A review by aaronsandford
Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman

5.0

Thoroughly enjoyed this, enough that I read the whole thing one Saturday afternoon. The writing is charming, and the relationship between the Jewish rabbi and the Catholic chief of police, as well as the relationships of the leadership in the local Jewish temple, makes a platform for some very interesting explorations of faith, culture, and ways of thinking without getting too deep. The characters were almost universally compelling. I thought the answer to the mystery was perhaps a bit obvious (I figured out the solution somewhere between 50 and 75 percent of the way through the novel), and then the solution is quickly figured out and presented right at the end in a bit of an anticlimax. But the characters, relationships, conversations, and prose quality make up for the less-than-baffling whodunit, and I plan to read the sequels.