Rumpole and the Primrose Path [Audio Cassette]

John Mortimer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2003

Solving the mystery of the Primrose Path Home proves to be the first of a collection of great new casees, as Rumpole defies hospital and returns triumphantly to defent the innocent - and the not-so-innocent...The stories contained within are: Rumpole and the Primrose Path, Rumpole and the New Year's Resolutions, Rumpole and the Scales of Justice, Rumpole and the Right to Privacy, Rumpole and the Vanishing Juror and Rumpole Redeemed.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Rumpole's last outing, Rumpole Rests His Case (2002), Mortimer's beloved barrister suffered a near-fatal heart attack, but as shown in this delicious new story collection, Rumpole still has plenty of life left, despite the preparations some of his blithely insensitive colleagues in chambers make for his imminent demise. In the ingenious title tale, which has been nominated for an Edgar, Rumpole is recuperating in the Primrose Path Home, until the mysterious death of an elderly fellow patient prompts him to slip back to London, where he soon figures out that there's something fishy afoot at his former rest home. The five other entries offer puzzles nearly as clever, though in one story, in which a juror turns out to know someone connected to a murder case, the apparent lack of a voir dire process for screening jurors may strike some readers as odd. As always, however, it is the character of Rumpole and his supporting cast, headed by wife Hilda ("She Who Must Be Obeyed"), that provides such pleasure, along with a perfectly crafted style that owes much to P.G. Wodehouse. If at times the bumbling Rumpole, like Bertie Wooster, must suffer one comic humiliation after another, let it not be forgot that Rumpole, unlike Bertie, is a competent professional who operates in a recognizably real and often nasty contemporary world. May he, as his wife so confidently assumes over their anniversary dinner in the uplifting final story, "Rumpole Redeemed," be back for more legal escapades next year.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* The past decade has been a bit bumpy for fans of the irascible, keen-witted criminal defense barrister Rumpole. First, fans had to wait six years before Rumpole Rests His Case appeared in 2002, and then, when Rumpole suffered a heart attack at the end of the novel, it seemed that he might really be hanging up his horsehair wig for good and pleading his case before the Ultimate Judge. (The real-life death of character actor Leo McKern, for whom Mortimer designed the Rumpole stories, lent further credence to this theory.) Clearly, Rumpole fans have needed some good news, and here it is. Bring out the Chateau Thames Embankment and toast the return of the barrister from near-death and from the clutches of the Primrose Path convalescent home, back to his chambers, the Old Bailey, back to his beloved Timson crime family, to his less beloved "She Who Must Be Obeyed," and, of course, to Pomeroy's Wine Bar. These six new stories showcase everything that is great and good in this long-running series: the sly characterizations of the denizens of Equity Chambers and the Old Bailey; Rumpole's crabby take on change and his incisive wit; and Mortimer's deft plotting. Rumpole takes on a Fagin-like pickpocket on the tube, a murderous nursing-home plot, the new marketing director for Chambers, and the powerful She Who Must Be Obeyed, along with the usual unsavory criminals he loves to defend. This new Rumpole is clearly cause for celebration. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: BBC Word for Word (June 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0754075923
• ISBN-13: 978-0754075929
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 4.2 x 2.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long Live Rumpole!!, December 15, 2003

By 

JACK "bookophile" (HOUSTON, TX, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rumpole and the Primrose Path (Hardcover)

In "Rumpole and the Primrose Path" we find our favorite claret-swilling elderly junior barrister in fine form. As anarchic as ever, in the short story that lends its name to the collection, Rumpole stages a break from the nursing home where he is recuperating from a mild heart attack. This story sets the tone for the collection, proving that not even a brush with his own mortality (and when everyone in his old chambers has begun plotting his memorial service) can dampen the Rumpole eccentricities.

To show that he keeps up with the times, Mortimer has Rumpole deal with a case involving wayward e-mails; we cheer as Rumpole evades the body tyranny of fitness clubs. Add to this the odd bit of passion that erupts like a boil (affairs that could be as messy and painful to those involved) among the barristers and judges of the Old Bailey.

The mysteries are slight. The main joy is reading Rumpole's exploits as he again makes the rounds of the Old Bailey while living under the benevolent despotism of She.

Even the ever-unromantic Rumpole finishes the collection by bending enough to admit that if he outlives She Who Must Be Obeyed he would feel a certain loneliness. She Who Must grudgingly admits that she, too, inexplicably wants to keep Rumpole around for a while longer.

I can second that sentiment. Should any of his fans outlive Rumpole there would be a decided literary void. By all means, let's keep Rumpole around for quite some time to come.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rumpole goes marching on, November 16, 2003

By 

Tom Munro "tomfrombrunswick" (Melbourne, Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rumpole and the Primrose Path (Hardcover)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rumpole Redeemed, September 8, 2004

By 

George R Dekle "Bob Dekle" (Lake City, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Rumpole and the Primrose Path (Hardcover)

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.