The Collaborator of Bethlehem. Brief critique by Carol Hegberg, book editor

The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt Beynon Rees

I read a remarkable novel last year, The Collaborator of Bethlehem. This first novel by Matt Beynon Rees has authentic characters, a good plot, and the modern-day setting of Bethlehem and surroundings areas such as the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Their struggles are written in detail. And for that reason alone, I remember this novel today as one of 2007's best.

Omar Yussef Sirhan, the main character, is an unlikely mystery solver. He's an aging, 56-year-old history teacher to the children of Dehaisha refugee camp. He is referred to as Abu Ramiz (the father of Ramiz) as is the respectful, familiar form of address of the countrymen.

He often appears wimpy through his honest thoughts. He walks with great effort, and the reader feels his weariness. Yet when faced with injustice, Omar Yussef brings forth energy that forces him to speak and to work for truth and the good of his fellow people. He gets angry and speaks his mind, generally through wisdom of his age.

Since no one else stands against the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, who holds the power in Bethlehem, Omar Yussef in The Collaborator of Bethlehem investigates and has a compelling adventure, ending with his promotion to principal of the UN school.

As an editor, I delighted in reading how Rees set the scene with descriptions. “Omar Yussef came to a dingy storefront. The picture window was covered by a gray Venetian blind. He opened the door. A middle-aged woman rose from behind her desk when she saw him. She was thick around the middle, but well-dressed. She wore an Yves St. Laurent scarf around her neck, and earrings by the same designer gleamed from her fleshy lobes.” My mind easily created the picture from his words. Often a writer forgets to be exact where preciseness is necessary for the reader. It's like black-and-white photographs. The reader colors in the pages as she reads the writer's words.

With his scene choices, Rees informs the reader of the local culture and history without being intrusive. The settings and dialogue do not look contrived. They flow with the rest of the plot. “He had only to place Maryam's fattoush in his mouth and the sharpness of her lemon vinaigrette would transport him to a café in the Damascus souk where he spent many wonderful times in his youth.” Foreign words go in italics.

This novel and the following one of the Omar Yussef mystery series, A Grave in Gaza, are well-paced with action, followed by calming scenes, always moving forward, bringing in new characters and offering more clues gently and methodically, not in a rush to tell all at once.

Omar Yussef visits people, and through his dialogue, he moves the plot steadily forward. Rees omits unwanted words, those the reader understands that would have been spoken and would have bored him.

Rees inserts Omar Yussef's thoughts for the reader to see his human side. These are printed in italics. “What an old fool you are, he told himself, scrambling about in a battle zone in your nice shoes. Sometimes you can have a gun to your head and you still don't know where your brains are.”

The Collaborator of Bethlehem won the Crime Writers Association John Creasey New Blood Dagger in 2008. It has been published in twenty-one countries. The New York Times called it "an astonishing first novel." The third book of the series, The Samaritan's Secret, will be in bookstores in February of 2009.

Carol Hegberg

CAROL HEGBERG is an internationally published, award-winning writer and content editor. Her novel is entitled Pen Pals. Her poetry, scripts, short stories, and articles have been published in many magazines and books. Carol knows the endurance, tenacity, and patience a writer must possess to become published. Beginning writers, published authors, agents with needy clients, and publishers who need developmental editing for their writers use her services. She helps rewrite speeches, short stories or collections, articles, essays, and manuscripts. She helps develop inspirational, Christian, and picture-book manuscripts, children and young-adult fiction and nonfiction. She's available for writing help with manuscript submissions, query letters, and book proposals.

Developmental editing, rewriting, mentoring
Juvenile & young adult fiction/nonfiction, Christian topics

"Carol breathed life into my top-selling children's story with her wonderful way with words." Nancy S. Mure, author of Irregular Joe

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