The genesis of this book is easily explained.

"The manuscript of The Malta Job owes its existence to my wife Jean. As I exhausted the meagre library shelves of the hotel on our second long stay on the island, she insisted that holiday writing would be far more satisfying than holiday reading. I took her advice - and it was."

The result is a quite readable and entertaining fiction.

John Smith, a young Scottish journalist with literary aspirations, is sent to Malta to complete a sequel to the very successful MacMurder, a roundup of Scotland's more infamous homicides. The author had died just before completing the planned sequel MacAbre, a follow-up tale of other gruesome Scottish crimes.

Once in Malta, with the dead man's notes, he gets involved in a gripping set of circumstances involving high romance, exciting adventure and a bank heist crime worthy of inclusion in either book.

While visiting Mosta, John meets Katy, an American girl of Maltese descent from Boston who is in Malta for a reason that is not immediately clear. They seem to like each other and team up to visit Malta's tourist spots.

But crime seems to follow them. A fellow guest at the Mellieha Bay hotel Seacrest died in mysterious circumstances.

And John finds out that two fellow guests were two hoods from Glasgow whose court appearances he many times reported upon.

Then, two things happen. Out of boredom more than anything else, they take to follow the crook couple just to see what they're up to. And from Scotland they are informed that a visiting Maltese businessman is missing.

The two things do not seem to be related.

Anyway, that's the main story of the book. In between, it does offer an easygoing travelogue about Malta, not in any highbrow sense but rather in a homey manner. And I do not thing the author gets a detail wrong except for poor Mesquita Square in Mdina which becomes Mosquita Square.

There is much more in between, for John is a film buff who can tell you details from long-ago films with actors and actresses thrown in.

Born in Wales, as his name implies, the author created a successful career for himself in Scotland in editing and corporate communications. His non-fiction works, Scottish Roots and Other Men's Heroes were acclaimed. This is his first fiction book, followed by follow-up In a Dead Man's Chest.

Alwyn James

The Malta Job

Notes on a wee island

Ringwood Publishing Glasgow

2014

243pp