Matt Rees's Blog - Posts Tagged "readings"

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 publishing guru Scott Pack goes one better. Public appearances by writers. With no readings. And no questions about...books.

The idea, as Scott explains here, is to get writers talking about their life and interests outside their books. Ultimately of course I think that'll take them back to their books. But it's a great way to refresh the rather tired world of literary events. For more on Scott's plan, look at his blog.

I'll be talking about my Palestinian crime novels in Jerusalem on Monday, Nov. 16 at 10 a.m. The location is Beit Frankforter, 80 Bethlehem Road, in Baka. So call in sick (if you still have a job) and come along.

I’m always looking for a good spot in which to kill someone. Still, as a crime writer, I rarely have to ask about potential locations for a good murder. People are keen to suggest that the blood be spilled on their doorstep.

Most recently, it was a pastor and his wife.

To be fair, they actually said I ought to have my Palestinian detective Omar Yussef visit their church on the top of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where I live. But when I noted admiringly that it’d be a great place for a murder, they nodded and smiled in agreement.

Last week I visited the Augusta Victoria Compound on the Mount of Olives as a guest of the delightful Ulrike Wohlrab and her husband, Michael, the pastor of the Church of the Ascension. The compound, which was built to accommodate Kaiser Wilhelm II’s visit to Jerusalem in 1898 and named after his wife, is home to the second-biggest hospital in East Jerusalem, as well as Michael’s church. It’s also a meeting place for Germans in the city.

The idea behind my visit was for me to give my own little sermon on the mount – a talk about my Omar Yussef crime novels, which have been particularly well-received in Germany. But the discussion soon turned to murder…

“Omar Yussef hasn’t been to Jerusalem yet,” Michael said. “He ought to come here to the Augusta Victoria.”

It’s true that Omar has so far solved mysteries in Bethlehem, Gaza, Nablus and (coming in February) New York. My intention is for him to hit Jerusalem next and Augusta Victoria is a real center of the Palestinian community.

The symbolism of the Mount of Olives would be hard to resist as a setting for an Omar Yussef Mystery. Starting at the far end of the ridge, there’s the Mosque of the Ascension, a simple structure of Crusader origin with (so it’s said) the imprint of Jesus’s last footprint in the stone from which he launched off over Bethany en route for his seat at God’s right hand. (It’s a mosque because, though Jesus’s ascension isn’t mentioned in the Koran, Muslims believe in it. The Crusader building was improved upon in Saladin’s time by some of his followers.)

Moving along the hill with the golden Dome of the Rock across the valley on your left, you reach the Church of the Ascension (the Russian Orthodox version) with its tall slim tower and nuns bound in all-black wimples.

Next is the German Protestant church, which has some of the most striking mosaics you’ll ever see – featuring a massive Kaiser Wili on the ceiling, of course. Keep going and with only a slight dip in the road you’re onto Mount Scopus and the Hebrew University. (I’ll have to leave that out of my mystery novel. Batya Gur’s already been there.)

I always warn people that inclusion in my books may not work out so well for them. One of my friends, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem who runs a book shop, asked me over coffee a while back if he could be a character in one of my novels.

“Sure, but I may have to kill you,” I said.

“Okay. Just make it quick,” he replied.

I can’t say yet quite how the German pastor and his wife will feature in my Omar Yussef series. I must confess that I don’t think I’ll have the heart to kill them. They’re too nice.

I must be going soft.

(I posted this on International Crime Authors Reality Check, a joint blog I write with Christopher G. Moore, Barbara Nadel, and Colin Cotterill. Check it out.)

Award-winning crime writer Matt Beynon Rees reads from THE FOURTH ASSASSIN, his new novel, Feb. 2 in New York.

The fourth installment in Matt's Crime Writers Association Dagger-winning series about Palestinian sleuth Omar Yussef is published Feb. 1. In New York for a UN conference, Omar uncovers an assassination plot. The suspect: his own son. Omar's most personal investigation so far.

Matt will read from the book Feb. 2 at 7 p.m.
Location: Partners & Crime bookstore, 44 Greenwich Avenue (note, it's on Greenwich Avenue, not Greenwich Street), in Greenwich Village, NYC

Matt Beynon Rees is the award-winning author of the Omar Yussef series. A prize-winning journalist, he has reported for 14 years from the Middle East for Time, Newsweek and British newspapers. His novels have been translated into 23 languages. He lives in Jerusalem.

Read more about THE FOURTH ASSASSIN. Watch a video about the book. Order it from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk. For publicity contact Grace McQuade (212) 446-5101 gmcquade@goldbergmcduffie.com

As an introduction to my Caravaggio novel A NAME IN BLOOD, here's a short story about an incident in the artist's life that was very striking to me, but which didn't fit with the narrative of the novel. In "Lazarus's Brush" Caravaggio flees the men who seek to kill him and arrives in Sicily. He's commissioned to paint the raising of Lazarus. The result teaches him about his fears of the violence that stalks him -- but more than that it represents a profound change in his artistic technique, inspiring him as an artist in the face of desperate circumstances.

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My award-winning first novel was THE COLLABORATOR OF BETHLEHEM (UK title: THE BETHLEHEM MURDERS). Set against the backdrop of the Palestinian intifada, it tells the story of schoolteacher Omar Yussef, who is forced to take on the violence of his hometown to save a former pupil. In this podcast, I lay out how I came to write the book and read from the first chapter.

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The ninth installment of a FREE crime thriller in serial form. Matt reads his psychological thriller DEAD EVERY DAY. Ellis Callan is a history professor stricken by post-traumatic stress disorder from his time as a Marine in Iraq. He’s caught up in a mystery surrounding the murders of three women around him. In this installment Callan becomes dependent on the Tranquillax drug to fight off his memories of Iraq. He starts to think he's being followed. He wonders if he can trust his sister's former assistant, even as he sleeps with her. A bad girl, a bad pill, and you’re Dead Every Day. Get Matt’s FREE ebook too.



Get the Podcast: Download the MP3
Subscribe on iTunes Listen on Stitcher.

The tenth installment of a FREE thriller in serial form. Award-winning crime novelist Matt Rees reads his psychological thriller DEAD EVERY DAY. Ellis Callan is a history professor stricken by post-traumatic stress disorder from his time as a Marine in Iraq. He’s caught up in a mystery surrounding the murders of three women around him. In this installment Callan finds himself pursued by two mysterious men and learns that his ex-girlfriend was working on a disturbing news story when she was murdered. A bad girl, a bad pill, and you’re Dead Every Day. Get Matt’s FREE ebook too.

Get the Podcast: Download the MP3
Subscribe on iTunes Listen on Stitcher.



Get a FREE ebook of my crime stories.
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The eleventh installment of a FREE thriller in serial form. Matt reads his psychological thriller DEAD EVERY DAY. Ellis Callan is a history professor stricken by post-traumatic stress disorder from his time as a Marine in Iraq. He’s caught up in a mystery surrounding the murders of three women around him. In this installment Callan takes refuge with his dead sister's boss, a psychiatrist. The shrink suggests Callan might be schizophrenic. Then someone comes to get him...A bad girl, a bad pill, and you’re Dead Every Day. Get Matt’s FREE ebook too.

Get the Podcast: Download the MP3
Subscribe on iTunes Listen on Stitcher.



Get a FREE ebook of my crime stories.