Whether it is Police Chief Lanigan, the rabbi’s wife, Miriam, the feuding members of the rabbi’s congregation, or the bigots populating the town, Guidall provides each with a strong yet distinct personality, enriching a book whose religious undertones are surprisingly timeles. Guidall also excels in his ability to define the residents of Barnard’s Crossing. Guidall captures Rabbi Small’s brilliant, albeit low-key and harried, personality with ease. His investigation, however, turns up heaps of evidence pointing to the killer's being him. In Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, a shocking discovery on the temple grounds threatens to ruin both the diligent rabbi and the entire Jewish community at Barnard’s Crossing.
The plot finds the rabbi investigating the murder of a nanny no more than a stone's throw from his synagogue.
While the novel is a whodunit, it is character-driven and also explains Judaism and aspects of synagogue politics. Kemelman's 1964 mystery launched the Rabbi David Small series and snagged an Edgar for best first novel. George Guidall’s narration defines the personality of the series superbly. “Harry Kemelman fans consider Friday the Rabbi Slept Late to be the best of the late author’s Rabbi David Small murder mysteries.
It seems a young nanny has been found strangled, less than a hundred yards from the Temple’s parking lot-and all the evidence points to the rabbi.Īdd to that the not-so-quiet rumblings of his disgruntled congregation and you might say our inimitable hero needs a miracle from a higher source to save him. Rabbi David Small, the new leader of Barnard’s Crossing’s Jewish community, can’t even enjoy his Sabbath without things getting stirred up in a most unorthodox manner.
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