All Blog Posts Tagged 'Assassin' (30)

The Decade that Dare not Speak its Name

In the documentary “Imagine,” John Lennon comments that his song “Starting Over” from "Double Fantasy" was a message to fans his own age in which he aimed to ask them: “Hey, how’re you? Weren’t the Seventies a drag? Let’s hope the Eighties will be better.”

If John had lived on through the Eighties to experience the decade just gone, I’m sure he’d have used a stronger word than “drag” to describe it, and it would’ve been… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on January 8, 2010 at 7:45pm — No Comments

New year, new blog

One of my favorite Italian writers, Giuseppe di Lampedusa, wrote: "If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change." So I'm inaugurating my new blog today, to see in the New Year, with the same insightful content, of course, but a good-looking, up-to-date platform with many new features. I call the new blog… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on January 2, 2010 at 3:45am — No Comments

My Manchurian Candidate

One of my biggest boosters has been Bill Ott, reviewer for the pre-publication review Booklist. Here's his review of my forthcoming THE FOURTH ASSASSIN, which is out in the US and the UK on Feb. 1:

"Road-trips in crime series have the built-in problem of removing their heroes from the landscapes that define them. Rees’ Bethlehem history teacher and occasional… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on December 22, 2009 at 12:18am — No Comments

PW stars new Omar Yussef novel

Publishers Weekly, the pre-publication review, stars my new Palestinian crime novel THE FOURTH ASSASSIN, which will be published Feb. 1 in the US and the UK. Here's the PW review: "The relentless cycle of violence and retribution follows Palestinian detective Omar Yussef to New York City, where he must deliver a speech at the U.N. on schooling in the… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on December 21, 2009 at 3:55am — No Comments

That's my boy

I started to feel recently that my bio on www.mattbeynonrees.com was a bit over-serious. First of all, it was in the third person. I honestly never refer to myself in the third person (except when I'm shopping and I ask my wife "Would Matt Beynon Rees wear a shirt in this shade of pink?") Then I saw that the bio took my writing and -- worse still -- me, rather seriously. I prefer to make it clear that I can laugh at myself. So I changed the whole bio,… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on October 27, 2009 at 9:42pm — 1 Comment

THE FOURTH ASSASSIN on video

To introduce the next of my Palestinian crime novels, THE FOURTH ASSASSIN, my friend videographer David Blumenfeld filmed in New York (where the book takes place). His montages are mainly from Brooklyn's Bay Ridge and Coney Island sections. He then recorded me, looking sweaty and frankly a bit doped up, in my favorite seedy cafe in Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter.

You can view it… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on August 28, 2009 at 4:44pm — No Comments

My latest culture clash

Here's my latest post on the International Crime Authors Reality Check blog:

The Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family is a beautiful sandstone building on the corner where the Via Dolorosa turns briefly onto the main alley of the Muslim Quarter’s souq. Buzz at the main gate, climb up two flights of enclosed steps, and you’re in a palm-shaded garden fronting a broad, four-story façade. Nearly 150 years old, it was built for… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on August 21, 2009 at 1:44am — No Comments

Video: Reading from THE FOURTH ASSASSIN

The next in my series of Palestinian crime novels THE FOURTH ASSASSIN will be out early next year. Meanwhile I've made a couple of videos to introduce the book. In this one, I went up onto the roof of the Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem's Old City to read from Chapter One of the next… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on August 16, 2009 at 9:51pm — No Comments

UK cover for THE FOURTH ASSASSIN

It's always a thrill for me to receive the covers of my forthcoming novels from my UK publisher Atlantic Books. They have a series feel in that there's a continuity to the design. Each one seems to get better. Here's the cover of THE FOURTH ASSASSIN, which will be published next February. I received it from my delightful editor in London Sarah Norman just this week.…

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Added by Matt Rees on August 14, 2009 at 10:52pm — 1 Comment

Nasty nargila and biblical heat on video

My favorite little coffee shop in Jerusalem’s Old City is just inside the Muslim Quarter, behind the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, buried and resurrected.

Once you’ve sucked on the tobacco in this café, even hanging on a cross with nails through your hands and feet would be a relief. It's like smoking a… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 14, 2009 at 10:23pm — 2 Comments