MattRees.net

I’ve spent a lot of time in Rome over the years, including an extended period to research my novel about the great artist Caravaggio, A Name in Blood. Even a writer’s got to eat, so here are the unmissable eateries of the eternal city. 1. Sora Margherita. Piazza delle Cinque Scole. Looks like a scene [...]

At one of the Bethlehem locations from my first novel The Collaborator of Bethlehem (UK title The Bethlehem Murders) with a group of Norwegian visitors who posted some brief videos. This one is in Dehaisha Refugee Camp outside the UN school where my fictional sleuth Omar Yussef teaches.

At one of the Bethlehem locations from my first novel The Collaborator of Bethlehem (UK title The Bethlehem Murders) with a group of Norwegian visitors who posted some brief videos. This one is in Dehaisha Refugee Camp and we’re talking about Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian leader.  

At one of the Bethlehem locations from my first novel The Collaborator of Bethlehem (UK title The Bethlehem Murders) with a group of Norwegian visitors who posted some brief videos. This one is in Beit Jala, looking across the deep wadi at Jerusalem and talking about the gunbattles that used to take place there.

I went all over Europe and North America, tracking Caravaggio’s works and the places that touched his life for my novel A Name in Blood. But in particular I spent a great deal of time in Rome, Naples and Malta.

The most important moments in the writing of a novel come when the writer isn’t writing. That’s when the best ideas germinate and gestate. That’s why I’ve been in Tuscany this week. There are plenty of other reasons for going to Tuscany and I indulged in all of them. But I’ve written here before about [...]

On the upper floor of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in central Madrid, I wandered into a broad room where the masterpieces were arrayed like chocolates in a box. Just as with an assortment of sweets, I knew immediately and innately which one attracted me. I stepped into the arms of Caravaggio’s Saint Catherine of Alexandria. She [...]

I left Rome to continue my research for A Name in Blood, my Caravaggio novel which is released July 1 in the UK, in Malta. Caravaggio fled to the remote island off the coast of Africa and became (briefly) a member of the Knights of Malta. It was a strange trip for me, but the [...]

As I researched A Name in Blood, my novel of Caravaggio, I went all over Europe and North America, tracking Caravaggio’s works and the places that touched his life. The period locations I visited gave me a flavour for Caravaggio’s life. In some cases, they gave me ideas for plot twists in the book.

Eric, the scion of a soap fortune, pressed the “Wolf kills visitor” button inside the entrance of his Malibu beach-house. Outside his front door, I heard the approaching growls of an angry hound; a hatch opened and out sprang the three-foot neck of a blue-haired, red-eyed, mechanised wolf, drooling viciously over the welcome mat. “That’s [...]