Murderous Martyrs - The Bethlehem Murders by Matt Rees --- Book Review (16)

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Omar Yussef teaches history in a UN school for refugee girls in Bethlehem. He’s sick of all the violence he sees around him. This doesn’t make him popular with the local Palestinians, especially the Martyrs Brigades running the land, criminal gunmen really, pretending to be fighters for territorial freedom. When an old student of his, a Christian, is falsely accused of murdering a local Palestinian businessman and being a collaborator of the Israelis, Omar Yussef starts investigating. The Palestinian territories as the setting for a thriller, that is an original idea. The archfiend hiding out in the Nativity Cave of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem where the manger is said to have stood, the final showdown in the Basilica - that has a certain something. The Bethlehem Murders (US title: The Collaborator of Bethlehem) is the first instalment of a series featuring Omar Yussef. He is moulded as an anti-hero. He suffers from the woes his country is experiencing but refuses to let hate govern his thoughts. He’s got friends among Muslims and Christians alike. Although he’s a refugee himself, he teaches his pupils to be free of prejudice and always see the human being, not the religion or nationality. Of course, as a simple school-teacher his range of operation is limited, so the author lets the Chief of Police of Bethlehem be his mate. In this way, he gets access to people and things he wouldn’t otherwise meet. Also, his friends from all walks of life help him when he needs information. The author doesn’t explicitly comment or, God forbid, even preach on the political situation in Palestine, he just lets his characters go about their everyday lives. The Israelis don’t play an active role in the plot (besides shooting at Palestinian houses from whose roofs the Martyrs Brigades have shot at the Israelis), but they’re always present in the background as the Occupying Forces. The dwindling group of Christians in Bethlehem, the cradle, or rather manger, of Christendom, and the ever increasing group of Muslims and the conflicts among these two religious groups are in the foreground. “God knows, if there were no bible and no Koran, how much happier would our troubled little town be?” The Bethlehem Murders is not a political treatise thinly disguised as a thriller. It is a fictitious crime story set in a realistic setting. Story and background are well-balanced. What makes the book a chilling read is the author’s introductory remark, “All the crimes in this book are based on real events in Bethlehem. Though identities and some circumstances have been changed, the killers really killed this way, and those who died are dead just the same.” I doubt that the Omar Yussef thrillers are a great success in Israel or Palestine. The people there only have to open their newspapers, listen to the radio or watch TV and they get crimes 'live'. I can recommend The Bethlehem Murders (I haven’t read the sequels yet) to everyone who likes reading thrillers and who’s interested in what’s going on in Palestine. The following book is set in the Gaza Strip. --- P.S. The first prize for one of the silliest blurbs ever goes to a reviewer from the San Francisco Chronicle who concocted this: “Omar Yussef is a cross between Yasser Arafat and Miss Marple.” --- If you're interested in my other book reviews, click on the green line at the top of the site (Malus Book Reviews)