Customer Reviews

Fourth Assassin: An Omar Yussef Mystery (Omar Yussef Mysteries)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Author Matt Beynon Rees brings his Palestinian educator/sleuth, Omar Yussef aka Abu Ramiz, to New York City for an appearance at a UN conference on Palestine in this latest addition to the terrific mystery series. The shift in venues could have been tricky for a story that is so strongly identified with The West Bank, Gaza and Israel, but author Rees has successfully transposed the context of that Middle East struggle to two NYC neighborhoods--the UN in Manhattan and the Little Palestine district of Brooklyn.

Omar Yussef gets off a mid-winter transatlantic flight and goes straight to visit his youngest son, Ala, in Brooklyn. Arriving at his son's apartment, he finds a headless body which appears to be that of his beloved son. This first horrific discovery leads to a larger collection of miseries that have followed a number transplanted Palestinians--some of them former students of Omar Yussef's--to their hoped for sanctuary in the U.S. Joined by his old warrior friend, Khamis Zeydan, Yussef finds the first murder will eventually lead to the planned assassination of the President of the Palestinian Authority who is also at the UN for the conference.

Writer Rees has a special gift for evoking the environment--in this case the miserable cold of a northern U.S. winter and the general seediness of the immigrant neighborhoods of Brooklyn. His talent for fleshing out highly believable characters is no less impressive. Certainly he has nailed the alienation and frustration felt by new immigrants to the U.S. and the desire to return home, no matter how hopeless the situation there.

"The Fourth Assassin" delivers an excellent mystery story while maintaining the integrity of the characters--the redoubtable and cranky Omar Yussef, in particular--that readers of earlier books in this series have come to know and cherish. Thoroughly enjoyable read. A four plus on the Amazon scale.

A wonderful mystery full of political and cultural touchstones. This time out our protagonist is in New York for a UN conference and to visit his son Ala who is living in New York with 2 more of Omar Yussif's former students. However all is not well (is it ever in a murder mystery? ;-) ) and one of his roomates winds up dead.

As the story unfolds we find that when they were 12 Ala and 3 of his friends (the 4 Assassins) had pretended to be disciples of the medieval "Old Man of the Mountain", leader of the Hashishins (Assassins). Abu Ramiz (Omar Yussef), ever the history teacher, encouraged the boys in their fantasy and took on the role of their leader. The motif of the Assassins guild works its way into the plot and it seems that now that the boys are grown up the game may have grown real. Is Abu Ramiz responsible for what the boys have become?

The plot twists in unexpected ways and just when you think the mysteries have been resolved they twist again, but everything is believable, everything is consistent. The characterizations are excellent from a token collector in the subway to Hamza Abayat the ex patriot Palestinian and now NYC police detective, the beautiful Rania and the portrayals of locations, even distant ones like Bethlehem, the Bekka Valley in Lebanon or ones near the action are deftly and evocatively drawn against a backdrop of competing Palestinian factions. Old favorites re-emerge such as Magnus Wallender (too briefly) and Khamis Zeydan, who Abu Ramiz's best friend, Bethlehem's well connected Chief of Police and acting security advisor to the President (never named! - a good literary move as it will not make the story dated later on) on his visit to America and the UN.

I greatly enjoyed the book and I'm definitely hooked for the next installment. A double blessing on author Matt Beynon Rees. May Allah provide him with even more tales to tell of his intrepid school teacher detective.

Highly recommended!

Matt Beynon Rees, a Welsh journalist living in Jerusalem, writes a series known as the Omar Yussef Mysteries. If you pick up anything at all that is bound between two covers, you should be buying and reading them even if you hate mysteries. If you happen to like mysteries, please read THE FOURTH ASSASSIN, the latest Yussef novel, and recommend it to an unenlightened friend.

Yussef is that iconic reasonable man who is in a very bad place at a very bad time. Officially, he is a husband, father of three adult sons, and history teacher at a school run by the United Nations in the Palestinian territories. A non-practicing Moslem who is making the transition from middle-aged to elderly, Yussef is one of the few individuals in his community who has earned the trust of members of the Moslem, Christian and Jewish congregations. Accordingly, he is occasionally called upon to play the role of what could be called --- for lack of a better term --- a "detective." And indeed, as with the other books in the series, there is a mystery within THE FOURTH ASSASSIN in which Yussef becomes personally involved.

The novel moves Yussef from his more familiar --- if not entirely comfortable --- environs of the Palestinian territories into New York, where he is to speak before a U.N. conference on the condition of the Palestinian people. While somewhat reluctant to be there, the trip gives him the opportunity to visit Ala, his youngest son, who is living with two of his friends and happens to be Yussef's former students. The three young men --- along with another friend --- jokingly call themselves the Assassins, named for a group from a time long ago.

Yussef had been looking forward to seeing all of them; his joy, however, is abruptly dashed when he discovers the decapitated body of one of Ala's roommates. Ala refuses to provide an alibi, and, to his father's horror, is arrested. Yussef understandably becomes obsessed with clearing his son's name and finding the real killer, whom he may have inadvertently spotted shortly after finding the corpse. Hamza Abayat, the NYPD homicide detective (and a Palestinian by birth) assigned to the case, almost instantly acquires a quiet respect for Yussef but is only interested in going wherever the evidence takes him --- whether it leads to Ala or otherwise.

And if he does not have enough to worry about, an adversary of Yussef's is at the U.N. conference, determined to ruin his reputation. Yussef --- physically frail beyond his years and emotionally wrought from all he has experienced --- is not out of his league but is nonetheless in danger of being overwhelmed. Fortunately, Khamis Zeydan, Bethlehem's police chief and Yussef's longtime friend, is also attending the conference as the head of a security detail. Zeydan is able to provide expertise and an emotionally balanced outlook for his friend as well as some dark humor, courtesy of his frequently irreverent observations.

The trail to the establishment of Ala's innocence is a complex one, but Rees is a surefooted guide who takes his characters slowly through a wealth of plot elements, which may (or may not) include honor killings, drug dealing, political intrigue, and the fourth of Ala's friends. Yussef, trying desperately to clear Ala, is in danger as much for what he knows as for what he does not. Nonetheless, he plows ahead on all fronts, knowing that even if he proves his son's innocence, someone close to both of them will be guilty.

Yes, there is a mystery in THE FOURTH ASSASSIN. But, as with the other books in the series, the mystery, even as it propels the narrative, soon takes second fiddle to the wondrous way that Rees evenhandedly explores the nuances of the uneasy relationships that exist within the diverse communities that claim their homelands as the basis for their religions. It is these relationships --- often even more internally complex than externally --- that give rise both to the mystery and to its resolution in each book. Rees truly gets into the emotions of his characters, even as the stories are told entirely from Yussef's viewpoint.

Take a look at the first four pages or so. The book begins with Yussef, newly arrived in the United States, climbing the stairs of the Fourth Avenue subway exit in Brooklyn in the heart of Little Palestine. Much is familiar, and much is different. I may have read better written passages recently, but I don't think I have read any that I have loved as much as the ones contained in these opening pages. This is classic work that will stand up 20 or 30 years from now when you (maybe) and I (almost certainly) are gone, and the problems that currently exist will still remain. Brilliantly conceived and beautifully written, THE FOURTH ASSASSIN is strongly recommended.

I typically don't enjoy accidental mysteries, where a lady who gardens or runs a bookstore has a "nose for mystery" and constantly stumbles over dead bodies, amateurishly solving the crimes while the local constabulary blunders around stupidly. After a short while, most such books stretch credulity to the extreme. If you met such a person, in real life, would you be their friend, with the knowledge that you probably would eventually be the victim, suspect, or witness in one of her adventures? Not likely, at least not for me.

So I approached the first Omar Youssef mystery with some trepidation, but was amused by the premise (a Palestinian schoolteacher who solves a crime) and frankly I've enjoyed the characters and the atmosphere author Rees has created. So when the latest book in the series appeared and I could get it for my Kindle, I did. I knew nothing about it, and imagine my surprise when I discovered that it's essentially a fish-out-of-water story, involving the main character traveling to New York City for a United Nations conference. When he arrives, he immediately discovers there's been a killing in his son's apartment, and things progress from there.

Rees is a wonderful observer, and he recreates the world of the Palestinian immigrant in New York City meticulously. His scenes on the subways and streets of New York are fun and at the same time a bit poignant, and the characters are very interesting. Of course it's fun to read the various Arab beliefs about America (at various times one or the other of them announces that all Americans are required to carry guns; remember they're in New York, where legal private ownership of firearms is pretty unusual) and the clash of cultures is highlighted intelligently.

Rees does a very good job with all of the characters and the various incidents in New York, and my only objection to the book is that the plot is a little disjointed and slow in the middle. That being said, this is a worthwhile book, and I would recommend it.

I've also read the three other books in this series, set in Jerusalem or that area, which were interesting and enjoyable. This, the fourth book, set in Brooklyn, New York, is the weakest. Frankly, it is boring. Implausible story, cardboard characters apart from the protagonist whom we know from the previous books.

If the Palestinian Arab Muslims hate the US so much, so many Jews and other non-Arabs, non-Muslims, as the characters tell us throughout this book, why then are they so determined and desperate to move to New York in the first place? Why not stay in Palestine or Lebanon or Syria and work to make those countries liveable and as attractive as The Great Satan?

One of the youths, in the end, does return to Palestine. Others are unable to return because they're dead, but probably wouldn't anyway.

But if you know New York is full of Jews and women without veils, no employment, dirty hovels to live in, and constant "hatred" from the non-Arabs, what is the attraction?

I'm not Jewish, not religious at all in fact, and not prejudiced. I've been eating kibbeh nayyeh (ßÈÉ äíÉ or ßÈÉ äíÆÉ) for fifty years. I know Palestinians. And I disliked this book. They are better than this.

On his arrival in New York for a UN speech on schooling in the refugee camps, Palestinian educator Omar Yussef goes straight to Brooklyn to see his son, Ala. But the door of the Bay Ridge apartment is open and the only occupant is a headless corpse about his son's size.

His initial horror gives way to shocked concern when Ala appears, but is promptly arrested and taken off to a Brooklyn jail. Underdressed for the New York winter, disoriented by the hard-edged city, Yussef enlists the aid of his old partisan friend Khamis Zeydan, now the chain-smoking Bethlehem police chief, also in town for the UN meeting.

Together they take on the weather, the subways, the busses, the streets and the NYPD, particularly the Arab-speaking detective, Hamza, a Palestinian-American who has been assigned to Bay Ridge's Palestinian section. Hamza navigates his communities with facility - and a bit of edge.

When his superior finds a Jordanian passport on the Palestinian victim, Hamza explains that Palestine cannot issue passports.

"The lieutenant waved the Jordanian passport. `You were born in Bethlehem, Hamza. Do you have this kind of passport?'
`I have an American passport, Lieutenant.' "

Ala, even before the police arrive, has complained to his father of his disillusionment with life in America where his computer degree means nothing and decent work is impossible to find. " `We're just another gang of Arabs to the Americans, terrorists or supporters of terrorism, anti-American bigots who deserve bigoted treatment in return.' "

But in Rees' capable hands nothing is quite so simple. Yussef, a secular humanist who rails at the corruption and violence of his own government, quickly determines he must find the murderer himself. His journey leads him deep into the undercurrents of Brooklyn's Arab community where opportunists are just as likely to wield a cause for their own ends as anywhere else.

Since one of the strengths of this series is Yussef's Palestinian milieu, it seemed a risk to set this fourth outing in New York, but Rees (a Welshman and a 10-year veteran of Middle East coverage) makes it work.

THE FOURTH ASSASSIN is the fourth book in the Omar Yussef series by Matt Beynon Rees. Omar Yussef, a director of a UN school in Bethlehem, has come to New York City to deliver a speech at the UN on Palestine. He is far more eager to spend time with his youngest son, Ala, who has been living in Brooklyn. Omar Yussef is unprepared for New York, for the cold, for the crowds and, most importantly, for the body he finds in the apartment his son shares with three friends from Bethlehem. Ala, Nizar, Rashid, and Ismail were best friends who had called themselves the Assassins, after the 11th and 12th century group led by the Old Man of the Mountain, the name they bestowed on Omar Yussef. What was an academic joke takes on a more sinister meaning. The body on the bed has been decaptitated and, where the head should be, is a veil, the symbol of the betrayer who will kill the Madhi, the savior of Islam. The clothing on the body suggests that the victim is Nizar. Ala is taken in to custody.

Little Palestine, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, is beset by the problems that came with the people from the Middle East. Another man is murdered, drugs are coming in from Lebanon. Rania, the daughter of the murdered man is loved by Ala but won by Nizar. The four assassins are marked by their experience during the interfada and Ismail disappeared but Omar Yussef is sure that he has seen him. There are flyers giving the times of prayer at the Alamut Mosque but the specified times for prayer are wrong, the mosque doesn't exist, and Alamut was the castle of the assassins. Then Omar Yussef discovers that there is going to be an assassination attempt on the life of the President of Palestine as he gives a speech at the UN and, at first, it seems he has figured out the identity of the assassin but then he finds out that there is another assassin in place. Besides all that, Omar Yussef has to deal with a UN schools supervisor who wants him to lose his job AND he stilll has to give his speech.

Breathless? That is the problem with the book. There was so much going on that I was breathless trying to keep up with Omar Yussef even though he had a sprained ankle (I forgot to mention that).

And yet, I read the book in one go and enjoyed it. It is the weakest of the Omar Yussef quartet and that may be because Omar Yussef is removed from his home, the place that centers him. His life in Bethlehem is full and readers learn that people are formed more by character than geography.

The strongest and saddest elements of the book are the descriptions of the experiences of people from the Middle East as they try to make a life in the US. It is a very much post-9/11 experience that wounds and frightens people who just want to get on with their lives. The New York setting tells us what we already know if we are willing to admit it: ignorance of differences is easier than educating ourselves to understand them.

Something that caused me to rush to purchase it after reading the five days of introductory reading provided by Suzanne in her mystery reading list, I'm assuming will maintain its suspense and good characterization until the end! Now that Thanksgiving Day feast is over for another year, I'm eagerly catching up with all my Amazon.com purchases.

Rees brings his series hero, Palestinian schoolteacher Omar Yussef, to New York. He comes for a UN conference, but finds himself involved in a murder that may be tied to an assassination plot. Omar is a great character, flawed and feeling alienated by the big city. He's able to give us insights into the emotions of young Arab immigrants in Little Palestine, while also showing the impact of Mideast tensions on our own society. Along the way he has some hard-bitten and comic episodes with his friend the Bethlehem police chief and with an Arab-American cop. It's a crime novel with an intriguing plot full of twists, but at its heart there's also a Romeo and Juliet story of the different Mideast groups living in Brooklyn. Rees broadens the genre to give us a novel of great scope which everyone should read.

So this pot-boiler is good right out of the gate. Right off the bat our protagonist with all his frailties and imperfections is huddled against winter's biting chill in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Omar Youssef, the Palestinian grade school teacher and part-time detective is visiting NY. The wind blows his wispy-white comb over revealing his bald spot; the sun illumines the liver spots on his hands. He stands 5'6'' on his tip toes. But there is no better man to solve the mystery of the headless Palestinian corpse in Brooklyn. MBR has built a ton of good will with Buk Guru. His 3 preceeding mysteries are a solid body of work. The 3 prior works have fascinating settings; e.g, the cave where Jesus was born, Gaza strip where Crusaders conquered, and the stone where Abraham took Isaac for sacrafice. It is exciting that MBR has taken a series from the mid- east and transitioned it to The Big Apple. The beginning is great. I cant wait to crawl into bed and continue this read. When Omar Youssef walks the souk of Bethlehem he knows every face. In gotham, even if he knew 1 million there would still be 7 million faces he doesn't know. The attempted hits come anonymously. Omar gets faster, ruder and more angry-- like a true New Yawker. His buddy Khamis Zeydan, Gaza security police is Omar's sidekick. This is good-- Khamis seems tough enough for the mean streets. Omar seems like a frail wisp about to blow away. OK-- so Omar's son Ala and his 3 buddies were school chums in Gaza. They formed a gang called the "Assassins". They stoned an Israeli jeep in Gaza and got arrested. ! turned Mossad informant; 2 got radicalized as jihadis. I don't like where this book is going. I tried to keep an open mind when this series was set in the West Bank. I don't like it within spitting distance of ground zero. Buk Guru also thinks many Muslims don't believe in separation of church and state and desire Sharia law in the White House. So I am at page 113 and the bile is growing in my stomach. Doubts are creeping in-- maybe a pot-boiler about Palestinians in Bay Ridge wasn't such a good idea. I am starting to feel like Juan Williams when he said "flying with people in Muslim garb makes me nervous". He got fired from NPR but now he can get Fox/Rupert Murdock cash for calling them like he sees them. On page 195 I am concluding the four assassins are flat characters I don't care about. The hatreds and rivalries of the Arabs towards each other and Americans are disgusting. I don't want chicks walking down my street in burkas and hajibs. On page 171 our protagonist Omar Youssef and MBR's money maker says " I experienced a flash of hate...and understood the resentment that made Arab immigrants... despise American society". The thing that provoked this hate was Americans happily munching hot dogs at Nathans Famous in Coney Island. I am done with this series. MBR has crossed the line. If I want to fund anti-American Muslims I can just mail my money to Osama Bin Laden's cave. At p251 I am dashing to the finish line. There is an assassination plot of a high Palestinian at he UN. Palestinian rivalries in all their deadly complexity are illustrated. This is not entertainment. MBR has committed a serious mis-step and shown a fatal lapse of judgement. This series is dead to me. Yelling fire in a crowded theater is not within legal bounds of propriety; neither is creating a pot-boiler out of an invented Islamic Jihadi plot in Brooklyn just because the author wants to visit the Big Apple and take it as a write-off. Final word-- a thinly veiled political polemic with a ridiculous bang-bang-shoot-em-up plot so terribly contived as to degenerate into bathos. Avoid at all costs.