Published by Dead Ink

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The Secret Life of Insects

Bernardo Esquinca

Illustrated by Luis Perez Ochando

Translated by James D. Jenkins

Dead Ink

Paperback

208pp

ISBN: 9781838171643

Fiction

Publication date: 28 March 2024

£10.99

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A forensic entomologist tries to solve the inexplicable murder of his wife, who impossibly seems to have been killed in a forest at the same time she was asleep in bed with him.

A husband becomes concerned by his wife’s strange behavior, which includes sleepwalking, muttering strange phrases, and a bizarre erotic fascination with octopi.

A woman visits a witch doctor who promises to forge an unbreakable bond between her and the man of her dreams, but things go horribly awry after the man dies.

And four high school friends reunite twenty years later at a class reunion and must face the long-buried truth of a demonic experience from their youth.

The history of Mexico is drenched in blood, from the sacrifices of the ancient Aztecs to the bloodthirsty conquest of the Spanish to modern-day violent crime, and that legacy of violence and death pervades these stories. They blend the genres of horror and noir in inventive ways and run the gamut from chilling to weirdly unsettling to darkly funny.

A volume sure to please not only fans of horror and weird fiction, but also anyone interested in contemporary international literature.

This edition also features brilliant full-page illustrations by Spanish artist Luis Pérez Ochando and an introduction by Mariana Enriquez.

Bernardo Esquinca

Bernardo Esquinca’s fiction is characterized by a fusion of the genres of the supernatural and the crime novel. Born in Guadalajara in 1972, he is the author of several novels and story collections, including one translated into English, The Owls Are Not What They Seem (2018). His short story ‘Señor Ligotti’ was nominated for the prestigious Shirley Jackson Award in 2021, and his novel Toda la sangre was made into a television series by the production company Lionsgate+. He lives in Mexico City, surrounded by ancient gods, urban legends, and naughty ghosts.