“Why did he or she do it?” We often ask this question in the face of particularly vicious crimes, especially when they are unmotivated and therefore seem even more incomprehensible to us. Our instinct leads us to believe that the evil is the result of madness or a homicidal rapture, because this thought calms us, distances us from a much more disturbing fear. And that is that evil people exist.

Instead, not everything can be attributed to a sick mind, to pathologies of the psyche, or to an abrupt loss of self-control. On the contrary, every violent action, even the one that seems most sudden, is always the consequence of what has been building up over time.

Stefano Nazzi shows it to us in this collection of disturbing stories. With tight and engaging prose, he tells us the stories of ten people who have done evil and well represent it: men and women of different ages, who in Italy have been guilty of heinous crimes, often with nonexistent motives. From the best-known, such as Nicola Sapone of the Beasts of Satan or Luigi Chiatti, the Monster of Foligno, to lesser-known names, such as the serial killer Gianfranco Stevanin, the “Black Cherub” Roberto Succo or, again, the three girls who killed a nun in Chiavenna for no reason.

Nazzi tells us how they were and how they became “monsters,” often without anyone around them suspecting what was happening. And he also tells us what happened afterwards: some continued to kill, others wanted to disappear; there are those who still have not fully realized the pain they caused and those who continue to proclaim themselves innocent.

No one can know where the evil comes from, or why these murderers did what they did.

What is certain is that evil is like a stone thrown into a pond: it spreads in concentric circles, causing pain not only to the victim, but to everyone around her. But unlike those in the water, “Circles of evil do not disappear after a few seconds. They last for a long time, sometimes forever.”