MattRees.net

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 [...]

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.

Me and My Big Mouth is the blog of the inimitable Scott Pack, the most innovative (and, to many, the most controversial) man in British publishing. We met a year ago in freezing Oslo, tramped through the snow to the Ibsen Museum, and generally had a great time. It’s possible we were the only teetotallers [...]

Not long ago a friend of mine commented that my travels to promote my books must be a great pleasure to me. “You just have to talk about yourself,” he sneered. “You must like that.” I ignored the implied insult (until now). But it struck me that people might think book tours are literally ego-trips. [...]

Scott Pack, controversial publishing guru and self-declared big mouth (I can tell you he’s rather more charming in person than such a description would imply), recommends my debut novel THE BETHLEHEM MURDERS (US title THE COLLABORATOR OF BETHLEHEM)for a Christmas gift on his blog. Writes Scott, as he roasts his chestnuts over an open fire at his [...]

Rain on the streets of Bethlehem can’t cool simmering tension. By Matt Beynon Rees – GlobalPost BETHLEHEM, West Bank — A writer seeks the surprise of a “man bites dog” story. The most violent times of the Second Intifada, which took place under the leaden winter skies of early 2002, gave me mine. I wrote [...]

I went back to the spot where I killed my first man yesterday. I killed him four years ago. I return every few months. Each time I arrive, it’s so peaceful I can’t believe anyone really died. But, even though I’m a writer of crime fiction, someone really did. I walked across a dirt lot, [...]

Since the first of my three Palestinian crime novels was published in early 2007, I haven’t been short of terrific reviews in the mainstream media. After all, The New York Times said I’d written “an astonishing debut novel” and every outlet from The Sunday Telegraph to The Sowetan has raved about the books. But I’m [...]