Matt Rees's Blog (318)

Really, real fiction... and Welsh detectives

The new blog I've started with fellow crime writers Christopher G. Moore, Colin Cotterill and Barbara Nadel has a new post from me today. It's about why I came to write so-called genre fiction. It starts like this:

Writers have it all wrong. They think they need to learn about other writers. I studied English literature at Oxford University and I read all I could find of the sort of literary criticism that makes a novel seem like a piece of East German economic analysis. Three years… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 16, 2009 at 9:10pm — 3 Comments

Elmore Leonard's 11th Rule of Writing

I’ve always enjoyed Elmore Leonard’s novels and seen him as one of the true stylists of popular fiction. In a review, I even described my pal Christopher G. Moore as the “Elmore Leonard of Bangkok” and I meant it as a compliment. But I have a bone to pick with the great Elmore.

I just read a book of Elmore’s short stories from 2004 titled “When the Women Come Out to Dance.” In many ways it’s superb. The… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 15, 2009 at 10:59pm — 13 Comments

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

“What happened to the third little pig, Daddy?”: Bob Burke on pig detectives and his Writing Life

Anyone who’s perused the crime fiction section of their bookstore knows the joy of finding something original among the tired old shelves of loner detectives who play by their own rules on the mean streets of some dingy inner city. The clichés of the genre were uppermost in my mind when I chose to write about Omar… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 14, 2009 at 8:59pm — 2 Comments

Rabbis: No pie for Jesus!

Her methods may be kosher, but in Israel baker Pnina Konforti faces a bigger commercial obstacle: She's a Messianic Jew.

By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPost

GAN YAVNEH, Israel — I always thought that by following kosher laws religious Jews only missed out on certain flavors and debatable delicacies. Turns out that by turning their back on “treyf”… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 13, 2009 at 4:57pm — No Comments

Ingenious book readings: Just don't mention books!

In his terrific book "On Writing" Stephen King notes that he once asked Amy Tan what she's NEVER asked about at public readings. "They never ask about the writing," Tan tells him. Which spurs King to write a book about exactly that.

Now controversial UK… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 12, 2009 at 7:13pm — No Comments

Washington Report: Omar Yussef novels 'rich in intellectual complexity'

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs has a forthcoming review praising my series of Palestinian crime novels "rich not only in character but in intellectual complexity." I blush to report that WRMEA Managing editor Janet McMahon and Don Neff, a famed predecessor of mine as Jerusalem bureau chief for Time Magazine, say I'm "a wonderfully subtle writer with a deep understanding of Palestinians and their culture." Well, actually I haven't blushed since I… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 12, 2009 at 7:01pm — No Comments

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

Culture and harshness in Central Europe: Adam Lebor's Writing Life

Political writing at its best highlights the unexpected changes in parts of our world that are hidden to us. That’s true of writing about the corridors of power in our own capital cities, but it’s even more of a factor for a writer like Adam Lebor whose work – fiction and nonfiction – has captured the dynamism and double-dealing… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 29, 2009 at 5:55pm — No Comments

Hot Reading in East Jerusalem!

This weekend I was the guest of Munther Fahmi, who runs the excellent bookshop at the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem, for a reading from my newest Palestinian crime novel THE SAMARITAN'S SECRET. Munther and I have been scheming for some time to organize an event,… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 28, 2009 at 9:05pm — No Comments

When poets do the talking

A new book examines the lives of Palestinian poets

By Matt Beynon Rees - on GlobalPost

JERUSALEM — Whenever Palestinian and Israeli artists get together for public “dialogues,” it always seems to end with the Israelis saying, “We’re sorry,” and… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 27, 2009 at 4:10pm — No 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