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An Omar Yussef Mystery
by Matt Beynon Rees
Book Reviewed by:For decades, Omar Yussef has been a teacher of history to the children of Bethlehem. When a favorite former pupil is arrested for collaborating with the Israelis, Omar is sure he has been framed. Then the wife of the dead man, also one of Omar Yussef’s former pupils, is murdered, possibly raped. And, as no one else will, it is up to him to investigate.
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.
The Collaborator of Bethlehem, first published in the UK as The Bethlehem Murders, won the 2008 Crime Writers Association's John Creasey New Blood Dagger Award - the prestigious CWA award given to the best first novel of the year.
Chapter 1
Omar Yussef, a teacher of history to the unhappy children
of Dehaisha refugee camp, shuffled stiffly up the meandering
road, past the gray, stone homes built in the time of the
Turks on the edge of Beit Jala. He paused in the strong evening
wind, took a comb from the top pocket of his tweed jacket, and
tried to tame the strands of white hair with which he covered
his baldness. He glanced down at his maroon loafers in the
orange flicker of the buzzing street lamp and tutted at the dust
that clung to them as he tripped along the uneven roadside,
away from Bethlehem.
In the darkness at the corner of the next alley, a gunman
coughed and expectorated. The gob of sputum landed at the
border of the light and the gloom, as though the man
intended for Omar Yussef to see it. He resisted the urge to
scold the sentry for his vulgarity, as he would have one of his
pupils at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency Girls
School. The young thug, though obscured by the...
The Collaborator of Bethlehem is an exceptionally powerful and highly readable mystery that opens a window for the reader into the soul-destroying conditions experienced by people living on the West Bank. Omar Yussef is a welcome addition to the world of fictional detectives and one we will hopefully be hearing from again very soon, as Rees plans to explore the full scope of how Palestinians live today through Omar. A second book, set in Gaza, is already with his publisher; the third book will be set in Nablus...continued
Full Review
(1031 words)
(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
The Canaanites are the earliest known civilization to live in the area of land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, living in city-states such as Jericho around 3,000 BCE. Positioned close to Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor the area was not only a meeting point for different cultures but also a battleground for various empires such as the Assyrians and Egyptians, and was fought over by different groups of invaders including the Amorites, Hittites and Hurrians.
Around the 14th century BCE, Egyptian power in the region weakened and new groups, the Hebrews and the Philistines, appeared. Around 1050 BCE the Philistines defeated the Israelites. About 50 years later, Israel's King David defeated the Philistines and established ...
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