A Time of Adversity

It is 1973 and the sunny Mediterranean islands of Malta are in their first decade as an independent nation. The murder of a priest in a church on the predominantly Roman Catholic islands sends shockwaves through the small nation and plunges bachelor, tubist and food lover Chief Inspector Xavier Xuereb, head of the Maltese police homicide squad, into the most heartless and gruelling case of his career. As one murder leads to another, a few clues lead Xavier through a thorny maze of organised child abuse and corruption that spans Malta, its sister island of Gozo, London and the Vatican. His politically-motivated superiors increasingly hamper Xavier's investigation, while his depressed, nagging widowed mother is an added burden. The case reaches an unorthodox, unexpected climax in the final months of 1974, the year Malta declares itself a republic.