10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very literate mystery -- well plotted and interesting, July 12, 2005
This review is from: The Unorthodox Murder of Rabbi Wahl (Rabbi Daniel Winter Mysteries) (Paperback)
Anyone who is interested in the ethical discussions in Alexander McCall Smith is likely to be interested in this book. The "detective," Daniel Winter, is a rabbi who gives brief explanations of Jewish law and its reasoning -- just enough to be interesting, such as why someone cannot be convicted of murder if the jury is unanimous (raises suspicions) or a parent cannot testify for or against a child and vice versa.
The plot involves a feminist rabbi who is run down by a car after a spirited discussion at a Sunday evening radio talk show. Daniel is particularly upset with this woman when he leaves the show, but he ends up getting involved in the investigation for a number of reasons -- not least of which is that someone believes that the man accused of the crime is innocent. Daniel also has a romance beginning with a police psychologist who is an infrequent attender of his synagogue but who has come to see him about a stolen watch she wants returned (one of the youth appears to have stolen it from her daughter). All the various threads interwind and connect at various points in this carefully plotted book.
I look forward to reading more in the series. My only comment would be that I am not on the same page as Winter on some issues and chafed a bit; I suspect that this book will be more popular with men than with women.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shabbot Shalom, January 7, 2005
This review is from: The Unorthodox Murder of Rabbi Wahl (Rabbi Daniel Winter Mysteries) (Paperback)
There are many books in my library. Many of them came there because of a quirk that I have for picking up books that look as if they would be interesting.
Being who I am & what I have done with my life; this can mean anything from a mystery based on the treatis of quantam physics such as the amazing authoress Pat Murphy writes or it can mean one steeped in the candid strangeness of living in today's California {something that I do not do by choice} & being of an ancient & most honorable faith - be that Judaism or Christianity or another of which I AM an adherant.
Be that as it may, The Unorthodox Murcher of Rabbi Wahl is a fascinating & indepth look at another of the literary world's leaders of a religious community. It gives us both a challenging mystery wrapped in the healing of one man's heart, the solution to two different types of mysteries several years apart & asks us to question some of the basic tenets of two of the larger faiths without being too stiff or formal about it.
The book gave us enough background to hang ourselves: the ability to pick the perpetrator & be wrong. It gave use the ongoing clues found by peripheral people who turned out to be future victims & also those from seemingly incongruous ones as well: such as a little boy at a distinctly Jewish wedding.
I'm sure that many people have read the Kemelmen series on Rabbi Small & those of the Monsignor Blackie Ryan. This book belongs in that genre. The book of knowing a religion exists, knowing some of the tenets & services & believing that justice will most likely prevail, perhaps not in all instances but most of them.
I liked the book. Voracious reader that I am, I was moving books to reshelve my fall reading list & made this the 8th book that I've read in the new year by simply picking it up & opening it to the first page. I will read it again. Why don't you try it for the first time?
Jacqueline G. Emrys
herbalist, reader
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Most enjoyable!!!, March 8, 2004
This book was a pleasure to read! It was highly enjoyable, had a perplexing and well thought out plot and was a book that has a permenant spot on my bookshelf!
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