Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car bomb this week at the age of 53, was Malta's leading investigative journalist and a fearless critic of corruption.
Her outspoken and uncompromising personal blog, Running Commentary, in which she daily lambasted crooks and politicians of all parties on the island, was visited by some 400,000 people a day (the population of Malta is 445,000).
She was born Daphne Anne Vella on August 26 1964 in Sliema, the heartland of the Maltese bourgeoisie, and educated at one of the island's leading girls' schools. She took a degree in archaeology at the University of Malta.
After marrying lawyer Peter Caruana Galizia in 1985, she began working as a journalist. In the early '90s she became a regular columnist with the Sunday Times of Malta. She was later an associate editor with the Malta Independent. Popular as her columns were, she found a wider audience with her blog.
Inevitably, Galizia made some powerful enemies. Her criticism of the government's programme for the sale of Maltese passports (which brought European citizenship with them) was scathing. Her wit was sharp, whether it was discussing the passport sales, or the president's choice of dress.
She delighted in the fact that her political targets appeared to have no sense of humour, and could not tell the difference between "a joke and a machete".
In 2016, Galizia was named by the US political website Politico as one of "28 people who are shaping, shaking and stirring Europe", crusading against corruption in Malta.
She despaired of the Maltese's apathy to a corrupt political class.
On the day of her death she posted her final blog: "There are crooks everywhere you look now."
She is survived by her husband and their three sons.
1964-2017..