I approached this book with some scepticism but soon found myself engrossed in the story, to the point that I lost count of the time (and even missed a couple of appointments).
For us all, the main event of the 20th century was World War II and the story of Malta's heroic defence against the might of the Axis.
But the story of this book begins and ends before the beginning of the war. It points to and leads to it, however.
It is 1930 and Malta, with the British as the overlords, seethes with discontent. The Sette Giugno riot is still fresh in people's mind and not even the granting of a limited representative government impressed the locals.
The Italians in Malta, backed by Mussolini in Rome, were trying their best to shake off the hold that Imperial Britain had over this small but very strategic archipelago in the middle of the Mediterranean. The British on their side were very alert to any Italian ploy to undermine the British rule.
At the beginning of the book, two persons are coming to Malta - Jack Gibson is traveling to Malta to escape a tragic and painful past. Captain Cesare Tabacchini is also coming to Malta with a very different aim: as a member of the Italian secret service he intends to overthrow the British regime.
Caught between these two is a Maltese woman, Flavia Depasquale, a doctor, a rarity in what was still a very traditional male society.
Intrigued by the complex society he had no knowledge of and increasingly attracted by the woman, Gibson finds himself involved almost unconsciously in the battle for the Maltese soul between the Italians and the British.
As it happens, the publisher offers no biographical details about the owner. A couple of slipups (using the word "galleries" for balconies and twice writing "stationary" when he meant to say "stationery") got me thinking the author is Maltese.
But then I researched and found that this is not the first or only book by the author. He lives in Brussels and his previous books include "Under Arras " and "130 Shady Acres ".
The main Maltese character in the book is Flavia Depasquale and she is portrayed in a kindly manner. In a note, the author says he got his inspiration for this character from the achievements of Tessie Camilleri and Blanche Huber, the first two women to enter the Royal University of Malta in October 1919 with Blanche Huber becoming the first female to graduate as a doctor in October 1925. What comes next in the book is a complete invention by the author.
Likewise it is true that an attempt on the life of Lord Strickland did take place as the prime minister was entering the Law Courts at the Auberge d'Auvergne on 23 May 1930 and that a Gianni Miller was subsequently jailed for attempted murder but what is said in the book in this regard is the author's imagination.
But the conspiracy theories which abounded thereafter speak about a mysterious Mr X who was said to have arrived in Malta five months earlier.