Matt Rees's Blog – July 2009 Archive (29)

International Noir: Contrast to hardboiled environs gives Omar edge

The blog International Noir Fiction describes my series of Omar Yussef Mysteries as creating a "comedie humaine" for the Palestinians. It's a great review of the third of my novels THE SAMARITAN'S SECRET by a reviewer… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 11, 2009 at 5:07pm — No Comments

Review: Crime fiction's first PI Pig

The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke

published by The Friday Project isbn 1906321752

Seeing his brothers' houses blown down by the Big Bad Wolf ("I'll huff and I'll puff...") taught Harry Pigg to build his own house out of bricks, thus avoiding the grisly fate of the first and second pigs. The nursery rhyme carries a lesson for all little… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 10, 2009 at 1:43am — No Comments

Great new International Crime Fiction blog

My good pal Christopher G. Moore -- who shares with me a birthday today -- came up with a great idea for a new blog on international crime fiction. Chris, who writes a gritty, stylishly literate series of crime novels set in Bangkok, wanted to set up a blog where several authors of international crime would come together to write about their work and share ideas. The result is online as of today: International Crime Authors Reality Check.… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 8, 2009 at 10:08pm — No Comments

Review: New Liss mystery for lovers of Dumas and Perez Reverte

The Devil’s Company

By David Liss

Published: July 7, 2009 Random House isbn: 1400064198

Fans of swashbuckling classics by Alexandre Dumas and more recently Spaniard Arturo Perez-Reverte will love David Liss’s new novel The Devil’s Company. But they’ll also get something those authors don’t provide: a gritty… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 7, 2009 at 7:25pm — No Comments

Review: The blood and ghosts of Belfast

The Twelve by Stuart Neville

Harvill Secker (July 2, 2009 isbn: 1846552796)

(to be published in US in October as “The Ghosts of Belfast”, Soho Crime isbn: 1569476004)

Things that seemed clear enough to kill for during a conflict become impossible to look at once the murdering is at an end. Anyone who’s lived through a war or a time of terrorism could… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 5, 2009 at 6:10pm — 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

Israelis riot, thanks be to God

Orthodox Jews face off against secularists in the Holy Land — a sign that all is well. By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost

JERUSALEM — Ultra-orthodox Jews have been rioting the last few weeks against a parking lot the municipality wants to leave open during the Jewish Sabbath, leading to dozens of arrests and quite a few moderate to… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 4, 2009 at 5:27pm — No Comments

Photos of the Jerusalem you don't read about in the newspaper

My friend Ilan Mizrahi has published a wonderful book of his photos about Jerusalem -- not the conventional Jerusalem of suicide bombs and the Dome of the Rock and praying Hassids (though he covers that, too). Ilan, who was born just down the road from where I now live and is as "Jerusalem" as they come, aims to capture a side of the city populated by the poor, the drug abusers, the beggars: the scavengers who make it a real place, one that's more interesting than anything you'd ever imagine… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 3, 2009 at 5:28pm — No Comments

Poets central to Palestinian culture

My favorite Palestinian poet is Taha Muhammad Ali, a quietly bumbling presence when he reads his poems, but a deceptively intelligent writer. The warmth and intelligence of Taha’s readings drove Adina Hoffman, a Jerusalem-based writer, to plan a biography of the poet (… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 1, 2009 at 5:52pm — 2 Comments