My part in saving the environment

[Matt Rees]

I like to do my bit to help the effort to save our planet. Last week in Rome my wife and I confronted a brand new recycling program which, mainly, seemed to consist of workmen loading enormous amounts of bottles into their tiny dump truck outside our window at 5 a.m. We cheered them on and put our bottles in the right bin. Unbeknownst to me, my Palestinian crime novels also played a part in the Copenhagen climate summit by providing solace and welcome distraction to Jim Prentice, the Canadian Environment Minister. In the National Post, Jim writes: "Ian Rankin is always reliable, and his latest book, Doors Open, is a good yarn. More recently, I have turned to new writers like Matt Beynon Rees, the former Jerusalem bureau chief for Time. He has introduced me to his series detective, Omar Yussef, and a new setting: the Middle East. My favourites, The Collaborator of Bethlehem and, currently, A Grave in Gaza, are hard to put down." You see, even if you're about to try to save the planet alongside the world's other Environment honchos, it's still hard to take a break from reading my books. As Canada's environment is one of the loveliest in the world, I'm rather pleased about this. Thanks for reading, Jim.