Small is related to a distinguished line of clerical detectives who solve crime through the same intricate reasoning processes they apply to making subtle distinctions between abstract theological principles. Perhaps the most famous of these clerical sleuths is G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown, like Small an armchair detective. Father Andrew Greeley and Monica Quill have also created clerical sleuths. Like Kemelman, several of these writers have academic affiliations or backgrounds. Ralph McInery, creator of detective Father Dowling, for example, holds a chair in Medieval Studies at Notre Dame. These writers and their detectives suggest that religious training provides one with cognitive skills and knowledge of human nature which can be applied to such seemingly disparate activity as the solving of crime.