Italian

Sellerio Editore Sellerio Editore is an Italian publisher founded in 1969 in Palermo, by Elvira Giorgianni and her husband Enzo Sellerio, encouraged by the writer Leonardo Sciascia and the anthropologist Antonino Buttitta. History After some titles published i ...

and featuring Massimo, the ''

barista A barista (; ; from the Italian/Spanish for "bartender") is a person, usually a coffeehouse employee, who prepares and serves espresso-based coffee drinks. Etymology and inflection The word ''barista'' comes from Italian where it means a male ...

'' and owner of the cleverly named BarLume ("Bar Light", also a wordplay for "flicker, glimmer of light") who is forced into the role of investigator in the fictional seaside resort town of Pineta, along the Tuscan coast. He followed up by other episodes in the series: ''Il gioco delle tre carte'' (2008, transl. ''

Three-card Monte Three-card Monte – also known as Find the Lady and Three-card Trick – is a confidence game in which the victims, or "marks", are tricked into betting a sum of money, on the assumption that they can find the "money card" among three face-dow ...

'', 2014), ''Il re dei giochi (The King of Games)'' (2010), ''La carta più alta (The Highest Card)'' (2012). Another novel of his, ''Odore di chiuso (The Scent of Must)'' (Sellerio, October 2011), a historical mystery with the renowned

Romagna Romagna ( rgn, Rumâgna) is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna, North Italy. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to t ...

gastronomist

Pellegrino Artusi Pellegrino Artusi (; Forlimpopoli, near Forlì, August 4, 1820 – Florence, March 30, 1911) was an Italian businessman and writer, best known as the author of the 1891 cookbook '' La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene'' ("Science in ...

as the amateur detective in 19th century Italy, was awarded the ''Isola d’

Elba Elba ( it, isola d'Elba, ; la, Ilva) is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National ...

Award'' and the

Castiglioncello Castiglioncello (formerly ''Castiglione Mondiglio'') is a ''frazione'' of 3800 inhabitants of the ''comune'' of Rosignano Marittimo, in the province of Livorno, Tuscany, Italy. Located in a privileged position from the panoramic point of view, aw ...

Prize. This book was published in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

under the title ''The Art of Killing Well'' (2014). In October 2011, Malvaldi also published a guidebook about his own hometown

, with the title ''Scacco alla Torre (

Checkmate Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game. In chess, the king is ...

to the Tower)'' (Felici Editore): one of the book's first stories is ''Finalmente soli (Finally Alone)'', narrating of a nocturnal walk, inspired by an image taken by professional

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

Nicola Ughi, Malvaldi's official

portraitist A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

and fellow citizen; the book was presented at the ''Pisa Book Festival''. Racconto Malvaldi-1

The four books comprising the ''BarLume'' series, have the same characters in each episode: the ''

'' Massimo, the four aged regular patrons (Massimo's grandfather Ampelio, Aldo, Rimediotti, and Del Tacca – often speaking in the local Tuscan dialect), obtuse Inspector Fusco, and sexy bar assistant Tiziana. At end of October 2012, Malvaldi published a mystery thriller, ''Milioni di milioni (Millions of Millions)'' (2012), set in the fictional Tuscan town of Montesodi Marittimo, and with its main personages an odd couple of investigators – a university

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processe ...

and a female

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to Document, records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist c ...

. In July 2013 he was awarded the Italian literary prize ''"Premio letterario La Tore

Isola d'Elba Elba ( it, isola d'Elba, ; la, Ilva) is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National ...

"''.La Tore Isola d'Elba Official Website
List of Winners (by year). Malvaldi authored also books of popular science. His book ''Le due teste del tiranno. Metodi matematici per la libertà'' (namely, ''The Two Heads of the Tyrant. Mathematical Methods for the Freedom'') (2017) won the third edition (2018) o
Premio ASIMOV
(Asimov award) for the best book in scientific dissemination published in Italy, in ex aequo with Helen Czerski's ''Storm in a Teacup.''

Selected bibliography

( It. orig. only) *''La briscola in cinque'', 2007,

*''Il gioco delle tre carte'', 2008, Sellerio Editore *''Il re dei giochi'', 2010, Sellerio Editore *''Odore di chiuso'', 2011, Sellerio Editore *"Sol levante e pioggia battente", 2011, on RCS Quotidiani - ''

Corriere della Sera The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015. First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of It ...

'' (short story) * Short story in the ''Un Natale in giallo (A Xmas in Yellow)'' Anthology, 2011, Sellerio Editore *''La carta più alta'', 2012, Sellerio Editore *''Milioni di milioni'', 2012, Sellerio Editore *''Argento vivo'', 2013, Sellerio Editore *''Il telefono senza fili'', 2014, Sellerio Editore *''La famiglia Tortilla'', 2014, EDT *''La battaglia navale'', 2016, Sellerio Editore *''A bocce ferme'', 2018, Sellerio Editore

Translations

*''Game for Five'', Europa Editions, 2014 *''Three-card Monte'', Europa Editions, 2014 *''The Art of Killing Well'', MacLehose Press, 2014

Notes

External links

Author's Biography

Interview with the author

on ''

La Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnoldo ...

''
Interview on ''Fahrenheit'', a radio program on Radio3, 14 January 2009

Interview on ''Fahrenheit'', a radio program on Radio3, 7 February 2011

Marco Malvaldi on RAI Letteratura

REVIEW : The Art of Killing Well by Marco Malvaldi
on Upcoming4.me {{DEFAULTSORT:Malvaldi, Marco Living people People from Pisa Italian mystery writers Italian male writers 1974 births