Rumpole's Last Case

By: John Mortimer

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Rumpole is on the job again, bringing along his taste for claret, his penchant for poetry, and his reputation for a good story.

These seven irresistible stories run the gamut from simple thievery to murder and espionage. Rumpole recalls three delightful battles with his arch-enemy, the Mad Bull; indulges his knowledge of bloodstains and typewriters; and uses the refined taste of a garage mechanic to discover the reasons for the robbery of a case of wine.

As usual, Rumpole's biting wit and benevolent ideas of justice push the Mad Bull to the edge of retaliation, and it is only through some last minute diplomatic intervention that Rumpole lives to argue another day.

©1987 Advanpress, Ltd (P)1995 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Witty British humor

the narrator took a little to get used to but overall the story and performance was entertaining.

Delightful

Absolutely amazing narrator. He makes this book to come alive in your ears. The witty text of Rumpole and the amazing twists of the storyline keeps the listener on his toes.

Rumpole Rules. But Why?

Generally, we (or at least I) tend to favor books that show us worlds we’d want to inhabit (or at least visit) and people we’d like to know. But Rumpole? He’s rude and cantankerous. He’s trapped in an antagonistic marriage. For all his talent he’s a professional failure; in his own words, "a legal hack". And he inhabits a world of cut-and-thrust argument, in and out of court.

So why do I enjoy him so much?

First, the targets of his irreverence (posers, social climbers, reformers) are my pet peeves – and explain his lack of professional success. What he holds dear (truth, poetry, a job well done) are among my favorite things. Worldly-wise rather than world-weary, his cynicism never descends to despair. Rather, he offsets the distasteful atmosphere in which he lives and works with a mental buoyancy that turns these standard elements of tragedy into priceless humor. Of course, he's aided in this by his abiding love for criminal defense, work most of his associates shun.

Finally, most of these stories are good mysteries. Not edge-of-your-seat, whodunnit thrillers, but curious perplexities that get resolved in sometimes unexpected ways in the course of Rumpole’s patient, persistent pursuit of that rarest of commodities, the truth.

I know Frederick Davidson is a lightning rod; people either love him or hate him. I love him. He always brought so much more to the mic.

A clutch of tales about Rumpole of the Bailey

These John Mortimer stories are good fun, and the incomparable narrator Frederick Davidson evokes perfectly the superb TV series. You can easily picture the actor Leo McKern holding forth as Rumpole!

Davidson’s narration stands up to repeated listenings

A consistently engaging set of episodes from Mortimer that intermittently includes incidents and phrases that will cause you to laugh aloud. Davidson is adept in his portrayals of a host of characters and his pacing uniformly involves the listener.