'Il-każ tat-tfajla maħruqa'

Author: Paul Xuereb
Publisher: DOM Communications Ltd / 1966
Pages: 180

You would not notice it unless someone pointed it out. This unassuming and quite pleasant detective story was written by the man who at a time of great turmoil in the country was Acting President of the Republic, who bridged over the last part of the Labour Government, and saw the crucial election in May 1987 that delivered a Nationalist government.

Paul Xuereb surely never expected to be in such a crucial post but he rose to the challenge brilliantly.

In his spare time he wrote detective stories and this was his first book. It was followed by Is-Serqa ta' Nicolas Cottoner (1967), Qtil f'San Pawl il-Bahar (1968), Runduvu (1971) and Meta... (1986).

Xuereb was from Rabat and it was quite natural for him to take a remote corner of his Rabat constituency to set the scene of a gruesome murder.

Very early one fine morning a person's body was set alight in a corner of a field in Wied Liemu on the way to Dingli.

The case was investigated by the redoutable Inspector Tarcy Saydon, an investigator of the old school who believes in following things to their logical conclusions.

The first obstacle to be tackled was the identity of the person who was set on fire.

The first clue to be ascertained showed that the victim was a young girl still in her teens. But no such girl had been reported as missing.

Then suspicions were raised about one young employee at a small factory in Birkirkara whose mother, in a panic, decided the murdered girl was her daughter, especially since she had not returned home.

Her companions turn out to be as flighty as her but even they at first are unable to add something more concrete.

Then, at long last, the girl who was thought to be the victim is found enjoying a day out by the sea with her boyfriend and so the quest had to begin again: who is the dead girl?

This is what makes the book remarkable and different from other crime stories - it grasps Detective Tarcy and stays with him, never shaking him off as he struggles with his investigations, evaluates alternatives and finally narrows his search and uncovers a totally unsuspected scenario.

It proves once again that the best hidden secret is that which is out in the open.