Reviews

The Information Officer by Mark Mills

slushmucky's review against another edition

3.0

It was ok. Very slow. The author was trying to cram so much detail in about the war and the characters love life. I was left wanting more about the murders. I wouldn’t recommend.

krobart's review against another edition

2.0

The novel was interesting enough, with good descriptions of Malta and a fairly involving plot. However, I did not grow to care very much about the characters. I figured out the murderer, although not his motive, fairly easily.

See my complete review here:

http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/tag/the-information-officer/

ridgewaygirl's review against another edition

3.0

The Information Officer is a wartime thriller in the style of Alan Furst. Taking place on the Mediterranean island of Malta during the fierce bombing raids of 1942, the story follows Max Chadwick, in charge of presenting a British view of events to the inhabitants, and his actions after he learns that someone, probably British, is murdering young Maltese women. The story is fast paced and well plotted, if implausible. Malta's part of the Second World War that is not that well known, at least here in the United States and the presentation of its history and role in the war was well done and not intrusive. I enjoyed this book, and hope that Mills continues to explore the era.

tessisreading2's review against another edition

3.0

Other reviewers have commented that this book tries to be too many things at once, which I think is a valid criticism - it is thriller, historical novel, and mystery, and doesn't necessarily do a great job at any of them. Suffers a little bit from some info dumps at the beginning which slowed down the pace of the book. For me the biggest problem came halfway through, when

Spoiler

it's revealed that not only is the murderer a psychopath, he's a German agent

; that transformed the book from plausible (after all, what do I know about Malta's crime rate in WWII?) to "when is it getting a movie option?" - and I stopped trusting that the conclusion was going to make sense or pack an emotional impact for me.

Additionally, the author's reliance on British military men as viewpoint characters was problematic: I hadn't realized how much I was missing a diverse POV until he introduced a Maltese POV character towards the end, who was far more interesting - and living in a far more interesting world - than Max, the main POV character. (The other POV character, of course, being the murderer; these sections were okay, but did mean that

Spoiler

it rapidly became apparent that there were going to be no surprises about the reason for the killings [although they did introduce the secondary motive, which as mentioned above I found implausible] or the type of person the killer was; I think the lack of ambiguity hurt the mystery

.)

As others have mentioned, the female characters are pretty stock characters (

Spoiler

there's the kinky-sex-loving evil married woman Max is having an affair with, versus the half-Maltese probably-virginal spirited newspaperwoman he's actually in love with, plus side characters, like the hardboiled British plotter, who are introduced and then never seen again

) which bothered me a fair amount. If the book had been written in the eighties, fine, but especially in thrillers which are about the victimization of women, it feels uneven to have even the main female characters appear only as passive or motivational figures.

All these criticisms aside, I sped my way through the book and it held my attention the entire time. Very readable and I learned a lot about Malta in World War II.

maggie73's review against another edition

3.0

Evokes a great sense of time and place but the murder plot didn’t work for me.

mbhernandez's review against another edition

1.0

This book tries to accomplish way too much in one story. The result is a choppy mess. I didn't care about any of the characters nor did I care much about solving the supposed mystery. Overall - a flop.

booksandbacteria's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

jaee_s's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

thelaurasaurus's review against another edition

4.0

Set in Malta during WWII, this book covers the British occupation (if that's the correct word, I think Malta was part of the Commonwealth then) and the Maltese reaction to it. Although, it's really more about Max, an army officer who is investigating the murders of some local girls which seem to have been committed by another Brit. Golly.

The level of historical detail included was fascinating, I knew nothing about Malta's part in the war and was interested to learn what an important role it played.

Despite appearing quite readable, I did struggle to get through this book. The chapters are insanely long which makes sitting down to read a little feel like a big commitment. I also found the characters a little stale for my liking. I didn't have any issues with them individually but I felt like I knew the murderer best of all (he got his own chapters, offering an insight into his damaged mind). They were all a bit jolly hockey sticks/stiff upper lip/'insert other wartime British stereotype here' for my liking.

I preferred this book to The Savage Garden, Mills' previous work, which I seem to remember had the same character issues for me. I will certainly read his other books at some point because the good stories and interesting writing outweigh my complaints.

Oh, another thing. On the cover picture there is a fallen column on the bottom left - does anyone else think this looks like a seal? It's very distracting!

readymadereader's review

informative mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0