A mystery story in which three crimes are comitted in geometrically related places (the vertices of an equilateral triangle) and at periodic intervals of time. The detective Erik Lonrott deduces from several clues that the murders are ritual sacrifaces by a sect that tries to find the Secret Name of God, and that a fourth crime will be comitted in the fourth vertex of a rhombus. He goes there at the exact date hoping to prevent the crime. Unfortunately, it turns out that the series of murders is all an elaborate plan designed to atract Lonrott to that place by a gangster that wants to take revenge on him for imprisoning his brother, all the clues having been carefully faked. In the last paragraphs, Lonrott critizes the labyrinth woven around him as uneconomical, telling his enemy that a labyrinth form of a straight line with points at regulary decreasing distances (as in Zeno's Paradox) is more elegant. Afterwards, he is shot. This is one of Borges' most perfect stories, with a masterful command of the language at every moment. A must read.

i am in spanish 5 at my high school and i read the work in spanish and still considered it a great story

Our class read the story for fun after the AP exam, we all enjoyed it, it was very interesting and complex

amazingly wonderful plotline, math isn´t too heavily involved, but the literary quality is unbeatable

I read the story like three times,and I still want to keep reading it. The story had math on it, the math make the story more interesting and excited to read.

After the initial read I immediately loved the mathematical and scientific structure to the story and after analysis the use of numbers throughout each death as well as shapes and colors manipulates the story into a genius masterpiece.

I think your students underestimate the mathematical import of the story. Borges is testing our ability to entertain two opposite ideas simultaneously, as embedded in Zeno's paradoxes. The solution to those paradoxes of course lies at the heart of calculus. There is also a great deal of joking about Poe's prologue to Murders in the Rue Morge, and the comparative difficulty of checkers and chess. Also, note that at the end of the story, we are not told that "Lonnrot is shot." We are told that Red Scharlock fires the pistol, which is not the same thing. Is the bullet still traveling towards Lonnrot, subdividing space as it travels? Borges allows you to re-encounter Zeno in a fresh situation and remember the thrill you had at age ten when your math savvy older cousin told you that you could not fall in a hole.