The official bio: Matt Beynon Rees is the author of the Omar Yussef Mysteries, a series about a Palestinian detective. The first book, The Collaborator of Bethlehem was published in February by Soho Press, which also will publish A Grave in Gaza in February. Born in Newport, Wales, he worked as a journalist in the Middle East for more than a decade and now lives in Jerusalem. The French magazine L'Express dubbed him "the Dashiell Hammett of Palestine" and Colin Dexter called Omar Yussef "a splendid creation".

I reviewed The Collaborator of Bethlehem earlier this year and can attest to it being both a great mystery and an impressive story of modern politics and war. If you have any curiosity at all about about the situation in the Middle East and the relationship between Palestinians and Israelis (and Palestinians and each other) then you must - you must - read this book. The mystery is tight as hell (and very compelling) but more importantly the story of how Palestinians survive and the ways in which they help and hurt each other (regardless of religion) is amazing. I am looking forward to reading and reviewing A Grave in Gaza and will be sure to post about it here.

Here were Matt's favorite reads this year:

The best new read of the year is The Patience of the Spider: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery by Andrea Camilleri, the maestro of the Italian detective novel. It's the eighth in his series about Sicilian sleuth Salvo Montalbano, a fabulous creation and a true cult hero to Italians. When he isn't obsessing about the crime at hand, Montalbano's nearing tears at the quality of the delicious food in his favorite trattoria and enjoying a tempestuous romance with his long-distance girlfriend. Camilleri is, however, not the cheery tour guide type. The Patience of the Spider is the darkest in a series which is becoming increasingly bitter about law, order and politics in Italy. The nicely constructed plot revolves around the kidnapping of a girl from a family which used to be rich. But the heart of the book is the struggle by the aging Montalbano--after a lifetime waging war against the lawlessness and neglect of Sicily--to assert his own faith in the goodness of other human beings. A beautiful novel, full of humour and cultural insight.

The tragically early death of Magdalen Nabb prompted me to reread her lovely classic Death of an Englishman, in which Marshall Guarnaccia attempts to negotiate the trouble waters of the Florence police department and the murder of an English resident of an old palazzo, while in bed with a terrible flu that seems destined to prevent him traveling home to Sicily for Christmas. It truly illustrates what a loss to the mystery world Nabb's premature death was.

Though I naturally like to read new mysteries, it's important for me to read widely in history and culture, partially because I get ideas and context for my own writing, but also because it's good to see just how murderous history really is (as a counterpoint to all those annoying people who like to tell mystery writers that their detectives aren't credible, because no one would ever bump into so many corpses in real life.) Well, to prove just how bloody the world truly is, read The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 by Tim Blanning, a Cambridge professor whose fabulous history gives us everything from the (bloody) world of diplomacy to the (gritty and bloody) life of the ordinary peasant during a fascinating period.

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I reviewed Magdalene Nabb's The Innocent earlier this year and really enjoyed that book. The mystery was captivating but the characters and the setting really put it over the top. (This is just yet another example of everything that Soho Press does so well - their books are really top notch when it comes to showing readers what life is like in overlooked corners around the world.)

And man - do you totally want to read The Patience of the Spider now or what? Just for the parts where he is "nearing tears at the quality of the delicious food in his favorite trattoria" - I love my mysteries with food!

Thanks for stopping by Matt - back tomorrow with Loree Griffin Burns.