Synopsis
Horace Rumpole, Hero of the Downtrodden, Returns to Fight the Good Fight-For Anti-Social Behavior!
Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) may be the pride and joy of the New Labour Party, but they don't cut much ice with Horace Rumpole-he takes the old-fashioned view that if anyone is going to be threatened with a restriction of their liberty then some form of legal proceeding ought to be gone through first. Not that Hilda agrees, of course, but she's too busy completing her memoirs to dissuade him from taking an interest when one of the Timson children is given an ASBO for playing football in the street. And pretty soon he realizes something fishy is going on. Why are the residents pursuing their vendetta against the Timson boy quite so strongly? Could they have a sinister reason for not wanting him on their street?
Publishers Weekly
At the start of Mortimer's winning new novella to feature Horace Rumpole (after 2006's Rumpole and the Reign of Terror), the quirky English barrister agrees to defend 12-year-old Peter Timson, who's been served with an "Anti-social Behaviour Order" (ASBO) for playing soccer in the streets of a posh London neighborhood. Later, Rumpole takes on a more serious case: a shy civil servant, Graham Wetherby, stands accused of murdering a prostitute, an illegal Russian immigrant. Since Wetherby prefers to be represented by a "QC" or Queens Counsel, Rumpole schemes to become a QC in an amusing subplot. Rumpole fans will cheer the barrister's vigorous defense of his clients as well as his cutting comments on the nanny state that gives rise to laws like ASBOs. As always, the character of Rumpole overshadows the mystery solving: his hedonistic pleasure in food and drink, his acerbic, manipulative wit and his love for the legal underdog. Wife Hilda-"She Who Must Be Obeyed"-narrates the occasional chapter to great comic effect. (Dec.)
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