The Samaritan's Secret

Omar Yussef travels to Nablus for a wedding and ends up trying to navigate Palestinian and international politics when a young man from a Samaritan community is found murdered. Although I wasn't as enamored with this installment as I was with the first two, I did, as always, enjoy Rees' insight into the Palestinian community and the fact that he lets them be the actors in their own drama (rather than involving any Israeli characters). His descriptions of the landscape, the city life, the people, the foods, and the smells are all highly evocative and makes me want to book a flight right now and go straight to the souk for a slice of kanafi. The story in this installment is what doesn't quite work for me - Omar Yussef's character is show more almost James Bond-like and, although I know the West Bank is not the most peaceful place in the world, I doubt it'd be possible to just walk around and kill people in the casbah without anyone batting an eye. Definitely still worth the read, for the locale and the insight into politics, but I do hope Rees lets Omar Yussef be more himself in the next installment. show less

Omar Yussef just can’t help himself. His strong belief that evildoers should pay for their crimes has, much to the delight of his 13-year-old granddaughter, turned this aging Palestinian into a reluctant detective. At 57 years of age, and seemingly in poorer shape than most men that age, our U.N. school teacher often finds it difficult to meet the physical demands of his work as an amateur detective but he refuses to let his frailness stop him. When he happens upon a bad situation he might be able to fix, Omar is willing to do battle against the corrupt politicians and murderers of Palestine, be they Hamas or Fatah, if that is what it takes to right a wrong.

"The Samaritan’s Secret," the third book in Matt Beynon Rees’ Omar Yussef show more series, will not disappoint readers who enjoyed the series’ first two books. This time around, Omar has put aside his job teaching history at a Bethlehem United Nations school long enough to come to Nablus with his wife, sons, and granddaughter for the wedding of a young policeman friend. Nablus is home to a 600-strong Samaritan community sitting atop a mountain overlooking the city. The Samaritans, having been persecuted by the Muslim population in the past, have isolated themselves on the mountain for their own safety and to avoid the perpetual conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis. But now one of the Samaritans has been murdered and Omar, out of curiosity, tags along when his young policeman friend is called in to investigate the crime.

Omar soon learns that the murder victim, Ishaq, was far from being the typical Samaritan. The young man was, in fact, in charge of the personal finances of former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat and was with the old president when he died in Paris. Now, some $300 million dollars is missing and it is believed that Ishaq knew where all the money was hidden. Omar’s questions lead him to an American woman representing the World Bank who came to Nablus to meet with Ishaq about the missing money. She tells Omar that, unless the stolen money is found and returned to the proper bank account by the end of the week, the World Bank will cut off all aid to Palestine. Omar realizes what a catastrophe this would be for the Palestinian people and he is determined to find the missing millions before others can steal the money for themselves.

Rees writes solid detective fiction but the real reason I so much enjoy his books is his ability to immerse me deeply into a world I would otherwise never experience. He portrays the daily chaos and violence of Palestine through the eyes of its commons citizens, people simply trying to get on with their everyday lives in a place where keeping their families safe is a constant challenge. Rees vividly portrays the claustrophobic atmosphere created by unpredictable clashes with the Israelis, internal violence between Fatah and Hamas, corrupt politicians using assassination for personal gain, and the inability to leave the territory for a safer location.

Amidst all the violence, Rees shows how people still manage to fall in love, start families, and get on with life. That is the real beauty of the Omar Yussef series.

Rated at: 4.0 show less

I kind of goofed up by picking up this work thinking that it is an earlier installment of the Omar Youssef series than another book I own, but this is the third item in the series not the first.

The setting is what makes these detective stories interesting. Omar Youssef is not the typical policeman he is a Palestinian school-teacher who finds himself embroiled in a murder mystery. This time he is traveling to Nablus with his family to attend a wedding of a police officer colleague when a tragedy strikes and a body is discovered in the vicinity of Samaritan temple. The victim is Ishaq, the son of the temple custodian, who was also the financial adviser of a senior political figure in the Palestinian hierarchy.

True to old-style detective show more novels Omar Youssef unravels the layers of the mystery surrounding the murder, giving us in the meantime a snapshot of life in the West Bank, the Palestinian realities of corruption, extremism and survival. It also gives some insight into the small Samaritan community resident near Nablus.
I found this a very quick and interesting read, a good old-fashioned mystery with clear-cut motives and none of the high-tech investigation style, which I suppose is something to be expected considering the setting of the West Bank. show less

I wanted to like this. But I never connected with it.

Omar Yussef is a Palestinian teacher who travels to Nablus for the wedding of a friend, Sami. While there, he is drawn into the investigation of the murder of a Samaritan. The Samaritan community lies on the outside of town, up a hill. The murdered man is the son of the group leader.

Omar Yussef wants very much to find the culprit, but soon discovers that the police are less interested. In part it is this lack of interest that fuels his continuing investigation - on his own, primarily.

We get into the lives of the Samaritans, how they were established, and how life is in Nablus, with bombs every day. It's a tribute to seeing beyond the categories as well as a mystery. Yet for some show more reason I had difficulty attaching to anyone in it or to what they were about. show less

The third installment of Matt Beynon Rees’ series featuring Omar Yussef, a teacher and administrator for the UN schools in Palestine, is THE SAMARITAN’S SECRET. Omar Yussef and his family have traveled to Nablus to attend the wedding of Sami, a family friend and a police officer. The trip is concerning for more than the usual reasons that weddings are fraught with angst and anxiety. Nablus is on the West Bank and tensions have become hostilities between Hamas and Fatah.
The Samaritans are related to the Jews but are not actually a part of that group. The New Testament story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman demonstrates how far back the division goes. The Samaritan community in Nablus is one of about 600 people, devoted to preserving show more their differences from the larger Jewish community.
When a Torah scroll is stolen from the synagogue of the Samaritans, Sami is asked to investigate the theft. He invites Omar Yussef to accompany him to meet the leader of the synagogue. While there, Sami learns that the body of a young man has been found on a hill sacred to the Samaritans. The victim has been brutally beaten and it is soon learned that he was an aide to the recently deceased, unnamed leader of Fatah. The victim was the only one who knew the location of all of the leader’s money that had been secreted around the world. He is also the son of the chief rabbi from whom the scroll was stolen . Before anything of value is learned, Sami is badly beaten, his arm broken. Someone is desperate to keep Sami from identifying any suspects.
The circumstances allow Omar Yussef to begin his own investigation, slowly, methodically gathering pieces of information. The suspect pool deepens when Omar Yussef learns that the young man may have been homosexual. He has enemies because of his sexuality and because the leader of Fatah has trusted him with the deepest secrets of the group.
Since the locations of the money were a secret known only to the leader and the murdered man, the situation becomes even more complicated when the World Bank demands the return of the money. They claim that the money was donated from international groups who gave it for the benefit of the Palestinian community. Unless the money is returned to them, Palestine will receive no further aid.
Omar Yussef is a teacher in the UN school, making him the only representative of that body in the area. So the direction of the investigation and the guarantee of its impartiality fall to him. The slow moving man who thinks things through very deliberately is now the last man standing who can solve the Samaritan’s secret and identify his killer.
Rees weaves into the story the riots and killings that are a constant in the Palestinian territories. He also addresses the difficulties that arise for young people who have lived in the west and found acceptance there, an acceptance that doesn’t exist in a rigid Muslim society. Rees has lived and worked in Palestine and Israel and each book sheds light on the problems faced by ordinary people trying to live their lives in a place where political realities allow no one to be safe. show less

This is the third of the Omar Yussef mysteries by Matt Beynon Rees, who is the former Jerusalem bureau chief for Time. This is the first of the series that I've read.

Omar Yussef travels to Nablus with his family to be part of the wedding celebration of his friend Sami, a policeman. While there, they find the body of a Samaritan, one of about 600 left of this ancient people. The dead man is the son of a priest and was a financial adviser to "the old man" (Yassir Arafat), and then to a wealthy businessman. About $300 million in Palestine Authority funds are missing, and if the World Bank can't find the missing money it will put a stop to all its development projects in the Palestinian areas. No one but Omar seems to be willing to look for show more the money, and incidentally, solve the murder. Conflict between supporters of Fatah (Arafat's party) and Hamas means doing anything in Nablus is dangerous.

It was a little hard to get into the book because of how unfamiliar the culture is to me. On the other hand, that is also one of the book's chief charms. I really enjoy books that teach me about an unfamiliar culture, or profession, while giving me a nice mystery to chew on. In the end, there were some things I wasn't entirely clear on, but I enjoyed the book enough to want to read the first two in the series (The Collaborator of Bethlehem and A Grave in Gaza).

Disclaimer: I received my copy of the book free for reviewing it for the Amazon Vine program. show less

If you're a Miss Marple fan then Omar Yussef is the detective for you. If like me you usually prefer your crime fiction to have a bit more meat on its bones, then I'd give this series a miss. There's nothing wrong the tamer detective such as Poirot or Marple but you're getting a short snappy read; this on the other hand was quite lenghty and complex for the amount that actually happens. With this being the third in the series and me not having read the previous two, I was unsure if I would understand the relationships. However this wasn't a problem. In fact I won't be going back to read the other two, it's just not compelling enough reading to be honest.

The location is different, which is something the novel definitely had going for it show more and I did like the idea of Yussef having just stumbled across crimes. In this novel, he travels to the West Bank to attend a wedding and suddenly becomes involved in stolen scrolls and dead bodies by the handful. I found the characters very difficult to visualise, especially ones like his wife, children and grandchildren all of whom had important parts because they were what kept Yussef focused throughout the novel. It's not a dull read by any means but it really only has the location as its unique selling point. Overall, I think 2.5 stars simply because it didn't grip me and I was only continuing reading it because I was reviewing it for Amazon Vine. show less