Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
EAN num: 9780517315484
ISBN number: 0517315483
Label: Random House Value Publishing
Manufacturer: Random House Value Publishing
Quantity: 1
Printing Date: July 13, 1998
Publishing house: Random House Value Publishing
Release Date: July 13, 1998
Sale Popularity Level: 2358910
Studio: Random House Value Publishing
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Product Description:
The New York 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 rabbi as well. Heart attack? Rabbi Small thinks not, for a man as sublimely self-interested as old Professor Kent must have racked up many a grudge, and worse.
And as usual the rabbi is right. . . .
From the Hardcover edition.
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Rated by buyers 
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This is the final book in the Rabbi Small series closely following the events of THE DAY THE RABBI RESIGNED. As the novel opens Rabbi Small has taken a position teaching at nearby Windemere College. He is now Rabbi Emeritus of the Barnard's Crossing congregation, a position that both he and the new Rabbi find awkward. In order to ease the situation the Smalls have sublet an apartment near the campus for the winter but by Thanksgiving it becomes apparent that Barnard's Crossing needs the special talents of Rabbi Small to maintain order in their town.
Like most cozy mysteries the appeal to this series has always been in the characters more than the mysteries. Kemelman takes that premise to an extreme in this one, the murder doesn't even occur until well into the second half of the book and the solution seems rushed, as if it is just a detail rather than the climax of the story. Still fans of the series will want to see how their old friends are coping with the passing years and will definitely not want to miss the Rabbi bring his own style of investigation to bear on this crime. Those looking for a challenging puzzler have probably long ago learned to give this series a miss. Cozy fans new to this series could enjoy this one but would probably do better to begin at the beginning.
Rated by buyers -
Rabbi Small, now in his fifties, is to teach a Judaic course at Windermere College. He is supposed to be available to the history and philosophy departments. He is retiring from serving as rabbi of the temple at Barnard's Crossing. His stay in the position at Barnard's Crossing was of twenty-five years' duration. The temple board, through the Ritual Committee, is to seek a new rabbi.
Miller and Jacobs of the English Department at Windermere College work out together in the college gymnasium. They are characters in the drama. At the hail and farewell brunch for Rabbi Small and his successor, Rabbi Selig, more people speak with Selig than with Small, understandably. The Seligs have dinner with Rabbi Small and his wife, Miriam, a few days later. Professor Miller of Windermere is now a neighbor of the new rabbi. At Kenmore Station Rabbi Small runs into Mordecai Jacobs. At his college office Small meets Sarah McBride, also of the English Department. She intends to audit his course since her husband is Jewish, she explains.
Malcolm Kent, now an old man, fell into teaching at Windermere. He also fell into marriage with Mathilda Clark, the last member of the Clark family, one of the founding families of the school. Malcolm has lied about his credentials. Malcolm decides to give a loan to a former girl friend to help her set up a beauty parlour with her future husband. She is pregnant and plans to marry to the relief of Kent. Malcolm is lonely after his wife dies. He really has no friends at the college.
Rabbi Small is disturbed by noise, such as that of power lawn mowers, and determines that it would help matters for Selig if the Smalls moved to Boston for the winter. A sublet at Coolidge Corner is arranged. The mystery begins as a blizzard blankets the Boston area with snow over the Thanksgiving holiday and many of the characters change their transportation arrangements. The homicide in the story concerns Malcolm Kent. Eventually Rabbi Small suggests a solution, identifying the murderer, showing that one faker had used another.
Rated by buyers 
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I hope the other books in this series are wonderful, because this mystery is a triple threat: dull, dreary, and didactic. Molasses at the North Pole would move faster than this narrative. The characters are dull; the dialogue, tedious. Instead of reading this book, do something more interesting like counting the clouds in the sky.
Rated by buyers 
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Rabbi Small resigns from the synagogue in Barnard's Crossing and takes a teaching job in Boston. The new rabbi takes over, and becomes accused of murder when a professor from the college is found dead subsequent to his property. This is the same person who was caught peaking in the window the of the rabbi's bedroom when just his wife was at home. Rabbi Small ends up figuring out who was guilty of murdering the professor. Slow book, and the murder doesn't even take place until over halfway in the book.
Rated by buyers -
Harry Kemelman's Rabbi David Small is once again gainfully employed! Following his earlier resignation in "The Day the Rabbi Resigned," Small is now teaching at Windermere College--a good, if not proper for him, academic setting. In "That Day the Rabbi Left Town," it seems, having run out of days of the week (remember, this series started with "Saturday the Rabbi Slept Late," Kemelman has been creative with working in other diurnal references in his title. That aside, of course, the series has been a fun read. In this one, the death of an elderly colleague gets Rabbi Small into the heart of the action, as it were. Of course, in his new setting he quickly stumbles into all kinds of academic and campus politics, grudges, and jealousies, to say the least. This episode seems a bit different, however, as Kemelman goes didactic and spends a good third of the book giving us perhaps more background, history, and practices of his religion. Readers may find this a struggle, particularly if they are in a hurry to get into the real case! Once that occurs, however, Kemelman cruises.(Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)
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