While I’m trying to decide what might be the best franchise to own, either my pizza delivery mystery series, or a slightly less supernatural series on a crime-solving Messianic rabbi, I have to confess that if I go with the latter, the mystery novels of Harry Kemelman will be a definite influence.
Although Kemelman’s series was set in the 1960s and 1970s and focused on traditional Judaism, one would be a fool not to acknowledge his influence, which lasted right up until his 1996 death and beyond. It’s hard to find bookstores that carry his novels anymore, which is a shame because not only are they solid primers on Judaism, they are entertaining mysteries as well.
While my series will focus on a brand of Messianic Judaism that Kemelman probably wouldn’t find appealing himself, his Rabbi Small novels certainly created the forumla by which anyone should approach mixing the rabbinic with crime-solving. Shalom to his survivors.
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