The Bent Page

I just finished reading The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt Beynon Rees. I don’t read much detective or mystery fiction these days but this one caught my eye. It’s set in present day Palestine and the protagonist is a hard-luck school teacher named Omar Yussef. One of his former students from years ago is accused of collaboration and Yussef sets off to clear his name. There are very few good guys in this book, only people with more or less evil in their hearts. Yussef is much better drawn than any of the Marlowe-type characters I’ve read. The bad guys don’t have much good in them but they have complicated motives that keeps them interesting and multi-dimensional.

The best part about this book is the way Rees weaves the plot through the looming presence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His character Yussef is not so much stuck on one side or the other as he is caught in the middle. The book never preaches, nor does it come down against anything but the debilitating violence that never lets up.

The book also peers into the darker side of the various factions, how they operate businesses Mafia-style, how they intimidate everyone. Yussef sticks up for himself and others when he can. Sometimes he succeeds, most times he does not. And that brings me to the toughest part, there is no happy ending as much as there is a bit of justice.

Rees deserves all the accolades he received for this book. He writes better than the top-sellers in the genre. I only wish the book was a little longer with a bit more detail.