RUMPOLE ON TRIAL

Seven more cases for the inimitably waggish defender Rumpole. As usual, each adventure mingles Rumpole's attempts to procure justice for his guilty-looking clients with disturbances in his domestic or professional circle—his invitation to visit the titled relatives of his wife (She Who Must Be Obeyed); his amatory pursuit by a cellist too pure-hearted to appreciate the virtues of Pommeroy's Plonk; the scheming of his colleague Phillida Erskine-Brown to elevate her nitwit husband Claude to Queen's Council; Mrs. Rumpole's purchase of a burglar alarm—that wily veteran Mortimer (Rumpole Ö la Carte, etc.) ties into the cases in variously ingenious ways. The first three stories are routine, but the last four (including a rare and expert short-short and the title story, wherein Rumpole faces dismissal from the bar) are delightful. Since the death of Rex Stout, no one's drawn so endearingly unchanging a portrait of any fictional detective's world. Vive Rumpole!