A Rumpole Christmas

September 7, 2009
As this fine holiday collection shows, Mortimer (1923–2009) could tell lovely tales that end with a gentle punch. Each of the five stories highlights English barrister Horace Rumpole's quirky personality, his love of food and drink, and life with his formidable wife, Hilda (aka “She Who Must Be Obeyed”). But most of all, each illustrates Rumpole's sense of justice and commitment to the law as well as his dry wit. As usual, Rumpole overshadows plots that often focus on the barrister trying to ignore the holiday. “Rumpole and Father Christmas” suggests that even a career criminal can get the holiday spirit. A businessman's past is used to secure funds for a church in “Rumpole and the Old Familiar Faces.” The most timely is the twisty “Rumpole and the Christmas Break,” about a murdered professor and an Islamic student with a religious vendetta against her. This is a perfect stocking stuffer for Mortimer fans.

October 1, 2009
Collected here for the first time in book form are five Christmas-themed Rumpole of the Bailey short stories. Horace Rumpole is not fond of the holidays, as everyone seems to get a break from work except him, because crime never takes a vacation. Fans who mourned Mortimer's death earlier this year will be thrilled, but smaller libraries may get by without it.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2009
Unless posthumous books are to come, this may be the late John Mortimers last gift to the admirers of Horace Rumpole, QC. Although these five stories have been published in various British newspapers and magazines, they have never been collected in one volume. They also represent the only Rumpole story collection centering on Christmas. This is Christmas with a distinctly Rumpolean flavor. One of the Timsons (the clan who has kept Rumpole in business for years) has been sentenced for receiving stolen Christmas puddings. And Horace and Hilda (She Who Must Be Obeyed) exchange their usual gifts of tie and lavender water. The five stories here are all glorious blends of Rumpoles biting wit, the atmosphere of Chambers and the Old Bailey, and Rumpoles heroic defense of British law. A burglar appears at a Christmas party in Chambers in the role of Father Christmas. The Rumpoles stay over Christmas at a health spa (Hildas idea) is disrupted by a murder in the sauna. A blackmailing mistress receives a Christmas surprise. A former clip-joint owner and Rumpole client appears as the lord of the manor at a country home the Rumpoles visit. A seemingly open-and-shut murder trial takes a curious twist over Christmas break. All wonderful storiesand, perhaps best of all, readers finally learn the origin of Chateau Thames Embankment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)