About
I'm the award-winning author of ten crime novels and a book of nonfiction. Born in Wales, I worked as a journalist in Washington, New York and Jerusalem. The lawlessness of the intifada gave me the setting for my first four novels about a Palestinian detective called Omar Yussef. The first of these, The Collaborator of Bethlehem (UK title: The Bethlehem Murders), won the Crime Writers Association New Blood Dagger. Two of those books have been dramatised by BBC Radio. I have written several historical mysteries -- about Mozart and Caravaggio -- and thrillers set in the Middle East and the US. My 2016 novel The Ambassador, set in Berlin in 1938, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award for fiction.
Featured Work
Mozart's Last Aria
It’s 1791 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is enlightenment Vienna’s brightest star. But six weeks ago, the great composer told his wife he had been poisoned. Now he’s dead. Wolfgang’s sister Nannerl returns from the provinces to investigate his death. She finds traces of something sinister: a Masonic conspiracy that reaches from the gilded ballrooms of Viennese society to the faceless offices of the Imperial secret service. Only when watching Wolfgang’s bewitching opera The Magic Flute does Nannerl truly understand her beloved brother. For, encoded in his final arias, she detects a subtly crafted blueprint that Mozart hoped would create a radical new future. Did it seal his fate instead?
Other Works
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China Strike
2017
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The Damascus Threat
2016
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The Ambassador
2015
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A Name in Blood
2012
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The Fourth Assassin
2010
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The Samaritan's Secret
2009
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A Grave in Gaza
2008
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The Collaborator of Bethlehem
2007
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Cain's Field: Faith, Fratricide and Fear in the Middle East
2004
Awards and Recognition
- US Jewish National Book Award for Fiction: shortlisted for The Ambassador 2015
- Crime Writers Association John Creasey New Blood Dagger: for The Bethlehem Murders (US title, The Collaborator of Bethlehem) 2008
Press and Media Mentions
- "A beautiful book illuminated by the author’s own musical background that moves slowly and deliberately to a fine conclusion." Kirkus Reviews, on Mozart's Last Aria
- "This series kickoff by the author of the Omar Yussef thrillers (The Fourth Assassin, 2010, etc.) keeps the action and the close calls coming and tucks colorful characters into unexpected corners. Crackerjack entertainment." Kirkus Reviews, on The Damascus Threat
- "Over the course of an engrossing investigation conducted by a Palestinian-born New York detective, Yussef is educated in the harsh views of Arabs in some quarters of the city and exposed to the simmering anger of young Arabs like his son. Even more distressing, he sees how his Middle Eastern brethren have brought to America the same animosities that made them bad neighbors back home." The New York Times, on The Fourth Assassin
- "A Palestinian detective is something new, and this year you couldn't do better than read Matt Rees's thriller The Bethlehem Murders (Atlantic Books). If Simenon gives you canal-side France and Henning Mankell a desolating Sweden, then Rees wants you to experience the West Bank in all its complexity and despair. The story of Omar Yussef, an elderly teacher fighting to maintain his own idea of integrity while solving a brutal murder, restores detective fiction to its most powerful origins: the lone moral hero in the chaos of the world." David Hare in The Guardian, on The Bethlehem Murders
- "Rees excels in capturing the essence of Palestine, from the claustrophobic casbah with its myriad scents to the harsh beauty of the countryside. Rees vividly illustrates daily Palestinian life, where violence is a constant threat and religious attitudes permeate each decision." Publishers Weekly, on The Samaritan's Secret
- "Throughout these vignettes, Rees provides insight into the role that art and artists can play in humanizing the conflict, and does not allow the brutal nature of the conflict to blind him to the dark humor of both peoples. His deep sympathy for both sides infuses his book with real vitality." Publishers Weekly, on Cain's Field: Faith, Fratricide and Fear in the Middle East
