I ran across a review of this book and a discussion by Mark Mills of how he found out about Malta during WW II. You can read about it on YouTube.
Seems Malta was the sole Allied outpost in the Mediterranean during WW II, and it endured bombing much worse than that suffered by England during that time. Malta was still a British colony.
The story centers on Max Chadwick, a British information officer who discovers the murder of a Maltese girl, who dies clutching a scrap of fabric from the uniform of a British submarine officer. He is frantic to find the murderer (other girls have been killed) before the submarine leaves.
The book was fast-paced and interesting and the story was believable. The last few chapters were "hold on to your seats" stuff, with Chadwick motoring around the island on his motor bike trying to figure out the killer and stop the killer before another girl close to Max gets murdered. I didn't guess the ending.
Now I have to read Mills' other two books; I hope they are as good as this one.