Forever Rumpole: The Best of the Rumpole Stories
A Short Story Collection by John Mortimer
Review: Criminal defense attorney Horace Rumpole, a charming curmudgeon, champion of the underdog and famous for side-stepping rules whenever they get in his way, is featured in Forever Rumpole: The Best of the Rumpole Stories, a selection of short stories by John Mortimer published over a period of three decades.
Some of the most popular recurring characters appear in these stories. Of course there is Rumpole's wife Hilda, "she who must be obeyed", who offers her own quaint and amusing point of view of their life together. Then there are the Molloys and the Timsons, two feuding families whose members are constantly in trouble. The twist, of course, is the younger generation sees an advantage in working crimes together, but need to keep their alliance secret from their respective parents. The cases Rumpole takes on run the gamut, from petty crimes to sophisticated murder. They are also frequently topical, relevant at the time the story was written and in many instances, relevant still today. In nearly all, Rumpole is called upon to break a rule or two that he does not agree with. He doesn't get away with them all — in other words, he doesn't win every case — but no one can ever deny that his presence wasn't made known to all.
Readers new to Rumpole will delight in this terrific collection. Long-time readers will be thrilled to revisit an old friend. Horace Rumpole is a timeless character, his exploits always enlightening and, as the title suggests, forever engaging and amusing.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Forever Rumpole: The Best of the Rumpole Stories.
Acknowledgment: Penguin Group provided a copy of Forever Rumpole: The Best of the Rumpole Stories for this review.
Review Copyright © 2011 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Selected reviews of other mysteries by this author …
Rumpole Misbehaves
Viking (Hardcover), November 2007
ISBN-13: 9780670018307; ISBN-10: 0670018309
Location(s) referenced in Forever Rumpole: The Best of the Rumpole Stories: England
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Forever Rumpole: The Best of the Rumpole Stories by John Mortimer
Publisher: Viking
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-670-02306-X
ISBN-13: 978-0-670-02306-6
Publication Date: November 2011
List Price: $30.00
Synopsis (from the publisher): John Mortimer died in 2009, but will never be forgotten. While still a practicing barrister, Mortimer took up the pen, and the rest is literary history. His stories featuring the cigar-chomping, cheap-wine-tippling Rumpole and his wife, Hilda (aka "She Who Must Be Obeyed"), have justly earned their place in the pantheon of mystery fiction legends.
Forever Rumpole brings together fourteen of Rumpole's most entertaining adventures, together with a fragment of a new story. Rumpole is never less than delightful and this new collection is a fitting tribute to an indelible character and his remarkable creator.