MattRees.net

Some of the Caravaggio paintings featured in my novel A Name in Blood:

My wonderful German publisher CH Beck Verlag has once again produced a sumptuous version of one of my novels. Published this week as “Mit Blut signiert,” it’s translated by the noted German novelist Klaus Modick. Read more about it on Beck’s site. Read a “Leseprobe“. If you prefer to listen to it in German, go [...]

Philip Farrugia Randon is a major authority on Caravaggio, particularly the Italian artist’s time in Malta. Philip is the author of — among other publications — Caravaggio Knight of Malta and Caravaggio in Malta. A prominent lawyer on Malta, Philip is also president of the Knights of Malta on the island. When I visited Malta [...]

The French cinema has very kindly provided a period piece on release now in the US about the early years of Wolfgang Mozart’s sister Nannerl. To whet appetites for my forthcoming historical thriller MOZART’S LAST ARIA, in which Nannerl is the narrator. MOZART’S LAST ARIA, which has been out for some months in the UK, [...]

My historical thriller MOZART’S LAST ARIA will be out in the US at the beginning of November. Publishers Weekly has the first pre-publication review, and it’s a great one: In this engaging, well-paced book from crime novelist and journalist Rees (The Collaborator of Bethlehem), Mozart’s estranged sister, Madame Maria Anna Berchtold von Sonnenburg (called Nannerl [...]

*Editor’s note: The Man of Twists and Turns has obtained the text of a major exclusive which was set to appear in The News of the World in London this week. However, News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old tabloid to dampen a scandal over its reporters hacking into private voicemails, use of [...]

In my novel about the death of the great composer, I knew I’d have to give a central position to Mozart’s Requiem, his most powerful piece of music and the one that’s most laden with death — perhaps, indeed, his own. So, in MOZART’S LAST ARIA, there’s a key scene set in the crypt below [...]

London classical music guru Mark Berry has a guest post from me on his excellent Boulezian blog. I write about how my task as a historical novelist was aided by the period locations still surviving in Vienna, when I wrote my new book MOZART’S LAST ARIA. I also write more about some of those places [...]

In the third of my podcasts I describe the story behind my historical crime novel MOZART’S LAST ARIA. I tell how I became interested in Nannerl Mozart, the great composer’s sister, while traveling in the mountains of Austria; how I developed the idea for my novel with the help of great musicians; how I researched [...]

British composer and top classical music blogger Robert Hugill reviews my historical crime novel MOZART’S LAST ARIA. He describes it as “absorbing,” unpredictable and “a real page turner.” It’s very gratifying to me that this terrific classical musician should appreciate the way I write about the performance of Wolfgang’s music in the novel. I worked [...]