Matt Rees's Blog (318)

NPR on crime fiction

Wisconsin Public Radio airs a full hour discussing contemporary crime fiction. It's mainly an interview with the best crime fiction blogger, Peter Rozovsky, whose Detectives Beyond Borders is a fabulous read, full of information and sound opinions. The radio show focuses on "noir" -- which Peter defines more convincingly than anyone I've heard before as fiction in… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on August 7, 2009 at 1:05am — 1 Comment

The Last Man in London

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

During my teens, my family lived in a house in Addington, at the very farthest reach of South London. At the bottom of the hill, the road made its final exit from London. Not quite wide enough for two cars, it traveled onto the North Downs of Kent. Sometimes I would ride my bike along the lane and up a hill overlooking the Downs and lie on the grass. I… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on August 6, 2009 at 4:44pm — 2 Comments

A bloated, stinking mass of Ariel Sharon

The aptly-named Ariel Sharon Park

Opinion: Israel’s biggest garbage dump is being redeveloped — and renamed.

By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost

TEL AVIV — A bloated, stinking mass that everyone would have preferred not to have to see, but which nonetheless was thrust upon them. A sight that shamed the people of Israel and ought to have been marginalized, but which was… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on August 6, 2009 at 4:38pm — 2 Comments

Poetry from the ‘driest’ book of the Bible: Yakov Azriel’s Writing Life

A few years ago I was at a literary conference near Tel Aviv. I found an eclectic mix of writers on the panel with me. I’m a crime writer. You wouldn’t expect me to be paired with a writer of poetry who takes his inspiration from the stories of the Bible. But as Yakov Azriel read his poetry, I sat beside him… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on August 5, 2009 at 8:12pm — No Comments

A Gripping Read, or Gripping Your Read

I’m delighted to present a guest blogger today whose terrific new novel STOP ME is out tomorrow. Richard Jay Parker was born in the same South Wales town as me, just around the corner from where my parents now live. In our different ways, clearly, the mean streets of Newport shaped… Continue

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

The Snow Queen of Crime: Monica Kristensen’s Writing Life

On a recent trip to Oslo, I lunched with my publisher there Hakan Haket and an astonishingly fascinating local crime writer named Monica Kristensen. Extraordinarily charismatic, she has a trove of stories unlike anything one tends to come across in typical… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on August 3, 2009 at 1:36am — No Comments

Just like the (good?) old days

With US diplomats roaming the streets of Jerusalem, it's like the intifada never happened.

By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost

JERUSALEM — It’s like the intifada never happened.

American diplomats mobbed the streets of Jerusalem this week. Even Iran point man Dennis Ross, whose sad-sack demeanor was a frequent feature of the Oslo peace… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on August 1, 2009 at 1:28am — 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

Language textbooks and the crime writer

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

You can tell a great deal about a people from the conversations in language textbooks. After all, they aim to teach you the words people speak, but also the character of those teaching them and what it might be like to live in their society.

I first cottoned to this when I learned Spanish. My textbook included a basic conversation between a… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 30, 2009 at 8:55pm — No Comments

Win a copy of my book

I've been writing for a new blog founded by me and three other crime writers. One of them, the ever-inventive Christopher G. Moore, came up with the idea for a competition. He got the idea after I suggested in a blog post last week that my Palestinian detective character Omar Yussef ought to stand for Palestinian president. Here's what Chris wrote on the blog and how to enter:

A Contest for Readers of The International Crime Authors… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 30, 2009 at 8:52pm — No Comments

The ex-husband’s trenchcoat and Zoe Ferraris’s Writing Life

Fiction—and lately in particular crime fiction—can take us deep into alien cultures, through the emotions of the characters who act as our guides, translators and social commentators. The more alien the culture, the bigger the challenge to a Western author. Zoe Ferraris took on Saudi Arabia, one of the most closed cultures… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 28, 2009 at 10:12pm — 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

Omar Yussef for President of Palestine!

My latest post on the International Crime Authors Reality Check blog:

Unlike the Palestinians (who don’t have one), Palestinian politics is in a real state. A civil war that’s been bubbling and sometimes burning for two years plus. No government in Gaza because Hamas, which rules there, is isolated. Accusations by a top PLO official that current Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had his predecessor Yasser Arafat… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 24, 2009 at 7:28pm — No Comments

So what, and who, really killed Arafat?

Poison? By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Yasser Arafat’s body lies in the back of the presidential compound, beyond the parking lot, in a mausoleum of stone and glass. Two guards in ceremonial uniforms that seem out of place in the camouflaged guerrilla world of Palestinian militias watch over the angled stone marking the… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 24, 2009 at 12:13am — 1 Comment

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

Bruno in Jerusalem

It's hard enough to get around the notorious Ein el-Hilweh Refugee Camp in Lebanon at the best of times. I can testify to that, having had a few sweaty-palmed visits to the place myself to interview the hardline Palestinian gunmen who rule the camp. Try doing it after calling on the head of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to eschew beards which "don't look good on your King Osama" and while dressed as "Austria's greatest gay superstar since… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 22, 2009 at 11:53pm — No Comments

Clitoris follows vagina on Cotterill blog

I've joined up with a few other crime writers to fill a single blog, International Crime Authors Reality Check, with original content. Last week Colin Cotterill wrote about his attempt to get a "vagina" into the title of one of his novels. This week, Colin has a hilarious post about his bemusing appearance at the Crime Writers Association's Daggers dinner -- at which Colin was… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 20, 2009 at 10:47pm — No Comments

Dessert wars in the West Bank

It isn't only McDonald's that offers to supersize its food. In the most violent town in the West Bank, the local specialty is a hot cheese and syrup dessert called qanafi. Last month a Nablus baker made a qanafi that weighed 1,300 kg (1.3 tonnes). After the townspeople recovered from the sugar rush, a real estate developer put together a team this weekend to make a 1,700 kg qanafi that was 74 yards long.

The intention is to repair the image of a city damaged by nine years as the most… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 20, 2009 at 1:44am — No Comments

As The (Palestinian) World Turns

Searching for a new script to get Hamas and Fatah to cooperate.

By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Soap operas usually block out scenes with two cameras, one for each of the glaring opponents. The editor switches between each actor as they snarl and sneer. As for the plot, you can tune in every few months and… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 19, 2009 at 4:45pm — No Comments

Gimme a Break Dept. #89: He looked like a movie star!

Earlier this week I noted that I dislike writers describing a character as looking like a particular movie star. I cited a few examples from Elmore Leonard (which touched some nerves among fans of the Great Detroit Coolster) and one from Dan Brown. Now I bring you a real corker from The New Yorker.

The magazine's latest issue (at least the latest one to get through the Israeli postal… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 18, 2009 at 8:52pm — No Comments