The Bethlehem Murders: An Omar Youssef Novel by Matt Rees

The Bethlehem Murders: An Omar Youssef Novel by Matt Rees (2008)
Read: March 2010

I bought this over Christmas too in the same batch as The Sphinx. When I was looking for The Sphinx on Amazon I had a list of "other people who liked this bought..." and this book was on there. It was billed as a detective-type novel, by a new writer, but set, very realistically apparently in Palestine and around Gaza.Sounds good to me, so I add it to the cart.

It's really very good this book. I got right into it straight away and almost had to slow myself down when reading it, so that I could keep enjoying it for longer. The story of the crime-to-be-solved by local-turned-detective isn't what is most gripping about this, but the setting and the character. I really feel that I know more about life in Palestine as the book is full of detailed, but not over-burndered descriptions of daily life there. In the book you see the people, hear them, see the scared landscape, feel part of their lives. You witness the small parts of life, like Omar Yussef's love of his wife's food and her concern to recieve every phonecall from her husband, you also witness corruption and confusion between rival gangs patrolling the areas and a police force that is trying to police an unsustainable situation.

I knew from the first few chapters that I would be buying more of these, and so now have ordered the three other books written in the series. It's reassuring that others have written about these books saying that they are well representative of life / society in Palestine.