Rating: 
Summary: Good but Left-leaning
Review: Sir John Mortimer is an excellent author of legal mystery/comedy, and this book is well worth the investment, but make no mistake about it, side-by-side with his ambition to entertain is Mortimer's ambition to shame conservative (including Christian) thought and practice. For example in this title's fifth story, a young, attractive immigrant girl who finances her pursuit of an acting career by working as nude dancer in London nightclub, is murdered. The accused is a fanatical Christian known to have publically chastised the girl owing to the nature of her nighttime employment. In Mortimer's worldview anyone with Christian beliefs is always suspect. Enjoy the book, but don't ever lose sight of the fact that Mortimer, like all liberals worldwide, has an agenda, and revels in the power he has (through fiction) to advance it.
Rating: 
Summary: Rumpole goes marching on
Review: The back of this book suggests that Rumpole is now of similar stature to Sherlock Holmes or Bertie Wooster in English fiction. Probably this is right, somehow or other Mortimer has been writing Rumpole stories for more than 20 years. The character started out as a sort of failure. A criminal barrister in his later years who had not made QC or head of chambers. Someone who the world had passed by. A lot of the early stories relied on the tension between Rumpole who never changed and a world that was constantly changing. Over time somehow Rumpole stopped being a failure and started to represent some of the better things in the law. The desire not to judge, to be fair, the professional skill of advocacy. He began to represent a series of attitudes that to some extent have come under attack as Britian's Legal System has changed. In this collection of stories he is shown as being perhaps the one competant advocate in his chambers. The other barristers in the book, Soapy Sam Ballard and Claude Erskine Brown representing the type of lawyers who never realise the importance of the liberty of the subject or the underpinning of the system and see the practise of criminal law as slumming. Each of the stories is well done and the endings are not telescoped. There is one new character an efficiency expert but the other players are the old familiar ones from so many books. It is a book that brings delight to an afternoon or something which can make a train or bus tip a joy. It is a formula that works to a tee. A crime mystery is set against the background of Rumpole's various goings on in his private life or his chambers. This book of five stories is as fresh as the first.
Rating:
Summary: The franchise is in good shape
Review: The latest addition to the Rumpole series is, as usual, well-written and entertaining. Rumpole, the "old taxicab for hire" (Rumpole's favourite metaphor for a seasoned barrister who makes himself available to the public), represents various defendants accused of committing theft, breaking and entering, murder, and other crimes. Rumpole's subtle but fearless advocacy helps exonerate the wrongfully accused and bring the guilty to justice. Along the way, Mortimer amuses us with the familiar antics of Rumpole (who may be found enjoying a nice glass of "Chateau Thames Embankment"), Rumpole's wife Hilda ("She Who Must Be Obeyed"), Judge Dame Phillida Erskine-Brown ("the Portia of our chambers"), and many others. The six stories are 30 to 40 pages each, well-paced, and literate. Although Mortimer has clearly developed a successful formula in Rumpole, the stories in his latest series remain warm and engaging.
Rating:
Summary: Rumpole Redeemed
Review: When last we left Rumpole, he was recovering from a near-fatal heart attack at the end of "Rumpole Rests his Case." That was a bittersweet book, because Rumpole was beginning to show his age and appeared to be slipping quickly into the final stages of life. He was an elderly barrister nearing the end of his career when he made his debut back in the 1970's. Now, thirty some odd years later, he must be pushing 100. I hoped that any future Rumpole opuses would come from his as-yet-unchronicled youth.
Such was not the case. This latest offering has Rumpole fully recovered from his heart attack and showing the vigor of a youngster in his early sixties. Apparently Mortimer has decided to stop the aging process and keep Rumpole's age forever on the edge of retirement. I, for one, approve. Although the plots in this last book are not as complex as in earlier stories, the mysteries are still as satisfying as ever. The supporting cast of regulars has subsided somewhat into the background and more attention is shown to Rumpole's relationship with his wife, Hilda.
Although possibly not quite up to the high standards of the first stories in the Rumpole Saga, the stories in this book are quite satisfying.
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