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 [...]

My historical thriller A Name in Blood, which is about the great Italian artist Caravaggio, will be out in a small-format UK paperback in two weeks. Pre-order it for a special discount at amazon.co.uk, from Waterstone’s, or from Foyle’s. Rees illuminates with sensitivity the hitherto dark portrait of one of the world’s most influential artists. [...]

I’m at the diagram stage of plotting my next novel. Perhaps I should add a thought from Italo Calvino: “I’m a regular guy, I like well-defined outlines, I’m old-fashioned, bourgeois. My stories are full of facts, they have a beginning and an end.”

I talk about the real events in Gaza that are the basis for my second Palestinian crime novel A GRAVE IN GAZA (UK title: THE SALADIN MURDERS.) Over a decade reporting on Gaza, I accumulated stories that few other reporters noticed. In this novel, Palestinian sleuth Omar Yussef faces the corruption of senior Palestinian security [...]

I love to see my books published in other languages, but this is a special occasion. A NAME IN BLOOD, my novel about the great artist Caravaggio, is out this month in Italian. Given that the great man used to feature on an Italian banknote, I’m delighted that his countrymen will be reading La profezia [...]

My award-winning first novel was THE COLLABORATOR OF BETHLEHEM (UK title: THE BETHLEHEM MURDERS). Set against the backdrop of the Palestinian intifada, it tells the story of schoolteacher Omar Yussef, who is forced to take on the violence of his hometown to save a former pupil. In this podcast, I lay out how I came [...]

My UK publisher Atlantic is bringing out a special omnibus edition ebook of the first three Omar Yussef novels in my Palestine Quarter. Let’s call it an Omarnibus. The first of these books, The Bethlehem Murders (US title: The Collaborator of Bethlehem), won the Crime Writers Association New Blood Dagger. It introduces Omar Yussef, a [...]

With experienced Mideast correspondent Matthew Kalman I discuss and read from our ebook PSYCHOBIBI: Who is Israel’s Prime Minister and Why Does He Want to Fail? Benjamin Netanyahu, the man often portrayed as an extremist, is really just locked in a deep psychological battle with the ghosts of his tough father and golden brother. The [...]

My partner in the new alternative journalism venture DeltaFourth is Matthew Kalman. In his regular Times of Israel column this week he posts an excerpt from our new ebook Psychobibi: Who is Israel’s Prime Minister and Why Does He Want to Fail? The excerpt is about Netanyahu’s compelling history with women, which tells us a [...]

I’m interviewed on Israeli tv about my new ebook PSYCHOBIBI: Who is Israel’s Prime Minister and Why Does He Want to Fail?.