From Publishers Weekly
After a two-year break, the indomitable barrister Horace Rumpole returns in six sprightly new capers, including one told by his long-suffering wife Hilda, who proves to be every bit as canny as her crafty curmudgeon of a husband. As always, Mortimer writes with a Wodehousian elan but, unlike Wodehouse, he incorporates a spirited if indirect wrestling with the social and political issues of the day. In the title piece, an old judge with Alzheimer's is a posthumous figure in a case involving a doctor who is charged with unduly hastening the judge's end. In "Rumpole and the Way Through the Woods," animal-rights activists clash with fox hunters, and the wife of Horace's old friend dies mysteriously. When the widower finds new romance with indecent haste, the wily Rumpole has to consider more than just heated politics. Dealing elsewhere with sexism and child kidnapping, Rumpole is by turns acutely sensitive and brazenly bullheaded, as Mortimer dances nimbly around thorny subjects with his trademark ease, applying all-knowing wit and painstaking characterization.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
The irascible but always entertaining Rumpole is back, this time in a series of short stories that have him facing the usual assortment of human detritus at the Old Bailey. Rumpole's delightful compatriots--the determined and politically correct Miz Liz Probert, Mr. Injustice Graves, the beleaguered Claude Erskine-Brown, and, of course, She Who Must Be Obeyed--are once again in evidence, as are Rumpole's inadvertent humor, his keen understanding of the criminal and not-so-criminal minds, and his wily defenses of some of life's biggest losers. Here the barrister must defend, among others, an animal-rights activist accused of murder and a wife-killer whose dedication to teaching wins him a dangerous friend. In addition, there's a story told by the never-before-heard-from Hilda (She Who Must Be Obeyed) that's subtly hilarious and chockful of sharp-tongued wit. Mortimer's stories may lack the gritty drama associated with the hard-boiled arm of the genre, but what he does provide is class, charm, and a wry commentary on a way of life that has nearly passed from existence.
Emily Melton
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
