Were it not for his interest in Judaic history and culture, perhaps Kemelman would have continued to write short stories and contribute them to the popular detective fiction press. The detection interest in Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry and in other Kemelman novels is adequate for an Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine short story, but is barely enough to flesh out a full-length novel. The technique is straightforward Golden Age "whodunit" fare. Small plays the slightly eccentric amateur detective with exceptional rational and deductive powers. Lanigan as a police official is effective and competent but fails to discover the murderer because he lacks the proper angle of vision.

The classical detective pattern is further amplified through the nature of the crime and of its victim. The murder is a crime of passion: Disguised first as a suicide the crime leads to a coverup made necessary to prevent the professional...