The Collaborator Of Bethlehem

The murder of a leader of the Palestinian Martyrs Brigade leads to the arrest of George Saba, a Palestinian Christian accused of collaborating with the Israelis. Omar Yussef, a modest history teacher at a United Nations school in the West Bank, is impelled to investigate the murder to exonerate his former pupil, whom he knows is innocent. As he struggles to save George, Omar Yussef is drawn into a complex plot where it is impossible to tell friend from enemy.

For decades, Omar Yussef has taught history to the children of Bethlehem. When a favourite former pupil, George Saba, is arrested for collaborating with the Israelis in the killing of a Palestinian guerrilla, Yussef is convinced that he has been framed. With George facing imminent execution Yussef sets out to prove his innocence. As Yussef falls foul of his headmaster and the local police chief, time begins to run out for this teacher-turned-detective. His classroom is bombed and members of his family are threatened. But with no one else willing to stand up for the truth, it is up to Omar to act, even as bloodshed and heartbreak surround him.

Arriving to visit his son Ala in the heavily Palestinian neighborhood of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Omar Yussef discovers the beheaded body of one of the boy’s roommates. When Ala is arrested as a suspect, Omar Yussef must investigate to prove his son’s innocence, uncovering a deadly conspiracy of international proportions.

This “absorbing” murder mystery “vividly illustrates daily Palestinian life” (Publishers Weekly). A member of the tiny but ancient Samaritan community has been murdered. The dead man controlled hundreds of millions of dollars of government money. And if the World Bank cannot locate it within the next several days, all aid money to the Palestinians will be cut off. Visiting Nablus, history teacher-turned-sleuth Omar Yussef must solve the murder and find the money, or all of his community will suffer . . . “Yussef, ever the historian, jumps at the chance to visit the Samaritan synagogue and learn more about their beliefs, but he is quickly engulfed in a murder investigation . . . As in The Collaborator of Bethlehem and A Grave in Gaza, Rees not only offers a perceptive look at complex international political issues but also helps us to understand those issues in the context of everyday lives—of Palestinians attempting to dodge bullets coming in all directions (from Israelis but also from rival factions within their own country) and carry on with the business of falling in love, marrying, raising children.”—Booklist, starred review

A groundbreaking work from "Time" magazine's Jerusalem bureau chief combines a dazzling narrative with a bold insight--that the deep divisions within both Israeli and Palestinian societies must be resolved before true peace can be achieved.

'Outstanding... Dark, gripping and often moving.' Economist It is a blistering morning in Gaza, as Omar Yussef struggles along the uneven streets to carry out a school inspection. But when he learns that a fellow teacher has been accused of links to the CIA, and jailed, his suspicions are immediately aroused. And the more Yussef investigates the arrest, the more people seem to be implicated, and the murkier his search for the truth becomes. With the police force, the military and Gaza's most powerful gang all out to silence him, Yussef must face the terrifying realisation that he is no longer fighting to save his colleague - but himself.

Winner IPPY Silver in Mystery and IndieFab Finalist in Mystery and Multicultural Fiction When Rania—the only female Palestinian police detective in the northern West Bank, as well as a young mother in a rural community where many believe women should not have such a dangerous career—discovers the body of a foreign woman on the edge of her village, no one seems to want her look too deeply into what’s happened. But she finds an ally in Chloe—a gay, Jewish-American peace worker with a camera and a big attitude—and together, with the help of an annoying Israeli policeman, they work to solve the murder. As they do, secrets about war crimes and Israel’s thriving sex trafficking trade begin to surface—and Rania finds everything she holds dear in jeopardy. Fast-paced and intricately plotted, Murder Under The Bridge offers mystery lovers an intimate view of one of the most fraught political conflicts on the planet.

A Palestinian P.I. investigates the death of a pregnant Saudi teenager in a mystery that offers “a fascinating glimpse into the workings…of Saudi society” (Publishers Weekly). When sixteen-year-old Nouf ash-Shrawi goes missing, her prominent family calls on desert guide Nayir al-Sharqi to lead a search party. Ten days later, Nouf’s body is discovered. The coroner determines that she was several weeks pregnant. But even more unsettling is that she died not of dehydration but from drowning. Though her family is suspiciously uninterested in getting at the truth, Nayir is determined to find out what happened. Now Nayir, a gentle and pious Palestinian living in Saudi Arabia, must delve into Nouf’s secret life—no easy task in one of the world’s most rigidly gender-segregated societies. Shocked by the idea of a woman baring her face and working in public, Nayir realizes that to gain access to the hidden world of Saudi women, he will have to join forces with Katya Hijazi, a lab worker at the coroner’s office. As their partnership leads to surprising revelations, it also challenges Nayir, bringing him face to face with his desire for female companionship and the limitations imposed by his beliefs.