The Information Officer by Mark Mills

Normaly I would never touch a book set in the Second World War if only because most of the plots were threadbare when I first read these stories as a boy. It was, therefore, with a certain amount of trepidation that I approached The Information Officer by Mark Mills but I am delighted to report that he has managed to produce an excellent novel by using the war background with intelligence. Malta in the summer of 1942 is a bitterly contested strategic outpost for the British and suffers daily bombing raids from which the native islanders see their homes and livlihoods destroyed. It is the job of Major Max Chadwick, the Information Officer, to make sure that the news that is diseminated to the islanders is positive to keep up their morale. When Max is given evidence that points to local women being murdered by a British Officer he embarks on a private investigation. This is discovered by his superiors and he is warned off but his love for a local woman forces him to persist despite the danger. Mark Mills has written a superior novel which combines an intelligent plot and excellent page-turning writing.