Skål: ✧ Book Review ✧ Voices on the Wind (A Novel of Malta in WWII, Part I

Voices on the Wind
(A Novel of Malta in WWII, Part I — Assault)
By Helena P. Schrader

Publication Date: 11th June 2026

Publisher: Cross Seas Press

Pages: 448

Genre: Historical Fiction

Early 1942: the fate of the Suez Canal and access to Middle East oil hangs on the fate of an island just 17 miles long by 9 miles wide: Malta.

Determined to destroy the British forces threatening Rommel’s supply lines, the Axis powers drop more bombs on Malta than London endured throughout the Blitz. The population is forced underground, while the RAF struggles with inadequate resources to fend off defeat. Meanwhile, Britain’s Atlantic lifeline is fraying....

Voices on the Wind follows the fate of four of Malta’s defenders: Senior Intelligence Officer and former Battle of Britain ace, W/Cdr “Robin” Priestman; WAAF SigInt Officer Candice Weld, sent out from Bletchley Park to “man” the only X-machine outside the UK; F/O “Ned” Nettleton, a Beaufort torpedo bomber pilot engaged in suicidal attacks against enemy shipping; and Chief Officer Stevie Mackay of the British Merchant Navy, fighting to keep Britain’s own lines of supply open.

Book Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Before reading “Voices on the Wind: Part One – Assault”, Malta's role in the Second World War was one of those things I knew was important without actually knowing much about it. This book completely changed that. Rather than feeling like a history lesson, it drops you into the middle of events and lets you experience them through the people living and working there. By the end, I had a much better understanding of what Malta endured and why holding the island mattered so much.

The characters were what kept me turning the pages. Candice quickly became a favourite. She arrives in a world where some men have already decided she can't possibly know what she's talking about simply because she's a woman. Watching her prove them wrong again and again was enormously satisfying. I also loved the appearances of Adrian "Warby" Warburton. The man was clearly a character. The RAF eventually fitted an ashtray in his aircraft because they gave up trying to stop him smoking, yet this was also the same pilot carrying out some of the most dangerous reconnaissance missions of the war. The fact that he was apparently a terrible landing pilot just makes him even more memorable.

What stayed with me after finishing the book was how human it all felt. The air raids, the shortages, the tension, the uncertainty of not knowing what would happen next—it all feels very real. The novel never loses sight of the fact that behind every operation and every headline were ordinary people trying to get through another day.

I finished the book knowing far more about Malta than when I started and immediately wanted to know what happened next. That's usually a good sign.

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Helena P. Schrader

Helena P. Schrader is the author of 21 historical novels and six non-fiction history books. She earned a PhD in History from the University of Hamburg and served as a U.S. diplomat in Europe and Africa. She has won numerous literary awards, and two of her titles—Cold Peace, the first book in the Bridge to Tomorrow series on the Berlin Airlift, and her Battle of Britain novel, Where Eagles Never Flew—achieved Amazon #1 Bestseller status in aviation and military historical fiction.

Schrader masterfully blends meticulous historical research with compelling storytelling. Her success can best be measured not by the many awards or positive reviews, but by the fact that witnesses of the history she describes praise the authenticity of her works. Battle of Britain ace, W/Cdr Bob Doe enthusiastically declared that Where Eagles Never Flew got it “smack on the way it was for us fighter pilots.” Traitors for the Sake of Humanity: A Novel of the German Resistance won recognition for its extraordinary sensitivity to a complex topic from the survivors of the military conspiracy against Hitler and the widows of some of those executed.

The dramatic siege of Malta in WWII attracted Schrader’s attention years ago, and she has visited the island several times to conduct research, visit the important sites, and gain a greater understanding of the people. As she became drawn deeper into the material, the temptation to combine a novel about the siege of Malta with another of her lifelong loves, the British Merchant Navy, became irresistible. Schrader has been an avid sailor all her life and served as a petty officer in the British Merchant Navy on sail training ships in her youth.