Literature
The term giallo derives from a series of crime-mystery pulp novels entitled Il Giallo Mondadori, first published by the Mondadori publishing house, starting from 1929, and taking its name from the trademark yellow cover background. The series almost exclusively consisted of Italian translations of mystery novels by British and American writers, such as Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Ed McBain, Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler, etc.
Published as cheapish paperbacks, the success of the "giallo" novels soon began attracting the attention of other publishing houses, who began releasing their own versions, retaining the traditional yellow cover. The Giallo Mondadori popularity then established the word giallo in Italian as the widespread translation of the English "mystery".
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