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Harry Kemelman's The Nine Mile Walk is a collection of eight mystery stories starring Nicholas "Nicky" Welt, Snowdon Professor of English Language and Literature and amateur detective. Through an attorney friend who narrates the stories, Welt constantly finds himself involved in police cases and, in the manner of G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown, always manages to come up with the right solutions by using his understanding of human nature. Mystery fans will enjoy Kemelman's clever puzzles, and both Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown fans will find familiar traits in Professor Nicky Welt. The genesis of these stories, as Kemelman writes in his Introduction, was a composition class. "I was teaching a class in advanced composition and trying to show my students that words do not exist in vacuo but have meanings that can transcend their usual connotations, that even short combinations can permit a wide variety of interpretations," Kemelman writes. "The headline of a story in the newspaper lying on my desk caught my eye -- something about a hike planned by the local Boy Scout troop -- and I wrote on the blackboard, 'A nine mile walk is no joke, especially in the rain.' "(A)s I coaxed and offered hints and suggestions, I myself was caught up in the game," he continues. "I made inference upon inference, projection upon projection, and was led further and further .... It occurred to me that I had the material for a story...." And thus Nicky Welt was born. Kemelman is best known for his murder mystery series starring Rabbi David Small (Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry, Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home, etc.). Kemelman died in December, 1996.
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