Review: The Information Officer

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POSTED: 01 JULY 2009

Mark Mills, The Information Officcer

(Harper; 400pp paperback; $32.99)

The Information Officer is Mark Mills’ first novel after the success of his No 1 bestseller, The Savage Garden.

It is a murder mystery set during the two year siege of Malta in World War 2. The island of Malta, part of the British Empire since 1800, suffered over 3000 bombing raids from the German Luftwaffe and the Italian Regia Aeronautica as they attempted to gain control of Mediterranean supply lines that would ensure Axis control of North Africa.

The murderer, a cold-blooded killer, is taking advantage of the wartime disruption to torture and sexually molest young local women, and it looks like he might be a British Officer.

Max Chadwick, an architect before the outbreak of war, who finds himself the Information Officer in charge of disseminating information (read propaganda) to the Maltese locals, learns of the crimes and is torn between his sense of honour to the victims and his patriotic duty to avoid further panic and fear in a community that is already in a high state of anxiety from constant bombing and a looming invasion.

Because of the situation, Max must keep his inquiries low key so that his superiors are not alerted and the inhabitants are not alarmed. This isolates him, and those close to him are all at risk. Just as the perpetrator had planned.

The story is well written, with tension heightened by the desperate days of the siege, the privations, and the suffering of the people. Mills’ vivid and graphic description of bombing raids, of the destruction on the island and the challenge to build resilience among those who survive adds significantly to the story.

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