Another of the delightful Rabbi Small mysteries. Years ago I read the mysteries with titles including names of the seven days of the week, such as Friday the Rabbi Slept Late and the six others. Now I'm finishing up the others in the series. As in the aforementioned, the rabbi works together with Hugh Lanigan, Bernard's Crossing police chief and the force. They do the legwork but the rabbi uses his deductive reasoning to pull things together and to arrive at the solution. In this mystery, a man crashes his car into a tree on a dark road at night. Was he merely a drunk driver who lost control, or was he murdered? A very easy read, consisting mostly of dialogue. I liked so much the explanations of different facets of Judaism but there wasn't as much as in the earlier books. I didn't enjoy this one as much as the others, but I read them years ago. Half the book was taken up with introduction of characters before the accident even happened. To solve the mystery I felt 80% was Hugh and the policemen; only 20% was David.
I both like and disliked this book. The style was typical Kemelman, which is good. The ending, however, wasn't completely to my liking. There is a good mystery plot, though you don't know even who the murdered person is until more than halfway through the book. The first half is background, some of which is completely superfluous. This is much like real life and real life stories. The real action takes place in the last half of the book. Someone is killed, and at first it looks like an accident.
Do You like book The Day The Rabbi Resigned (1993)?
