Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders
by John Mortimer
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Book Summary Information
Author: John MortimerEdition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2004-11-18
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Viking
Book Reviews of Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders
Book Review: Must buy
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are already a Rumpole fan, you simply must buy this book, because it not only talks about the Penge Bungalow Murders (PBM), it talks about his first days at the chambers.
If you are not a Rumpole fan, do not under any circumstance, start with this book. You must start off with one of his early ones, preferably the first one.
For some reason Mortimer doesn't place Rumpole back in time when it happened. This book takes place currently and Rumpole relates back in time as he writes his memoirs.
To be honest, I'm a little disappointed in the PBM. Being tantalized over the years by the PBM, I thought the case was a little bit of a letdown. Really, the best thing Mortimer should have done was to leave it a complete mystery. However, Mortimer does tie up a lot of loose ends by relating how he got into Equity Court, how he met Hilda, Bernard and even the Timsons! Though he doesn't go into a lot of detail about his pre-law life, finally we get to see how everything started.
For long time fans of Rumpole, I feel that Mortimer's early Rumpole books were more substantial. His later Rumpole books are shorter and simpler. I finished each of the new Rumpole books in one day, whereas the old ones take more than one day to finish.
I like Rumpole very much, I think the books are very well written. They don't have the frantic pace of books written over here with twists and turns, dramatic killers and shocking murders. But like many British books, they are much more low key. By now Rumpole is a very old friend to me, I'm abashed to say that I'd buy any Rumpole book, good or bad. But then, that's just a reflection of how good they are. Mortimer has now passed on, may he RIP, but I shall continue to treasure all the Rumpoles that I have and pass them down.
For those not familiar with Rumpole, he's an English lawyer, and these books are kinda English legal procedurals (as opposed to police procedurals), with a bit of mystery and a lot of understated humor thrown in. If you're not used to tough reading, start off with one of the newer ones just to see if you like them, then start from the beginning.
Summary of Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders
Horace Rumpole - cigar-smoking, claret-drinking, Wordsworth-spouting defender of some unlikely clients - often speaks of the great murder trial which revealed his talents as an advocate and made his reputation down at the Bailey when he was still a young man. Now, for the first time, the sensational story of the Penge Bungalow Murders case is told in full: how, shortly after the war, Rumpole took on the seemingly impossible task of defending young Simon Jerold, accused of murdering his father and his father's friend with a German officer's gun. And how the inexperienced young brief was left alone to pursue the path of justice, in a case that was to echo through the Bailey for years to come.Book Subjects
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