The Information Officer

by Mark Mills

For the people of Malta in 1942, suffering daily bombing raids from the Luftwaffe, the British Army represent their only hope of defending their lone outpost in Nazi waters. And it is Max Chadwick's job to make certain the islanders keep thinking that.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Thriller, Historical, Crime, War

416 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2009

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Mark Mills is a British writer of screenplays and novels. His first screenplay was BAFTA-nominated short film One Night Stand starring Jemma Redgrave and James Purefoy in 1993; this won Mills a 'Best Screenplay' award at the Angers European First Film Festival in 1995.
Mills's first novel was Amagansett, later reissued under the title The Whaleboat House published in 2004; this won him the 'Best Crime Novel by a Debut Author' at the Crime Writers' Association Award. His second novel, The Savage Garden, was published in 2006. His third novel, The Information Officer, was published in April, 2009.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Investigation
Mark Mills' books always provide a captivating murder mystery with surprises and intrigue weaved throughout a good plot. The Information Officer is based on Malta during the Second World War and the central character is the information officer, Max Chadwick. Max's job is to maintain the flow of information to the Islanders as they defend against German military action.

With an invasion imminent, the murders of local women cause alarm and concern that one of their own is responsible. Max has evidence that it is a British officer and he must find and stop him before it results in drastic consequences. Will the Islanders fail to defend an invasion or even switch allegiance, if they feel the British are causing such horrors.

The historical detail of that period in Malta and the surrounding countryside is very well researched and vividly described. Reading Mark Mills is always an enjoyable experience and he manages to maintain a good pace. His characters are not that complicated but he still manages to create a sense of tension, knowing that someone he deals with on a regular basis is a murderer.

I would recommend this book.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best thing about this novel is all the information it contains about Malta in the Second World War. It is quite atmospheric and certainly shows what the island went through during the period of aerial bombardment. Unfortunately, the crime plot doesn't live up to the setting. The characters aren't very convincing and the short chapters seen from the viewpoint of the killer are particularly weak.

Overall I found this an enjoyable, quick read, but won't be rushing to read other books by this author. Admittedly, I was probably expecting too much, as I'd seen reviews making comparisons to Casablanca and Graham Greene.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Psychological murder mystery involving a serial killer? Spy story? Love story? Historical novel? This novel tries to do it all, and does none of it well.

The murder of a local girl on Malta during World War II is made to look like a bombing death. For some reason, a military doctor does the post-mortem, as he has on two other deaths of local girls which he thinks were murders made to look like bombing deaths. He told the military authorities about it, but they did not investigate. For some reason, he tells his friend Major Max Chadwick, British Information Officer. Our hero decides to look into it himself.

In chapters devoted only to him, we learn about our killer. Abused by his father during childhood, he caused his father’s death in an auto accident and has no emotional life. He teaches himself to show appropriate emotion at the appropriate time, and no one suspects that he is really a psychopath.

The killer, Max, and all of the other characters in this story are caricatures. Each of the men is a stereotypical British something and the women are little more than plot devices. Through most of the story, only Max and the killer undergo any character development, and it is not enough to make the reader care about Max or the others, or to develop any real antipathy to the killer.

The dialogue is wooden. The “witty repartee” and bantering of most of the conversations is trite. There is a surfeit of gratuitous jargon.

Every few pages, my reaction was: “lame, lame, lame”! The only reason I finished this book was because it was an Early Reviewer book.

[PDXReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can see why The Information Officer would get such mixed reviews. Like Mills' other novels, it's more about conveying a time, place, atmosphere and characters than about the mystery taking place against this backdrop. From a historical fiction standpoint, the book is top-notch. It's very detailed, and Mills' characters are more real, more in-depth than almost any other author I can think of. The problem is that the backdrop usurps the plot, so at times it drags. Mills gets so wrapped up in painting a complete picture that the book's mystery all but disappears. So, I would highly recommend the novel for lovers of really great writing, but I would not recommend it for those looking for a snappy, page-turning mystery.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nunca tinha lido um livro situado em Malta, por isso, decidi arriscar para conhecer melhor esta pequena ilha e… gostei.

É um livro de ficção histórica, passado na segunda guerra mundial, contado num estilo policial. Estamos em 1942 e Malta, um protetorado inglês, é constantemente bombardeado por forças fascistas, resistindo como pode, com recursos escassos. Os habitantes estão com a moral em baixo, como é natural. E, quando mulheres maltesas começam a aparecer assassinadas de forma bárbara e tudo indica ser obra de um oficial britânico, cabe a Max Chadwick, oficial de informação, “abafar” o caso e descobrir quem é o assassino, antes de os habitantes da ilha exigirem sangue.

Embora estivesse atenta aos pormenores, confesso que não consegui descobrir quem era o culpado, o que é sempre bom neste género. Fiquei agarrada à história até ao final, embora algumas referências a bombardeiros, armas e estratégia de guerra me tivessem deixado um pouco confusa, pois história militar não é comigo. Pondo isto de lado, uma boa leitura!

[Alissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I normally really enjoy fiction about World War II, and was intrigued by the book's description, since I knew little of Malta or its part in the war. However, I this book didn't excite me and while I kept reading in part to see how the murder mystery was resolved, I agree with another Goodreads Reader who pointed out that this book tried to be too much - historical fiction about Malta's role, a love story, and a murder mystery. The mystery parts were the best for me, and the continued descriptions of the bombing raids, while interesting at first bored me by the fifth or sixth one. Also, while I liked the switch in perspective from Max to the killer, I didn't like it when the detective was brought in towards the end, although I found him to be a more compelling character than any of the army officers.

I'm surprised this got such a great review from Library Journal.

[Plum-crazy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonable read but to be fair WW2 isn't the subject matter I'd normally choose & I did prefer it to "The Savage Garden".

The opening chapter drew me in straightaway & I thought I was in for a gripping read but the potential thrills didn't continue throughout.The ending bought things to a satisfactory conclusion but it too was missing the excitement that the opening had hinted at. For me there was a little too much military description but that's just my taste & there's no doubting it did a great job at setting the scene....& I quite fancy visiting Malta now!

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the summer of 1942 Malta is a British-held fortress in the middle of the Mediterranean, which due to its strategic location was bombed relentlessly and indiscriminately by Axis aircraft killing and maiming service personnel and natives alike.

Major Max Chadwick is the garrison's ‘Information Officer’, his job is to minimise the bad and exaggerate the good news, to boost the morale of military or civilian inhabitants alike. So when he is given evidence suggesting that a British officer is raping and murdering local women, he recognises that, on the eve of a possible German invasion of the island, when the support of the civil populace was paramount, the consequences could be disastrous.

As Max slowly begins to suspect that the killer could also be a Nazi agent trying to create a wedge between the British and Maltese and unsure who he can trust, he embarks on a game of cat and mouse against a quarry who always seems to be one step ahead and whose outcome could have far reaching repercussions.

Normally I am a big fan of historical based fiction so why didn't I enjoy this more? The simple answer is that it seemed to fall between two differing camps, there is too little history for my taste and the thriller element somehow lacked a certain menace despite the carnage taking place around it.

That it is not to say that it didn't have some good elements. A likeable hero who was a little naive given his job but who was still willing to thumb his nose at his superiors and despite his desk-bound job still wanted to do his bit for the war effort. I rather enjoyed the portrayal of the officer class, a world of buffoons with stiff upper lips accompanied by their dutiful wives all trying to do their bit before retiring in the evenings to dinner parties and cocktails at the club whilst lesser folk either cowered in bunkers or did some actual fighting, of them literally feeling the earth move as they continued their elicit liaisons as the bombs rained on the island. . A group seemingly untouched by the ravages of war even if it felt a tad clichéd at times. The juxtaposition of beautiful old architecture and ruins reduced to rubble by modern munitions was at times evocative. But as I said earlier somehow it lacked a real edge and whilst the premiss was good it missed the mark, a bit like a lot of the Axis bombs.

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

British Major Max Chadwick is an architect turned military PR flak facing numerous dilemmas on the island of Malta in the spring of 1942. The rapes and murders of several young Maltese women could further erode the fragile relationship between local islanders and the British who are defending Malta from an unrelenting aerial onslaught by German and Italian bombers. A small piece of evidence points to the possibility that the murderer is a British submariner, a sailor under the command of the husband of Chadwick’s mistress. Chadwick feels a moral obligation to find the murderer but also understands the political problems that will ensue if the murderer truly turns out to be a British sailor and this fact becomes public knowledge.

As a full-scale invasion of the island by the Germans appears to be imminent, Major Chadwick has less than four days to solve the mystery and uncover the culprit or walk away from his investigation as per the wishes of his commanders. His search for the truth is complicated by the day-to-day carpet bombing of the island (“the most bombed patch of earth on the planet. Ever.”), the involvement of meddling bureaucrats, fighter pilots, artillery gunners, their wives and lovers.

The Los Angeles Times likened The Information Officer to a revisited Casablanca. I agree. It is old-fashioned in all the right ways and the sense of place Mills instills throughout is spot on. It reminds me of the early works of Len Deighton and John le Carre along with the moral implications of action versus inaction ala Graham Greene. A great read.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The opening of the book starts with a mystery encounter between two unnamed men in a bar implying some significant events occurring in Malta during WWII. The book then falls back to that time to reveal the story. Max Chadwick is the British information officer on the island, trying to keep up the morale and support of the locals while they are being heavily bombed by both the Germans and the Italians. To complicate matters, his friend, a British doctor, shows him a body of a "sherry queen" (dance hall girl) who has suspicious wounds and the insignia from an British officer's uniform gripped in her hand. At first torn about the discovery, he decides to dig into the mystery and finds that two other girls have died with potentially suspicious circumstances. He begins to wonder whom he can trust, and must also deal with the fallout from an affair with an officer's wife and a potential love interest with a local woman/news writer. There is also evidence of a possible German spy on the island. It is unclear if Max can put all of the pieces together before it is too late.

I do agree to a certain extent with the reviewers that commented on the author trying to cram multiple genre/story lines into one novel. At times, the romance/spy/murder mystery story lines get in each other's way. while intriguing at times, this was a much less cohesive novel than his book "The Savage Garden".

[Jim Leffert · Rating 3 out of 5]

During World War II, the island of Malta, located about midway between Sicily and the north coast of Africa, was a key strategic location. The Germans subjected the island, which was a British colony, to a campaign of massive, unrelenting aerial bombardment, designed to isolate the island and wear down its defenses.

This mystery novel nicely captures the atmosphere and feeling of what it was like to be there. The protagonist, Max Chadwick, is a British officer whose task it is to disseminate optimistically-slanted news reports to the British and indigenous Maltese communities. He has to work hard at his job, since optimistic news is in short supply. Chadwick learns that three young Maltese women have been killed, probably by a British officer. When Chadwick’s superiors turn a blind eye to the killings, the information officer resolves to investigate.

The historical part is fascinating, even though it is yoked to an overheated plot involving a psychopathic killer who is also an undercover German agent and Chadwick’s melodramatic romantic complications. To the author’s credit, I couldn’t tell who did it until the very end.

[Marybeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book tries to accomplish way too much in one story. The result is a choppy mess. I didn't care about any of the characters nor did I care much about solving the supposed mystery. Overall - a flop.

[Nick Brett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Set on the island of Malta in 1942, under constant air attack by the Germans a delicate balance exists between the British and the locals. Max Chadwick is a British officer with a job to spin positive news and take the minds of the population off their precarious situation. Adding to his problems, Max discovers there may be a serial killer and, even worse, that killer might be one of his own.
This should have worked, lots of interesting background with Malta and it’s incredible defence against incredible odds, the attitudes of the British officers and the locals and their relationships and of course….murder. The issue is that it just has no pace or tension, a great sense of time and place but just long winded and dull.
It’s a shame it had great potential but fails to deliver.

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was set in Malta during the second world war. Max is an Information Officer, who's job is mostly to keep morale up. Then he is told by the medical officer Freddie that there has been a series of murders of young Maltese women, and from the looks of it one of the British naval officers is connected.

Max was not a very likable guy. He is having an affair with a married woman, while stringing along one of the local ladies. In fact most of the male characters in this book were jerks.

It was a quick read though.

[April Andruszko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the way through this book I expected to rate it more highly. However I found the ending disappointing. I'm not sure that the explanation of who the culprit was, how they did it and what happened to them really hung together despite reading the last chapter twice. I did love the rest of the book and reading about Malta in the war.

[Daniel Winter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the vibrant picture of war-torn Malta Mill paints, but worked out the 'baddie' way before I was supposed to! Pretty good read though.

[Tbfrank · Rating 2 out of 5]

The novel, set in the British crown colony of Malta during the Spring of 1942, combines historical events with equal parts spy thriller, serial killings, travelogue, and love triangle. Under near constant aerial attack for months, Malta is running short of all commodities and is dependent upon an increasingly narrowed lifeline of convoys. Ammunition is running low, limiting the effectiveness of anti-aircraft weapons, and few serviceable fighters are available to carry on the island's defense. (Roald Dahl was one of these pilots). German invasion is thought to be imminent. Yet the defenders and the civil population doggedly carry on.

The flight surgeon (Freddie Lambert) reveals to the Information Officer (Max Chadwick) he suspects three local women have been murdered, their deaths made to look as though caused by flying shrapnel. He's passed his suspicions up the command chain with no result. He gives Max evidence from the third victim suggesting a submariner is involved. After some soul-searching, concerned about increasing Maltese-British tensions at this time, Max decides to do some snooping. He quickly runs afoul of the high command pressing him to abandon the effort or else. The American liaison officer Elliott (last name or first?) has an unexplained presence and knows more than his rank would suggest. The part he plays is more puzzling than mysterious.

There is a long lead-in before the mystery gets under way; lots of standing around watching bombs fall and later discussing the deaths and damage. Plenty of action and potential excitement kept at arms distance. The characters border on stereotypes, are thinly drawn with one or two extraneous characters and some who deserved more, like Detective Josef Busuttil - brought in and quickly shunted aside; also Max's love interest Mitzi's sub captain husband Lionel. The dialog is variously stilted, forced, and unnatural, with a false camaraderie though the interactions between the male and female characters come across better. Maltese customs and emotions are revealed primarily through eyes of the women which merited a balance, especially if there was a concern about a revolt.

The climax approaches amid the thunder of bombs, a wild motor cycle ride, and the arrival of the desperately needed Supermarine Spitfires from the decks of the HMS Eagle and USN Wasp. (This was the second attempt by the Wasp; the first batch of Spitfires were cut to ribbons on their arrival several weeks earlier.) The book races to the end with a pace lacking in the balance of the novel. The interleaved pages authored by the anonymous killer serve to slow the story rather than inform the reader about the killer's state of mind, and lacks an explanation of how the killer managed to attain a position to easily satisfy his baser instincts. Skimming those pages did not diminish the story in any way. However, by the time the post-climax pages came around, the connection to the opening scene are completely lost and on re-reading the scene's value seems minimal at best.

[MisterLiberry Head · Rating 4 out of 5]

From 1940 to ’42, the minuscule island of Malta, located in a strategically vital spot of the Mediterranean Sea, played out a miniature version of the Battle of Britain. German and Italian air fleets flew a total of 3,000 bombing raids over Malta during a two-year period. Although a commander as brilliant as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel warned that “Without Malta the Axis will end by losing control of North Africa,” an invasion was never attempted. Instead, the Axis partners resolved to bomb, blockade and starve into submission Malta’s quarter of a million people (who were compressed into a total land area of less than 100 square miles). Vastly superior air power relentlessly attacked Malta’s ports, military sites and crowded cities, as well as Allied shipping lanes near the island. By the unsuccessful end of the campaign, Malta became one of the most intensively bombed areas during the whole of World War Two.

In the face of such carnage, how important are the possible serial murders of several Maltese “sherry queens” who entertain servicemen in low-end bars? What if the murders are connected in some way to a British officer? And, what if the British officer is an Axis spy or abetting one? The British Army’s youthful information officer (i.e., propagandist) Major Max Chadwick is forced to confront these questions and gingerly proceed with an unofficial investigation based on a tip from his best friend, an Army surgeon. Throughout, day and night, the bombs rain down.

In addition to the dramatic setting and dangerous wartime action in THE INFORMATION OFFICER, the characterizations as much as the murder mystery keep the pages turning. Max finds dubious merits in both military life and his assignment of using local newspapers and radio to buck up Maltese resolve in supporting the British. The policy with the Maltese-language press--including Max’s possible love interest, Lilian, a beautiful Maltese journalist--is to “allow them a voice, then tell them what to say” (p15). Ancillary characters in Max’s circle of British friends and colleagues, as well as Maltese taxi dancers, cops, farmers and mothers, are vividly depicted. I particularly liked the author’s device of opening and closing the novel with a restaurant scene set in London in 1951.

Sadly, THE INFORMATION OFFICER raises but never really answers that most persistent, bothersome question: “What was it about the English that allowed them to find so much humor in men dressing up as women, and vice versa?” (p87).

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first experience with an Advance Reader Copy of a book, and I’m happy to say it was a good one! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I’m now looking forward to picking up some of the author’s other works.

Thoughts on The Information Officer:
I’m not a WWII buff, and I don’t go looking for books or movies set during the war, but this sounded like an interesting story because I knew nothing about Malta’s role in WWII. While I realize liberties were taken with the accuracy of war-time life on Malta, I enjoyed the story. I felt the characters, for the most part, were very accessible. The main character, Max Chadwick, was a flawed, but realistic portrayal of a man in the service trying to survive the losses and wins during the conflict. He and the motley crew of other servicemen and women, spouses, and Malta natives painted an interesting picture for the reader. Setting the murder mystery aside for a moment, I enjoyed the story because of the interactions between Chadwick and his friends—their banter grounded the story for me. The love story took second place for me, although it was meant to play a bigger role than it did.

The murder mystery was interesting, if a bit surprising in the wrap-up. (I’m now curious if things like this did happen as they did in the book – i.e. if there is any historical basis to the motives outlined.) As the story picked up, I found myself looking for clues as to who the murderer was and I did not peg the guilty party, so the author fooled me there.

If I had to pick out the things I didn’t care for:
- The story was slow in the beginning and felt rushed in the ending. (And I felt that our hero’s romantic dilemma was handled a little too conveniently in the end.)
- I’ll admit that at times some of the details about the different types of military planes was more than I needed to successfully get through the story. A military history buff might appreciate the details better than I did. But it didn’t seem to throw the pace off too much for me.
- At times, the story seemed to jump around a bit too much.

Overall, I did enjoy the story. Slow to start, but enjoyable.

[S.J. Hartland · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE first few pages of The Information Officer intrigued me; by the end of the first
chapter I was hooked.
This is just such a well-written story; a gripping murder-mystery that combines fact
with fiction, and throws in a twist at the end.
The fiction part centres on a tale of a serial killer on the Island of Malta during World War II. The book’s hero, British “information officer” Max Chadwick, is given proof suggesting a British officer is murdering local women.
Amid the daily bombings and talk of a German invasion, he launches a private investigation and finds himself struggling to balance his duty with his personal beliefs.
The “fact” part is about Malta and how it prevailed against a bombing assault that made it the most consistently bombed piece of earth during World War II.
The author weaves this history into his story in an absorbing, easy-to-take way, that made me want to not only visit Malta, but jump online and check out its past, not only during World War II, but its role in the Crusades many centuries earlier.
Mills also weaves menace, bold, fascinating characters and an absorbing plot into The Information Officer in a way that made it almost impossible to put the book down at night and turn off the light.
In short, Mills' writing is first class and the Information Officer easily summed up with these words: Strong plot, strong characters, strong writing. Must read.
This book was my introduction to this author. I've since read a number of his books and he's right up there among my favourites.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Murder mystery set in Malta during WWII? Historical thriller?? Love story???

Here is my take. It was interesting enough and I wasn't bored, per se, because I think Mills writes well. However, I certainly was not enthralled. The murder mystery was actually my favorite part of the story, and I wish there had been more focus on it, rather than on the historical aspects of the war (i.e., the bombings and air raids and such). It might have been a more exciting had he focused on catching the killer. The ending did throw me for a loop, and I liked that. Again, though, there was not enough focus on the mystery and the chase.

What I didn't like? The "love story" (if you can even call it that). The gratuitous focus on sex with a married woman was too much for me. And in the end, she is conveniently removed from the picture so that her pregnancy doesn't spoil the protagonist's "real relationship" with his "true love." Give me a break! And what's worse is that his true love knew about his infidelity and it didn't seem to matter to her. I just don't like things to be wrapped up in such neat little packages. Nor do I find graphic depictions of sex at all necessary. For this reason alone I would have stopped reading. However, since it was an advanced readers copy that I won, I felt obligated to finish it.

So, while I like his style, I just didn't love the story enough to give it a better rating.

[kath Topley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read mark mills novel the savage garden and it is in my top 5 favourite books I have reviewed this year.
The information officer, sadly is not.
im not sure if it's because I had such high hopes after reading the savage garden; if it was because novels based around war are not my usual choice or that it's simply because the book fell flat up until the last few chapters as to why I wasn't enthralled with this novel.
Malta is described beautifully, all of the description throughout is wonderful and vivid! max is a likeable main character and I was thrown by the ending (not blindsighted like I was in the savage garden but still a little plot twist that I enjoyed)
however, I felt time periods and even switching between characters were not always clear. It was very jumpy and I had to backtrack several times throughout the book to ensure I knew whether I was in the past or present and which character I was reading about.. I usually enjoy novels where the writer switches from past to present but I just felt it wasn't a smooth transition in this case.
the information officer was a very very slow starter and required a lot of perseverance to get to the final chapters where the excitement , chaos and plot twist came. had the book been like this all the way through it would be receiving a better review.
I will be reading the whaleboat house to see if it stands up with the savage garden, don't let me down Mr. mills !

[Carl · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up after a good, brief review in the Sunday NYT.
If one can put down a mystery 1/3 through, there is something wrong. Obviously the plot isn't engrossing, and at this point, the main mystery has barely begun to unfold.
The characters: way too much "old man" and "old chap" (Monty Python's "upperclass twits"?); none very interesting or likable so far, including the main character and his married lover.
The setting: life during wartime can make for fascinating reading (I can think of many books offhand: City of Thieves, The Piano Teacher, The Book Thief recently, and Ballard's Empire of the Sun a while back). And although I learned from this book that Malta was the most heavily bombed (per some unit) Allied territory during WWII, I got no sense of what that must have felt like to live through.
The writing: Seemed way too forced. Don't tell me the characters' emotions, etc., make me feel them. Why throw in some brief pieces of disconnected narrative? I assume by the end the connections would become apparent, but when reading them, they were disjointed, confusing, and distracting. Felt like the author was trying hard not to be too straightforward (I'm not just a mystery writer but a creator of tricky narrative structure). Makes one appreciate Elmore Leonard.

[Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Information Officer is unusual in that the eponymous officer is based in Malta, not a place that has been the setting for much writing on WW11. A British colony, this small island in the Mediterranean is nearer to north Africa than to Britain and Germany. It was thus a battle-ground for the Germans determined to put a crimp in Britain's war efforts. It is the information officer's job to put the best possible spin on the daily bulletins he issues, designed to quell the fears of the Maltese population. News of a young girl's murder is kept quiet, particularly after a submariner's shoulder tab was found clasped in her hand. The German air-power is far superior to that of the British. However, British cryptologists have cracked the enigma code, highly classified information. This means that German planes are allowed to penetrate Malta's air-space, the port of Valetta having extraordinary machine-gunners that cripple or destroy Luftwaffe planes. It also helps British military intelligence to discover that there is a spy among them, fed disinformation by a U.S. agent working with the British. It transpires that the murderer and the spy are one and the same person. The nerve-wracking finale will have readers on the edges of their seats, staying up late to find out the identity of the spy-murderer and the fate of the last girl he kidnapped. Well worth a read.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mystery set in WWII Malta in 1942. Max Chadwick is the Information Officer of the title, charged with ensuring that the news stories that reach the islanders are positive, to avoid worsening morale among a populace already suffering from heavy bombardment and shortage of supplies. When he is shown evidence that a British naval officer may be involved in the murders of young Maltese women, he begins his own investigation.

The descriptions of wartime Malta are excellent, and Mills has captured both the impact of the war on the local people, and the determinedly upbeat and 'stiff upper lip' attitudes of the British commanding officers. The unrelenting air attacks and the efforts of the RAF to fend these off were brought to life throughout the book. Having visited Malta and seen the underground shelters there, I felt these were particularly well described.

The mystery itself was so-so, the perpetrator was quite obvious well before Max started working things out, and the final resolution was left to a kind of epilogue which was rather disappointing. The main characters were well defined, and it was good to see acknowledgment of the roles played by women in the war effort.

Overall, I enjoyed the historical aspect more than the mystery, but it was an entertaining read and I would read more by this author. 3.5 stars.

[Morgan F · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wouldn't have read this book if I hadn't won an advanced copy, and I kind of wish I hadn't won it.

This book was very, very muddled. I wish it just focused on one damn thing, but nnoooooo, it had to try to do it all, and it failed. The whole mystery/thriller part of it absolutely drowned in all the war details and boring characters. A good 3/4 of this book was just talking about bombings and airplanes and guns and other things that were just not interesting. And there was waaaayyy too many characters that still remain undistinguished in my mind. And I was neary half-way into the book before I realized that every other chapter switched the subject of the narrative. Once I figured this out, the novel made much more sense, but I just wish it had been made clearer. Very little of this book was spent on the actual murder investigation, and it was pretty slow-moving until the last couple of chapters. One thing this novel had going for it was that I did not guess the killer, which is always a plus.
I was not pleased with this book, and will not be reading it again.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe 3.5 stars

Set in Malta during WWII, this wartime thriller was made all the more interesting by the narrator's accent (though his raised pitch to a falsetto for one of the women's voices was a bit humorous). The descriptions of the beauty of Malta and its strategic location during the war were all new to me.

A British information officer whose job is public relations (and propaganda), learns of the murder of a young Maltese woman, possibly by a British submarine officer. He knows reporting it could have devastating repercussions, yet he feels both a sense of duty and a need for justice, so consequently doesn't report it, but sets out to investigate and prevent more murders.

I didn't guess the murderer, so kudos to Mr. Mills for that. What I did not like was the explicit sex, though some may see it as passionate romance set with bombs exploding during an air raid. As I've stated before, fade to black, I have a good imagination.

[Katy Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a mix of possibly two of my favourite subjects, crime and world war 2.

There is a rather chilling killer lurking in Malta, home to a good number of both British Navy and RAF servicemen alongside the locals while the Germans and Italians try to blast all of them off the little set of rocks they're living on in the Mediterranean in 1942. Max, the titular Information Officer, is responsible for trying to keep morale up, spinning the bad news so as not to bring the locals down further while war rages around them, so when his best friend, a surgeon, mentions that he thinks there may a serial killer on the loose, Max needs to work out how best to handle the information. He decides to try and investigate first by himself, which takes him through a number of plot twists to the denouement.

I'd have preferred a little more detail at the climax of the book, as it felt a bit like it had been cut short, but overall I enjoyed it.

[Clive Grewcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started brightly and then started to get stodgier and stodgier. Then there is the ending; I'm not sure whether I can be bothered to re-read the last two chapters, but (spoiler follows) did Elliot shoot Max in the head (and if he did how does he meet Max after the war) and how did Elliot persuade Freddie to release Lilian. After so much stodge, this definitely needed a clearer ending.

[Katie Grainger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second novel I have read by Mark Mills and I have to say that I find him quite a fascinating author. His books are engaging, unusual and very well written. The Information Officer is set in Malta in 1942 and combines a historical storyline with crime thriller. The Island is under siege from German airborne attacks but someone else is stalking the streets, a predator killing off young girls. I thought this was an intriguing storyline but i places slightly slow paced,a good read all the same.