From Publishers Weekly
Public TV has made a huge audience familiar with Mortimer's rumpled and irritable English barrister, and this book of Rumpole yarns is very much the sort of mixture Mortimer has prospered with before. The legal knowledge is keen but lightly worn, the plots flimsy but serviceable and the humor endearingly old-fashioned, rather like an English music hall turn. (A contemporary reader will often find particular difficulty with such pawky formula stuff as Rumpole's calling his wife She Who Must Be Obeyed.) The title story is a gem, as Rumpole carries his genial contempt for judges a bit too far and is driven to apologize only when he realizes what a life of retirement from the bar would be like; others, like "Rumpole and the Eternal Triangle" and "Rumpole and the Soothsayer," are rather tired and mechanical. In his non-Rumpole novels ( Titmuss Regained et al.), Mortimer always seems a sweeter-natured, more rounded artist than the man who keeps Rumpole going. He wouldn't be the first author whose public remained fonder of a character than its creator is, and this collection shows signs of such disaffection.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
Actor Leo McKern, who played Rumpole on the PBS series, may have died, but the world still has a remarkable interpretation of the Old Bailey defender--in Timothy West's narration. The stories in this volume are familiar from the "Rumpole of the Bailey" TV series, but they're still a treat, not just for the courtroom drama, but also for Rumpole's deft handling of office conflicts. The story line weaves through the seven mysteries, kicking off with a member of the Timson clan falsely accused of devil worship, sending Rumpole into a hostile child welfare court, and ending with Rumpole facing charges of unethical conduct. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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