Best Mystery Book of the Year: Deadly Pleasures magazine

Dramatised by BBC Radio 4

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A member of the tiny but ancient Samaritan community who controlled hundreds of millions of dollars of government money has been murdered. Omar Yussef must find the missing money before all international aid to the Palestinians is cut off. When Omar Yussef travels to Nablus, the West Bank’s most violent town, to attend a wedding he little expects the trouble that awaits him. An ancient Torah scroll belonging to the Samaritan’s descendants of the biblical Joseph, has been stolen. The dead body of a young Samaritan discovered and the theft takes an unexpected turn. Omar is driven into the murky alleys and tunnels of the old casbah, where he uncovers a violent rift between the government and Hamas militants, the secret deals of a rich businessman, and the shadowy world of the tiny Samaritan community. 

Reviews

“Provocative and humane.” – The New York Times Book Review

Omar Yussef is the most unlikely detective in modern whodunnits. He does not study fingerprints, collect physical evidence or check alibis…He believes that one must intervene in the present to shape history. — Nthabisang Moreosele in The Sowetan

A wonderful detective thriller … in which Arafat’s late life and death lurk as vivid presence and macabre ghost. — Marty Peretz, The New Republic

The depth and heart in Omar Yussef’s third case makes it a tearjerker as well as a page-turner. – Kirkus Reviews