Palestinian teacher Omar Yussef is that rare thing, a fundamentally decent man able to stay that way in a fundamentally not so decent world.  Decent doesn’t mean perfect—he can be impulsive, judgmental, vain, and all too human in any number of ways. But he’s also a man of integrity, with a ferocious belief in fairness and justice, paired with the brains to sort out what’s really going on and the willingness to act on it, regardless of the potential cost.

Those aren’t exactly survival skills in his native Palestine, but at least there he has a certain comfort zone and support system to fall back on. In The Fourth Assassin, Omar Yussef is sent to speak at a UN conference in New York City, where he also hopes to visit his youngest son Ala, living in the Little Palestine section of Brooklyn. Upon opening the door of Ala’s apartment, he is greeted by a headless corpse rather than a beloved son. Ala soon returns but is surly and sneering toward the police, refusing to give them his alibi, and inevitably is taken into custody. Suddenly Omar Yussef has a much higher priority than worrying about his UN speech. Working his way through the viper’s nest of intertwined plots and subplots takes him from his own past and the boys he once taught who came to America with his son, through Brooklyn and Coney Island to the United Nations itself.

This series offers me something I usually look to historical mysteries for: a window opened onto a very different world and worldview. The first books brought home realities of everyday life in modern Palestine by replacing the anonymous news clips with events affecting individuals I knew and cared about. This one shows today’s America through the eyes of Arab people who have settled or are visiting here. It’s not a particularly flattering picture, although it’s not all negative. But it’s hard to just brush aside, since this is the impression of people who came here with hope and happy expectations, not the knee jerk "anti" rantings of extremist ideologues. No, it’s not a wholly accurate picture and much of the frustration and failure is their own fault, but it’s still worthwhile food for thought.

The writing is beautifully literate without pretension—fluid, descriptive, and eminently readable, bringing story and characters to you-are-there life. It’s fast reading, with plenty of action and a full to overflowing plot. A little darker than my usual—I’m a mystery reading wimp on the whole—but a great entry in what’s become one of my favorite new series because of its depth.

Highly recommended.