Category: Cozy Mysteries

The rabbi looks into a professor’s death, in the New York Times–bestselling series that’s “the American equivalent of the British cozy” (Booklist).
Rabbi Small has retired from his job at the synagogue in Barnard’s Crossing, Massachusetts. He now teaches Judaic studies at a Boston college. The rabbi finally enjoys theological contemplation without the annoyance of temple politics. He is shocked when one of his colleagues is found dead in his car. The clues at the scene point to murder.
 
The deceased English professor was notoriously selfish. He held long-standing grudges against other members of the faculty. Therefore, the list of suspects is long. But the rabbi who took over Small’s position in Barnard’s Crossing is implicated. Small must clear his name. He needs to find the true killer one last time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Vintage Kemelman—clean prose, quiet wit, absorbing characters, and revealing conversations, with David’s discourses on Judaism as fascinating as ever.” —Publishers Weekly
 
“Ingenious . . . Highly recommended.” —The New York Times on Thursday the Rabbi Walked Out
 
“A first-rate mystery.” —The New Yorker on Friday the Rabbi Slept Late

From the Publisher

When I was a young boy, the first real mystery I ever read was FRIDAY THE RABBI SLEPT LATE. I loved reading about a rabbi solving crimes. When I went to temple while studying for my Bar Mitzvah, during the rabbi’s sermons I’d try to imagine him catching the myriad murderers in Barnard’s Crossing; somehow, he just wasn’t quite Rabbi David Small. And it was more than just the Jewish protagonist that drew me to the writing of Harry Kemelman; it was the spirit with which he told the story. When I came to Ballantine, I was so happy to be able to work on these terrific books. Unfortunately, Mr. Kemelman passed away shortly after THAT DAY THE RABBI LEFT TOWN was published. There may be no more new Rabbi David Small mysteries coming, but that won’t prevent me from revisiting an old friend, time and time again.

Mark Rifkin, Managing Editorial

From the Inside Flap

Times Book Review called Harry Kemelman’s last Rabbi Small novel, The Day the Rabbi Resigned, “a deft murder mystery. . .very smooth and wonderfully sly.” Now, in The Day the Rabbi Left Town, America’s most unorthodox detective deserts his old haunts for new challenges. But the more things change the more they stay the same, especially where murder is concerned. . . .

Having resigned as rabbi of Barnard’s Crossing Temple, Rabbi David Small is delighted to accept the newly created post of Professor of Judaic Studies at Windermere College in Boston. The position is just what he wanted, even though the English faculty, with whom he is temporarily domiciled, appears oddly unsettled by his presence.

Nevertheless, when an elderly English professor disappears during a snowy Thanksgiving weekend, no one expects him to turn up dead. Professor Kent’s body is found in a snowdrift–very near the home of an English Department colleague and the home of Barnard’s Crossing’s new r

About the Author

Harry Kemelman (1908–1996) was best known for his popular rabbinical mystery series featuring the amateur sleuth Rabbi David Small. Kemelman wrote twelve novels in the series. The first of these, Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. This book was also adapted as an NBC made-for-TV movie. The Rabbi Small Mysteries inspired the NBC television show Lanigan’s Rabbi. Kemelman’s novels garnered praise for their unique combination of mystery and Judaism. With Rabbi Small, the author created a protagonist. Rabbi Small played a part-time detective with wit and charm. Kemelman also wrote a series of short stories about Nicky Welt. Nicky Welt was a college professor who used logic to solve crimes. The stories were published in a collection entitled The Nine Mile Walk.
 
Aside from being an award-winning novelist, Kemelman, originally from Boston, was also an English professor.

Rabbi Small has left the synagogue, but he’s not done with sleuthing, in this “engaging” mystery from the New York Times–bestselling author (New York Newsday).

Edgar Award–Winning Author

Rabbi David Small has dealt with temple politics for three decades. He has also been involved in more than a handful of murder investigations. Now, he is ready to retire from his synagogue in the cozy Boston suburb of Barnard’s Crossing. For years, his secret desire has been to permanently take up teaching. When he finally leaves the synagogue to pursue that dream, life at a university proves more dangerous than he thought.

Late at night, a notoriously ambitious college professor dies in a car wreck. The academic had been drinking heavily, but evidence suggests that the crash might not have been an accident. The local police are stumped. They enlist the only detective they know. His astute eye and quick mind come from a higher power: Rabbi Small.

On a trip to the Holy Land, Rabbi Small is drawn into a deadly conflict between religious extremists in the New York Times–bestselling series.
Retired millionaire Barney Berkowitz, from the small Massachusetts town of Barnard’s Crossing, invites Rabbi David Small to come to Israel and bar mitzvah him, as Berkowitz never went through the ceremony in his youth. On what should be a joyous occasion—and an all-expenses-paid trip to the Holy Land—the rabbi discovers danger lurking in every corner and a conspiracy that threatens to destroy the state of Israel.
 
An innocent American has been murdered and when the sleuthing rabbi begins his investigation, he finds the death may have been part of an international conspiracy fueled by religious radicals and an arms-smuggling scheme. Anyone, from a liberal Jewish-American professor to a young religious fundamentalist, could be a suspect—and the rabbi must rely on his Talmudic logic and daring chutzpah to untangle the mystery and prevent an even more deadly attack.

An interfaith wedding, local politics, and a lethal hit-and-run case keep Rabbi Small busy in this mystery in the New York Times–bestselling series.
Since becoming the rabbi at the synagogue in Barnard’s Crossing, Massachusetts, David Small has seen his congregation through a fair share of unholy bickering and corruption. So when millionaire Howard Magnuson is elected president of the synagogue, the rabbi isn’t surprised that Magnuson wants to bring corporate efficiency to the temple—at the expense of religious tradition. Conflict flares when Rabbi Small refuses, on the basis of temple rules, to officiate the interfaith wedding of Magnuson’s daughter to a non-Jewish Boston politician, and the new president calls for the rabbi’s dismissal.
 
When another player in Boston politics is killed in a hit-and-run accident and the police suspect a Jewish college student, Rabbi Small fears the undergrad might have been set up—and that Magnuson is involved. The young man’s innocence and the future of the temple depend on Rabbi Small solving the case with his signature wit and Judaic wisdom.