A nicely designed mystery story - Rated 
The main character in this crime novel is Omar Yussef. He's been a history teacher in Bethlehem for many years and enjoys keeping up with his former students. When one of his former students, George Saba, is arrested for collaborating with the Israelis in the killing of a Palestinian guerrilla, Louai Abdel Rahman, it comes as a shock for Omar Yussef. George Saba, a member of the Palestinian Christian minority faces the possibility of execution if he is not cleared of the charges.
The situation becomes more complex for Omar Yussef when another of his former students, Dima, the wife of the murdered man, is herself murdered. He begins to suspect the head of the local al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade is the true collaborator. No one else is willing to stand up to the Martyrs' Brigade who seem to hold the real power in town. Yussef is on his own to investigate and find the truth.
The plot is very carefully devised. It's a first novel by Matt Beynon Rees who based the story on actual occurrences he covered as a journalist during the second Intifada. The story is part war story, part political thriller and a murder mystery. Omar Yussef becomes a hero not through his actions, but by keeping an open mind about the situations happening around him. The background of the action is interesting too: the conflicts between Christians and Muslims in Palestine.
The 40th Anniversary of the Six Day War - Rated
It is very refreshing to finally find a book written from the Palestinian perspective. Most readers would have little idea about life in the suffocating camps. I particularly liked the descriptions of the Israelis as the "Occupation Forces", coming at night to wreak random violence with their radios sqwaking an alien language. I also had no idea about the influence of clans in Palestinian politics. My one complaint is, naturally enough, it's all rather bleak. But I can't blame the author for that.
Very Good Debut - Rated
I've been waiting for years for the crime genre to enter the Arab world -- other than a handful by Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra, there's nothing out there (at least in English translation). So, it was with great anticipation I picked up Welsh journalist Rees' Bethlehem-set book starring middle-aged schoolteacher Omar Yussef. Fortunately, despite prose that gets a little too florid at times, and a rather clunky "mystery", the book largely succeeds in bringing the detective genre to a new setting. (A note of warning: those who do not want to face the reality of how the Israeli occupation of the West Bank negatively affects daily life will probably not want to read this. Similarly, those who do not want to face the reality of Palestinian factionalism, pervasive corruption, and intercinine bloodshed, will find this a trying read. All of these elements come to the fore and are critical to the plot, as Rees attempts to ground his story in the daily struggle of non-combatant Palestinians to live a normal life.)
The story begins with the betrayal of a Palestinian guerilla to an Israeli hit squad by an unseen Palestinian collaborator. At his funeral, his widow reveals a rather significant clue as to the identity of the titular collaborator to her former schoolteacher, Yussef. However, she soon turns up dead before her evidence can be reported to anyone. Meanwhile, another former student, a Christian who emigrated to Chile and recently returned, is accused of being the collaborator. Certain that his ex-student is innocent and being accused solely due to his religion, Yussef embarks on an amateur sleuthing quest to clear his name which puts him in direct conflict with the "Martyr's Brigade" militia which is the de facto power in town.
While on indefinite leave from his teaching position, the former alcoholic Yussef pokes and prods around Bethlehem and its Dehaisha refugee camp, piecing together little bits of information. The one major flaw in the plotting is that he makes a very major erroneous assumption about the clue the widow gives him, and anyone who's lived in the Arab world will spot it immediately. This wouldn't be that bad, except that Yussef spends a good portion of the book berating others for making assumptions... However, on the whole, he is an engaging character and the book does an excellent job of showing why those who wish peace and follow their conscience have a rough time of it in the Arab-Israeli conflict and how hysteria and mob rule generally carry the day. I'll definitely be reading the next in the series.
Loved it - Rated 
I absolutely loved this. I found it gripping, moving, well-written, thought-provoking, well-balanced, original and most of all unputdownable. It's one of those reads where the characters live on long after you've finished it. I can't wait for the next one!
So if intelligent, accessible and satifying crime with a dash of current affairs is your thing then read this!
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