All Blog Posts Tagged 'Murders' (24)

Review - The Icon Murders, Noel Mealey

Book Title: THE ICON MURDERS

Author: Noel Mealey

ISBN: 9780732293673

Series: Syd Fielding

Year of Publication: 2013

Publisher: Harper Collins

Location: Western Australia

Synopsis

A spate of vicious murders around Australia has police puzzled until Detective Syd Fielding, now head of a national drug prevention squad, finds the link that draws them together.

The problem is, the link appears to be him. Syd′s always been a loose cannon…

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Added by Karen from AustCrime on March 7, 2013 at 12:40pm — No Comments

Review - The Holiday Murders, Robert Gott

This title was reviewed for the Newtown Review of Books

This novel of murder and military intelligence in wartime Melbourne is inspired by history.

While The Holiday Murders isn’t, sadly, a new William Powell book, Robert Gott has delivered another masterful crime novel steeped in Australia’s past.

For the full review:…

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Added by Karen from AustCrime on February 26, 2013 at 10:06am — No Comments

Mitzi and Teddy's Excellent Adventure in Norfolk

http://mitziszereto.com/blog/mitzi-and-teddys-excellent-adventure-in-norfolk/

Added by Mitzi Szereto on August 24, 2010 at 6:27pm — No Comments

Book Tours Not Just Ego Tripping

Not long ago a friend of mine commented that my travels to promote my books must be a great pleasure to me. “You just have to talk about yourself,” he sneered. “You must like that.”

I ignored the implied insult (until now). But it struck me that people might think book tours are literally ego-trips. Wrong on two counts.

First, it’s only on book tour that people will frequently come up to you and say that you look better in your jacket photo. In Aachen last year,… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on January 10, 2010 at 10:28pm — 3 Comments

Big Mouth recommends my debut as "bloody good but a little bit different" for Christmas

Scott Pack, controversial publishing guru and self-declared big mouth (I can tell you he's rather more charming in person than such a description would imply), recommends my debut novel THE BETHLEHEM MURDERS (US title THE COLLABORATOR OF BETHLEHEM) for a Christmas gift on… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on December 21, 2009 at 4:15am — 4 Comments

In Bethlehem, the Third Intifada approaches

Rain on the streets of Bethlehem can't cool simmering tension. By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — A writer seeks the surprise of a “man bites dog” story. The most violent times of the Second Intifada, which took place under the leaden winter skies of early 2002, gave me mine. I wrote about Arabs in… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 29, 2009 at 11:35pm — No Comments

Scene of the Crime

I went back to the spot where I killed my first man yesterday. I killed him four years ago. I return every few months. Each time I arrive, it’s so peaceful I can’t believe anyone really died. But, even though I’m a writer of crime fiction, someone really did.

I walked across a dirt lot, puddled with the afternoon rain, past the empty reservoir at the head of the valley. Below me the village of Irtas drifted down toward the convent where they hold the annual lettuce festival. The… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on November 26, 2009 at 11:59pm — No Comments

Those disorganized Swiss

You know the reputation. "Swiss" isn't a nationality. It's really an adjective meaning highly organized and perhaps even a little too punctilious.

That's a myth. The place is just like the Middle East... (Look, I write fiction, but I may be onto something. Read on.)

On my recent reading tour, I stopped in Basel as a guest of the superb Literaturhaus Basel. Everyone told me to go the city's main art museum for an exhibition of… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on October 15, 2009 at 12:00am — 6 Comments

Book bloggers love Omar Yussef

Since the first of my three Palestinian crime novels was published in early 2007, I haven't been short of terrific reviews in the mainstream media. After all, The New York Times said I'd written "an astonishing debut novel" and every outlet from The Sunday Telegraph to The Sowetan has raved about the books. But I'm always particularly pleased when I get good write-ups on individual book blogs. It makes me see the series is building a grass-roots momentum. So two recent reviews were very… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on August 20, 2009 at 5:25pm — No Comments

Five smokes and a new novel: Klaus Modick’s Writing Life

When my second novel A GRAVE IN GAZA was being translated into German, I received an email from my translator. He had a number of penetrating questions about certain phrases I'd used in the book. He also happened to be the only translator who asked me a question about any of my books (and my work is translated in… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on August 9, 2009 at 8:30pm — 2 Comments

Omar Yussef "the best crime fiction can achieve"

The first rock concert I ever attended was a performance by Canada's greatest rockers Rush. I've loved Canadians ever since. In the London (Ontario) Free Press recently, Joan Barfoot gave me another reason to adore them. She gives a terrific review to the second of my Palestinian crime novels A GRAVE IN GAZA (UK title The Saladin Murders). Of my… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on August 9, 2009 at 8:18pm — No Comments

Omar Yussef in Japan

I'm very proud that my Palestinian crime novels are being published in 22 countries. Just this week I received copies from my Japanese publisher, Random House Kodansha, where THE COLLABORATOR OF BETHLEHEM is just out. They've… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 31, 2009 at 7:40pm — No Comments

“Kill someone soon!” Dan Fesperman’s advice on The Writing Life

Journalists often dream of turning the more dramatic events to which they’ve been witness into fiction. Relatively few do so successfully, and certainly not with the panache of Dan Fesperman. He has stood out from the crowd of journalist-turned-thrillerists since his fabulous debut “Lie in the Dark.” It was based on… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 26, 2009 at 12:26am — No Comments

Forward: Palestinian society, warts and all -- and some mortal danger

Robert Rees (no relation) writes about my books in this week's edition of The Forward. Admirably Rob read all three of the books before passing judgment, and a good review it is (as well as an interview, because we spoke for some time on Rob's recent visit to Jerusalem). "Rees has created an award-winning crime series which provides a view of Palestinian society, warts and all, not previously available to a wider public," he… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 23, 2009 at 5:15pm — No Comments

Donate my books to Gaza

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs is organizing donations of books to libraries and schools in the Gaza Strip. I'm delighted to learn that my Palestinian crime novels are included on the list, which I should add includes works by many of my favorite Arab and Muslim writers (I'm a big fan of Tariq Ali's series of novels about Muslim history, in… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 4, 2009 at 8:09pm — 2 Comments

Is the heat getting to me?

I'm taking a break of a couple of weeks between drafts of my latest novel. To clear my head and to allow my body to accustom itself to a step up in desert heat here in Jerusalem (it's hard to concentrate the first day the temperature hits 35 degrees, particularly when you write standing up as I do). So it's good to have reminders of how my novels are establishing themselves on the international thriller and mystery scene.…

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Added by Matt Rees on June 26, 2009 at 6:13pm — 2 Comments

My 5 favorite novels

My second Palestinian crime novel A Grave in Gaza (UK title: The Saladin Murders) is just now published in Holland. The Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant asked me to contribute a list of my five favorite books, or at least those which've had the biggest impact on me as a writer. Here's what I wrote:

Let It Come Down – Paul Bowles

Writers look… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 25, 2009 at 1:17am — No Comments

Watch the Video: A Grave in Gaza

The video blog Watch the Video features the clip I made for the second of my Palestinian crime novels A Grave in Gaza (UK title: The Saladin Murders). The rest of my videos feature on my Youtube channel.

Many writers make promotional videos for their books these days, as you'll see from the Watch the Video site. Most of them are made up largely of still photos and have quite a lot in… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 24, 2009 at 12:27am — No Comments

Thriller Bugbear #69: Plot-Point Techno Madness!

Much as I love Nordic crime fiction, the Europewide megaseller “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson made me want to throw knives like the Swedish chef on The Muppet Show. Why?

Two reasons.

First, the minor reason. Written by a (tragically deceased) Swedish journalist, the book is… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 18, 2009 at 9:05pm — 2 Comments

A living foreign correspondent the most useless thing to media industry -- Reviewing a "Novel of Jihad"

The magazine of Harvard's Nieman Fellowship asked me to write an essay about Jeffrey Fleishman's "Promised Virgins: A Novel of Jihad". I wrote about why international correspondents like me and Fleishman, Cairo bureau chief for the LA Times, turn to novels to express the depth of what we learn about a foreign culture. Here's how the article begins:

Jay Morgan,… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 14, 2009 at 5:59pm — No Comments