An Omar Yussef Mystery Series

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.

The third installment in the CWA Dagger–winning series featuring Palestinian schoolteacher-detective Omar Yussef.
 
The Samaritan community in Palestine is tiny but ancient—only about six hundred people still adhere to this faith, an offshoot of Judaism, and now one of them has been murdered. The crime has even larger implications, though, as the dead man controlled hundreds of millions of dollars of government money. If the World Bank cannot locate it within the next several days, all aid to the Palestinians will be cut off. Visiting the isolated Samaritan community at Nablus in the West Bank, history teacher-turned-sleuth Omar Yussef must solve the murder and find the money for the sake of all Palestine.

Omar Yussef must confront the dark side of Gaza—corruption, bribery, murder, and kidnapping—in his struggle to free an innocent man and honor the dead.
 
Omar and his boss, Magnus, travel to the Gaza Strip to inspect the UN schools in the Gaza refugee camps. The trip is just a routine visit, but upon their arrival, they meet James Cree, the UN security officer for Gaza, who tells them that a teacher at one of their schools has been imprisoned for allegedly spying. As they try to free the teacher and manage the explosive political situation, they find themselves in a dangerous confrontation with Gaza’s warring government factions and the local criminal gangs.

“Matt Rees has taken a complex world of culture clash and suspicion and placed upon it humanity.”—David Baldacci

Omar Yussef has taught history in Bethlehem for decades. When a favorite former student, a member of the Palestinian Christian minority, is arrested for collaborating with the Israelis in the killing of a Palestinian guerrilla—a transgression with an inevitable death sentence—Omar is sure he has been framed. When Omar begins to suspect the head of the Bethlehem al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is the true collaborator, he and his family are threatened, but since no one else will stand up to the violent Martyrs Brigades who hold power over the city, it is up to him to investigate.