Matt Beynon Rees | Author

Matt Beynon Rees
Author of award-winning Palestinian crime series and historical fiction

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Rees Palestinian crime novel book launch in Jerusalem

Jun.22.2009

Rees Palestinian crime novel book launch in Jerusalem

The Bookshop at the American Colony Hotel
is proud to present
an evening with

Matt Beynon Rees
Who will be reading and speaking about his latest novel

The Samaritan's Secret

Matt Rees is an award-winning crime novelist who lives in Jerusalem. Major authors have compared him to Graham Greene and John Le Carre. The French magazine L’Express called him “the Dashiell Hammett of Palestine.” As a journalist, Rees covered the Middle East for over a decade for Time Magazine and Newsweek. His Omar Yussef Mystery series (The Bethlehem Murders, The Saladin Murders, The Samaritan’s Secret) won a Crime Writers Association Dagger and is published in 22 countries.

Friday, JUNE 26, 6:00 pm
THE PASHA ROOM, THE AMERICAN COLONY HOTEL

Featured Works

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PUBLISHED: Nov.01.2011

Mozart's Last Aria

Austria, December 1791. The greatest musical genius who ever lived, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is dead. Before he passed away, he claimed to have been poisoned. His sister Nannerl -- a talented musician in her own right -- travels to Vienna to find out the truth. She uncovers a dangerous Masonic plot and a secret hidden in The Magic Flute.

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PUBLISHED: Feb.01.2010

The Fourth Assassin: An Omar Yussef Mystery

When Omar Yussef travels to New York for a UN conference, he's eager to visit his youngest son, Ala, who lives in Bay Ridge, a Brooklyn neighborhood with a large Palestinian community. He arrives at Ala's apartment to find the door ajar and a headless body in one of the beds. He's initially terrified that the dead man is his son, but soon Ala arrives and identifies the body as...

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PUBLISHED: Feb.22.2009

A Grave in Gaza

In A Grave in Gaza, Omar Yussef and his boss,Magnus Wallender, travel to the Gaza Strip for a routine inspection of the UN schools in the Gaza refugee camps.Upon their arrival they learn that a teacher at one of their schools has been accused of spying and imprisoned. As they try to free the teacher and keep a lid on an explosive political situation, they are pulled into a...

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PUBLISHED: Jan.02.2009

The Samaritan's Secret

A member of the tiny but ancient Samaritan community has been murdered. The dead man controlled hundreds of millions of dollars of government money. If the World Bank cannot locate it within the next several days, all aid money to the Palestinians will be cut off. Visiting Nablus, Omar Yussef must solve the murder and find the money, or all Palestinians will suffer.

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PUBLISHED: Jan.02.2007

The Collaborator of Bethlehem

The murder of a leader of the Palestinian Martyrs Brigade leads to the arrest of George Saba, a Palestinian Christian accused of collaborating with the Israelis. Omar Yussef, a modest history teacher at a United Nations school in the West Bank, is impelled to investigate the murder to exonerate his former pupil. As he struggles to save George, Omar Yussef is drawn into a complex...

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PUBLISHED: Feb.11.2004

Cain's Field: Faith, Fratricide, and Fear in the Middle East

In this gripping, in-the-trenches account of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, award-winning journalist Matt Rees takes us deep within Israeli and Palestinian societies to reveal the fractures at the core of both. While the world focuses almost exclusively on the violent clash between the two camps, Rees steers our gaze toward their centers, exposing the internal rifts that drain...

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PUBLISHED: Jan.05.2011

Mozart's Last Aria

It's 1791 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is Vienna's brightest star. But six weeks after he tells his wife that he has been poisoned, the great composer is dead. The city is buzzing with rumors of infidelity, bankruptcy and murder. Wolfgang's sister Nannerl refuses to believe such base gossip. As she looks closer, Nannerl finds traces of something sinister: a Masonic secret that...

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Matt Beynon's Latest Blogs

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Dec.22.2011 - 12:09 am

Best First Paragraphs in Crime Fiction: Part 2

I’m writing this in a plain office in the corner of a building that was described by the realtor as “exclusive,” though it doesn’t exclude despondent ultra-Orthodox Jews...

Dec.15.2011 - 4:34 am

Best First Paragraphs in Crime Fiction: Part 1

If you have a lot of time to waste, you never judge a book by its cover. But don’t try telling me you don’t judge it by its first paragraph. What makes a great first paragraph?...

Dec.02.2011 - 5:29 am

Mystery Scene: 'resounding bravo' for MOZART'S LAST ARIA

I am, as they say back in the UK, chuffed as hell that Mystery Scene magazine gives my new novel an absolutely terrific review. Reviewer Sue Emmons says MOZART'S LAST ARIA...

Dec.01.2011 - 3:24 am

Re-reading Ray

I happened to read a few crappy books in a row of late. So I did what I always do when I can’t afford for the next book I get into to disappoint: I re-read a Raymond Chandler. I...

Comments from Matt Beynon

Oct.14.2009 - 12:17 pm

In response to: Let's do the time warp again

Thank you, Sharon. Stupidity

Thank you, Sharon. Stupidity is really the only word for it!

Oct.02.2009 - 11:53 pm

In response to: Neon pee on the Reeperbahn, and other travels

Glad your throat was the

Glad your throat was the only thing that got sore on the Reeperbahn... Try the floating hotel. I spent a couple of...

Sep.03.2009 - 10:30 pm

In response to: Payment for Acknowledgments: Resourceful or Cringe Inducing?

Nonfiction books about the

Nonfiction books about the Middle East -- especially written by people who aren't staff correspondents with what...

Aug.14.2009 - 11:18 pm

In response to: Whose Abu are you?

Given its meaning, your name

Given its meaning, your name sounds like a lovely, cosy picture. Particularly to someone like me, sweltering through a...

Aug.13.2009 - 10:13 pm

In response to: Israel: Less corrupt than Somalia!

Absolutely. In the case of

Absolutely. In the case of Israelis and Palestinians, they're usually incapable of acknowledging the suffering of the...

Audio & Video

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Video: MOZART'S LAST ARIA: a Secret about Wolfgang's Death

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Video: MOZART'S LAST ARIA

Video: THE FOURTH ASSASSIN

About Matt Beynon

Matt Beynon Rees is an award-winning crime novelist who lives in Jerusalem. Major authors have compared him to Graham Greene and John Le Carre. The French magazine L'Express called him "the Dashiell Hammett of the Middle East." Born in Wales, Rees...

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