Product Description

This A-format paperback of "The Saladin Murders", the second Omar Yussef mystery, continues to build a major new crime franchise: 'Morse, Rebus and now Yussef' - "Observer".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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30614 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 340 pages

Review
"* 'Omar Yussef is a splendid creation.' Colin Dexter, creator of Inspector Morse 'the next big sleuth in crime fiction' (Independent) - to a wide audience"

The Economist 3/4/2008
In its vivid portrayal of the violence and degradation of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, Matt Rees's second book, "The Saladin Murders", is outstanding. His hero, Omar Yussef, a Bethlehem schoolteacher, is a recovering alcoholic in his fifties, physically frail but possessed of a steely moral core. At the start of the book he is sent to Gaza on an apparently straightforward school inspection. When a fellow teacher is arrested as a CIA spy by the sinister Palestinian security forces, Yussef ignores advice to leave. He is quickly drawn into a deadly game where disputes are settled by gun battles and car bombs. Brutal, corrupt warlords torture and murder at will, while the khamsin, the hot, dusty desert wind, blows hard, turning the sky yellow and filling the air with choking sand. The Israelis barely feature in this dark, gripping and often moving book. Gaza, it seems, is a hell in large part of the Palestinians' own making.

Tribune
As good as its predecessor... Rees vividly evokes a sense of place; more than a setting, Gaza is a character in its own right and we see, hear and smell the terror and squalor that is daily life for its inhabitants... This is another splendid novel from an author of real talent.

Customer Reviews

Topical thriller
Matt Rees' second Omar Yussef novel, sees the Palestinian school teacher turned detective caught up in the turmoil of Gaza.

How true are the surroundings to the tale? For Rees paints a bleak picture of competing militia and their disregard for fellow countrymen, in an area that he used to work in.

Yussef is an interesting character, in his fifties, a respectful family man, unsure of Islam and its fundamentalists, most of whom are bloodthirsty and just want a piece of each other let alone a piece of the Israeli's.

That said, it's an intriguing topical thriller, worth the marks alone for daring to set what seems a plausible and believeable character amidst the mayhem of Gaza.

Worth a try.

Omar Yussef does it again!
A great read - to match that of Matt's first novel, "The Bethlehem Murders". It's a book that's hard to put down because of its pace and activity, but at the same time 'brings home' some of the reality of life (if one can call it living) in Gaza. Being a senior citizen myself, retired form the world of education, I find it most engaging to follow the activities of Omar Yussef who is also getting on in years! I would recommend this book unreservedly to any reader.

Revealingly disappointing follow-up?
I read and enjoyed The Bethlehem Murders, and was disappointed when this book just gave me the same stuff again, but without any of the first's emotion. Instead of being dragged unwillingly into intrigue and violence, our super non-hero now actively seeks it. His political musings seem suddenly fatigued, whilst the little niceties of language and customs - so atmospheric in the first novel - now appear affected and, frankly, irritating. Bottom line, I don't like him any more. Still a reasonable story, but it's a bit worrying for the scenario to feel so tired so early in a "series".