2008-03-30 "I'm afraid what we have here is a case of premature adjudication."

The irascible Horace Rumpole is definitely not mellowing with age. Concerned with what he sees as a country-wide erosion of civil liberties, Rumpole is representing Peter Timson, a twelve-year-old member of the criminal clan of Timsons, which has provided Rumpole with a steady court income over the years. Peter has been served with an ASBO, an Anti-Social Behavior Order, because he has been playing ball in the street and has had to enter an exclusive neighborhood in order to retrieve his ball. If there is any repetition of this, he will go to court. As Rumpole is grumbling about the absurdity of this order, he is served with his own ASBO--secured by his fellow barristers and staff--because he eats lunch, drinks Chateau Thames Embankment, and smokes cigarillos in chambers, behavior the rest of the group abhors.

Rumpole's biggest legal commitment, at this point, is the case of Graham Wetherby, charged with the murder of a prostitute, a Russian immigrant, during his lunch hour. Wetherby, a mild young man with a severe birthmark on his face, has few friends and no girlfriends, and despite Rumpole's dedication to his case, Wetherby feels a bit cheated because Rumpole is not a QC, as are the attorneys who defend the worst criminals in the jail where he is being held.

The tongue-in-cheek humor, the ironies, and Rumpole's own sardonic wit and asides are delightful, and when Hilda (She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed) decides to become a barrister so that she can take over the kinds of cases that Rumpole will be too busy to accept, once he becomes a QC (a project she encourages), the hilarity continues. Hilda is the current muse of "Mad Bull" Bullingham, a judge with whom she plays cards but who has caused more problems for Rumpole than any other. Bullingham, however, adores Hilda, and agrees to sponsor Rumpole for his "silks." As the machinations involved in the process of becoming a QC play out, Rumpole tries to stay on the right side of the establishment and to keep up Wetherby's hopes that the QC title will arrive before his case comes to trial.

All the plots and subplots overlap, the continuing cast of characters continues to provide amusements. Their long-running history involving past cases keeps the reader constantly thinking of other wonderful Rumpole stories, and the reader's appreciation of author John Mortimer's cleverness in his plots and characterizations continues to grow. As always, the focus here is clearly on Rumpole--unregenerate, unapologetic, and unwilling to compromise. Mary Whipple