The Mediterranean island of Malta, still a British colony, is a strategic lynchpin under siege--literally the most bombed patch of earth on the planet. Max Chadwick is an officer with the British Ministry of Information and is thus charged with keeping morale high against all odds. If the Maltese bow under the weight of the daily assaults, the tide of the war could turn. Max spends his time with the military's top brass and the beautiful deputy editor of Il Berqa, the Maltese paper. And despite his better judgment, he has fallen for the wife of an influential and well regarded naval officer.

When the body of a beautiful young Maltese woman arrives at the morgue, the medical officer suspects she is the victim of something--or someone--more sinister than an air strike. It seems a serial killer is on the island using the war as a cloak for his crimes. The officer instinctually calls Max when he pries a shoulder tab with the British Naval insignia from the dead girl's hand.

Forced to keep his investigation from both the military and the press, Max sets out to unravel the mystery and unmask the killer. He realizes he is in over his head when the Lieutenant Governor's Office intervenes and insists Max end his investigation. Max can't help but wonder if they are random attacks or whether the killer has sophisticated political motives. What he discovers is far more disturbing than he ever could have anticipated and sets in motion a dangerous course of events that challenges Max's loyalties and endangers his closest friends.

Mark Mills is a screenwriter and the author of The Savage Garden and Amagansett. His first novel, Amagansett, was published in a dozen countries and received the British Crime Writers' Association John Creasy Memorial Dagger Award. A graduate of Cambridge University, he lives in Oxford with his wife and their two children.