The car bomb assassination of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017 shocked the European Union and put the world’s spotlight on an island so small that few knew it was an independent country and even fewer could find it on the map. But Caruana Galizia’s death didn’t come as a surprise to those who lived there.

Ryan Murdock had visions of living a slow-paced island life on the Mediterranean while writing about his experiences, so in 2011 he moved from Canada to Malta. To the casual visitor, Malta is a sleepy place with sun-soaked shorelines and ancient fortified harbors. Murdock imagined it to be an archipelago island of warm weather, gorgeous views, busy cafes, and grilled fish dinners. On the surface, it was.

The six years Murdock spent in Malta revealed an insular culture whose fundamental baseline is amoral familism, a worldview in which any action taken to benefit one’s family or oneself is justifiable, regardless of whether it is legal or ethical. In such a place murder may or may not be wrong, depending on what one thinks of another’s politics. This pervasive perspective created a culture of corruption that rose all the way to the top of the island nation. The office of the prime minister was implicated in Caruana Galizia’s murder, and the investigation continues to reveal a government mired in money laundering, human trafficking, fuel smuggling, and the sale of EU passports to Russian and Middle Eastern oligarchs.

Interspersed with personal narrative, Murdock delves into Malta’s unique geopolitical, cultural, ethnic, and religious history—one that transformed it from a hub of prehistoric rule into a modern society where a powerful cabal of political and business leaders nearly got away with murder.

Ryan Murdock's profile page

Ryan Murdock is the author of Vagabond Dreams: Road Wisdom from Central America and editor-at-large (Europe) for Outpost, Canada’s national travel magazine. He shares his love of travel literature through the Personal Landscapes podcast and writes regularly for The Shift, an independent Maltese news portal. He lives in Berlin.

“I greatly admire A Sunny Place for Shady People. . . . As a subject for a book, it's absolutely great, [and] whenever the subject of Malta arises it will be referenced. . . . Murdock's untangling is masterful and persuasive.”
— Paul Theroux

“If you did not know this was a true story, you would think you had picked up a crime thriller—and the gangsters here were a sovereign government in the EU. A terrible and frightening story, brilliantly told.” — Barney White-Spunner, author of Berlin: The Story of a City

“A vivid, sobering, enraging, funny in a throw-up-in-your-mouth kind of way, and first-class read. Malta will richly deserve it if it produces a tourist boycott for the next decade.” — Julian Evans, author of Semi-Invisible Man: A Life of Norman Lewis

“Ryan Murdock’s A Sunny Place for Shady People is at once the story of a shocking crime and a fascinating, personal interpretation of a unique island society beset by corruption and fractured by clannish allegiances. Recommended.” — Tom Parfitt, author of High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia's Haunted Hinterland

“True crime in the sun! In this gripping and thoughtful book, Ryan Murdock lifts the lid on an island he made home, uncovering ‘virtual’ piracy and an astonishing story of skulduggery and menace. A great read.” — Sara Wheeler, author of Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica

“Carefully written and thought-provoking . . . a real page-turner that is a little like a blend of A Year in Provence and The Godfather, but it’s six years in Malta and the criminality is not fictional.” — Eamonn Gearon, author of The Sahara: A Cultural History

“A meticulously researched and gripping portrait of Malta’s decades of corruption and the assassination of its foremost journalist. It is a terrifying story, and Ryan Murdock tells it extremely well.” — Caroline Moorehead, author of Mussolini’s Daughter: The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe

“Malta was always eccentric, insular (in every sense), and vaguely roguish. But between 2011 and 2017, the state’s corruption turned homicidal . . . Ryan Murdock was there to witness the decline, and his account is exquisitely researched, deftly rendered, painfully revealing, and important.” — John Gimlette, author of The Gardens of Mars: Madagascar, an Island Story

“Ryan Murdock depicts the tiny island of Malta as a veritable carnival of high crime, low crime, misdemeanor, and rude behavior. Shift the perspective ever so slightly and you’ll find yourself thinking of other parts of the world. A compelling read!” — Lawrence Millman, author of The Last Speaker of Bear: My Encounters in the North