The Collaborator of Bethlehem

by Matt Rees

Overview

For decades, Omar Yussef has been a teacher of history to the children of Bethlehem. When a favorite former pupil, George Saba, a member of the Palestinian Christian minority, is arrested for collaborating with the Israelis in the killing of a Palestinian guerrilla, Omar is sure he has been framed. If George is not cleared, he faces imminent execution.

Then the wife of the dead man, also one of Omar Yussef’s former pupils, is murdered, possibly raped. When he begins to suspect the head of the Bethlehem al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is the true collaborator, Omar and his family are threatened. But as no one else is willing to stand up to the violent Martyrs Brigades men, who hold the real power in the town, it is up to him to investigate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616959791
Publisher:	Soho Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/18/2018
Series:	Omar Yussef Mystery , #1
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	217,809
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Matt Beynon Rees was born in South Wales. He was previously the Jerusalem bureau chief for TIME magazine, where he is currently a contributor. He is the author of three other mysteries in the Omar Yussef series, as well as the nonfiction work Cain’s Field: Faith, Fratricide, and Fear in the Middle East. He lives in Jerusalem.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Collaborator of Bethlehem

Winner of the CWA John Creasey Dagger

"All it takes is one good man—a detective, of course—to humanize events that confound understanding . . . An astonishing first novel . . . Setting a mystery in the epicenter of a war zone challenges the genre conventions, but it doesn’t change the rules. In fact, it clarifies the role of the detective as the voice of reason, crying to be heard above the cacophony of gun-barrel politics."
—The New York Times Book Review

"Rees tells this grim story with skill, specificity and richly detailed descriptions of people and places.”
—The Washington Post

“Matt Beynon Rees has taken a complex world of culture clash and suspicion and placed upon it humanity.”
—David Baldacci

“A beautifully written story. I have walked the streets of Bethlehem with Omar Yussef, smelled the dust and the fear, tasted his food, shared his anger and his hope. His decency is a light in the gloom. I shall not forget him.”
—Anne Perry

“The Collaborator of Bethlehem is the best—and the rarest—sort of mystery: exciting and compelling, but it is also a deeply moving story that will, for many readers, shed much needed light on the conditions in the Palestinian territories. Matt Beynon Rees’s ability to blend the political and the emotional is reminiscent of Graham Greene.”
—David Liss, author of The Day of Atonement

“Omar Yussef has everything I admire in a detective: humility, humanity, a great faith in the power of knowledge and a few bad habits too!”
—Barbara Nadel, author of The Ottoman Cage

From the Publisher