Narrator's smooth voice

An obvious whodunit but an interesting take featuring the main character. twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen

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Great cosy mystery with a Jewish twist

This book was a pleasure to listen to. Lovely cosy mystery with a surprising amateur sleuth at its heart - a Rabbi. Has everything you’d expect from a cosy mystery + explorations of Jewish faith, culture, and politics. Beautiful narration by George Guidall.

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Very good

A little allowance is needed for this is set in the 60s - but it is still a great listen with nicely crafted characters.

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An Easy Listen

Although a murder mystery lies at the heart of this story, don't think that the Rabbi is some sort of super sleuth, Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot type character. He is not that type at all. He is slow moving and deliberate and more or less uses theology as a process of elimination to solves issues in his community. Sounds weird? Just give it a go, you'll see what I mean. Also the murder is not the central theme at the heart of this story, for me it was about the Rabbi and his Marmite relationship with those who frequent the Temple and how as the story unfolds his standing in the community changes.

In terms of the narration, very enjoyable and leisurely paced. The narrator, has a pleasent voice and uses a good range of accents and tones in order to differentiate between the characters. Apparantly he is the premier narrator of audio narrations. I can see why.

I do intend to follow up the Rabbi's progress, in the next installment in the series, Saturday, the Rabbi...

Abbie

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2 people found this helpful

FANTASTIC! SIMPLY FANTASTIC!

The series was recommended by my Rabbi - and it’s the first of ten. Anyway, it had me in stitches! The humour is great, as is a pretty fair reflection of the Conservative Jewish community. Beautifully performed, and completely engaging.

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Very enjoyable and informative.

Loved this book. It was from the plus catalog so not too much riding on it, but I was hooked amid all the twists and turns and did not see the end coming. Also learned a lot about Judaism which I didn’t know (but thought I did!) Looking forward to the best one. Highly recommended if you like an intelligent and thoughtful detective story.

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Interesting and Educational

I read this book based on a book club recommendation. I'm really glad that I did. As a Christian, I thought that I knew a little bit about Judaism, I was wrong. Essentially, I knew nothing.

Having listened to this novel, I'm intrigued enough now to listen to the rest of the series. It feeds into my love of mystery and religion, the characters are endearing and the ritual interesting. The story itself, held its own and is no better or worse than any Agatha Christie tale.

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3 people found this helpful

Another, more innocent age.

Rabbi David Small is a young man who has the mind of a Jesuit! He has solid ethical values, but lives in a small American town with a newly growing Jewish population where the founders of the temple are powerful, politically and financially aware, and rivals.
Kemelman explains Conservative Judaism very well ( as far as I can tell ) as a system of ethical living, akin to Buddhism, without much reference to the Almighty, and his version of Catholic theology isn't exactly kosher!
This is the USA before 9/11, almost before Vietnam, still parochial, self-congratulatory, class-ridden and money-mad.
It's comforting listening, so last century. I read some of this series aeons ago, from the library, and now enjoy going to sleep with the voice of another USA (the road films, etc) and the wee setbacks of small business and parish pump pride.

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2 people found this helpful

A really entertaining story, as if I knew some of the characters in real life.

It is the first time of reading of the adventures of Rabbi Small. It was highly entertaining and with wonderful insight into the Yiddishe Kop (the Jewish head/ the existential process of questioning the notion of impossible.)
Rabbi Small the hero of this novel whilst academic and unassuming has a unique capacity to turn tables and checkmate his opponents when his back is seemingly up against the wall, drawing upon ancient tradition with an astute, shrewd way of looking at life.
I am looking forward to reading further novels in this series.

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You just practice being patient."

Intriguing who dun it in which the local Rabbi reasons out the identity of the killer of a young woman.go and murdered just inside the Temple grounds. Quite clever but so.slow moving it was, to this reader, like watching an old cardboard toy theatre production - almost static.
I am a big fan of narrator, George Guidall, usually good at breathing life into his characters, an excellent story teller, but even his performance felt two dimensional. The most excitement came when I realised I was almost at the end.

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