ROME (AP) — On tiny Malta, a star investigative reporter had been digging into plenty of international intrigue before she was blown up by a car bomb while driving.

Malta's reputation as a tax haven, its cozy links with nearby lawless Libya and its legal passports-for-sale program were just some of the fodder for investigation by reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Malta, an archipelago nation in the southern Mediterranean, is so attractive to those looking to shelter funds or operate under the radar of authorities that it has been nicknamed "treasure island."

That means investigators have many possibilities to follow as they try to discover who killed Caruana Galizia as she drove down a country road Monday after filing her latest story about the proliferation of crooks in Malta.