Blood Rock - James Jackson

I think I'm getting a bit obsessional about Malta and its history since we visited Valletta again last month. Strange because history never grabbed me at school, I preferred geography.

My previous posting about Mark Harris' book, The Information Officer, covered the second Great Siege of Malta during World War 11, this book is an excellent historical novel based on the epic Great Siege of Malta in 1565.

The Knights of St John are under siege in Malta from the great Ottoman armada of Suleiman the Magnificent who intends to wipe them out. They are greatly outnumbered by the Ottomans and there's also a traitor amongst them whose identity is hidden until the very end. It's a brutal story based on fact and fictional characters are intertwined with the historical ones like The Grand Master of The Knights, John Parisot de la Valette and Mustapha Pasha, commander of the Turkish land forces. The hero, Christian Hardy is a bit of a cliche and on occasions more of a superhero than a soldier, nevertheless he's an interesting one.

I have to say the book makes history come to life and would make quite a good film. It's a far better read than Dan Brown's novels which are frequently historically inaccurate.

For anyone contemplating a visit to Malta, it gives you a good insight into the geography of the country as well as the appalling hardships the people of this island have endured over the centuries. Post 126

The Information Officer

I saw this book when I was visiting Valletta last month. It was the number one best seller in one of the shops we visited and so I had a look at the synopsis and was intrigued. I didn't buy it because of luggage restrictions but made a note of it.

I eventually got it from our local library and once I started to read it I couldn't put it down.

It’s a murder mystery, a love story and a historic novel all rolled into one. The first and last chapters are set one evening in a London restaurant in 1951, but the main story evolves over 9 days in Malta in the summer of 1942, at the height of the terrible German and Italian bombing raids.

The story plays out against the background of Malta, the island fortress, during that great siege of 1942 providing extensive information about its geography and history. It is well written and researched with maps to help you identify the scenes of the action.

The author Mark Mills captures the feelings of a whole range of characters, British officers, other ranks, their wives, girlfriends as well as the occupied local people. They have to deal with a whole spectrum of issues, good and evil, life and death, truth and mendacity, love and hatred, joy and grief.

The central character, Max Chadwick is the Information Officer whose role is to keep up the morale of the islanders. When he finds out that a British Officer is murdering local women he has to cope with the conflict between his patriotic duty of keeping the information under wraps and his personal honour, finding the truth and the murder.

I found the characters interesting and believable with insight into the feelings of the occupied and their occupiers during this traumatic time.

The plot twists and turns as the author moves between the main story and glimpses into the motivations of the murderer keeping you guessing about the identity of the villain right to bitter end. If I have a criticism it’s that the murderer seemed the last person you would have expected, maybe that’s why the author picked them, but for me it made it a little less believable.

I really enjoyed this book the setting for me was wonderful, I loved the atmosphere, the characters with their touches of black humour and the fact it had quite a happy ending. It's not quite in the class of Captain Corelli's Mandolin but it is a very good read.

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