Saturday brings Yom Kippur to Barnard's Crossing and Rabbi Small is preparing as usual. But his prayers and fasting are interrupted when a member of his congregation is found dead in his car. The police call it accidental. The insurance company calls it suicide. Only Rabbi Small's pregnant wife, Miriam, thinks it's murder. Now it's up to him to prove her right.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Harry Kemelman has a B.A. from Boston University and an M.A. in English philology from Harvard. Kemelman taught at a number of schools before World War II and during the war, Kemelman worked as a wage administrator for the United States Army Transportation Corps in Boston and later, for the War Assets Administration. It was after that war that Kemelman became a freelance writer and private businessman.

He began his writing career by writing short stories for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine featuring New England college professor Nicky Welt, the first of which, "The Nine Mile Walk", is considered a classic. He was the creator of one of the most famous religious sleuths, Rabbi David Small—the key figure in his Rabbi series.