NON-FICTION. . . "EXCELLENT CADAVERS

Friday, Apr. 28, 1995
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" During most of the past 50 years, honest officials in Sicily who tried to block or expose Mafia corruption tended to become what Sicilians call "excellent cadavers." Two who met this fate are the heroes of Alexander Stille's new book about the Mafia's longtime stranglehold on Sicily. Prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino managed to break the infamous code of silence that surrounded the Mafia. Their evidence led to the 1987 conviction of 344 Mafia members, but in 1992 both prosecutors were assassinated.TIME critic John Elsonsays the while "Excellent Cadavers" is a bit uneven, it is nonetheless "a strong tale of a drama in progress: the Mafia may have been badly bruised, but it has not yet died."