Horace Rumpole follows the irrepressible barrister as he takes on the dark forces of evil and injustice in the British legal system.

A delightful romp through 6 short stories of the inimitable Rumpole, in one case actually narrated by Hilda, of SWMBO fame. The nice thing about Mortimer's stories is that he leaves the reader enough information to entirely believe the discoveries at the end, except in one story that I found a little hard to believe. Interesting, as it is the only one that takes place outside of England. ( )

"Rumpole and the Angel of Death" is a collection of 6 stories featuring the late John Mortimer’s immortal creation, Horace Rumpole. I don’t know if these were previously published, for example in magazines, or if they were original to this volume printed in 1995, but I do know that Rumpole is best read at short story or novella length, as that seems to be Mortimer’s greatest strength. These six stories include “Rumpole and the Model Prisoner,” “Rumpole and the Way Through the Woods,” “Hilda’s Story” (told by Rumpole’s wife, also known as She Who Must Be Obeyed), “Rumpole and the Little Boy Lost,” “Rumpole and the Rights of Man” (which takes an extreme reversal of expectations at the very end) and “Rumpole and the Angel of Death.” Mortimer’s writing is humourous and witty, while also making some rather pointed comments about political correctness and other quirks of our times; recommended, especially if you enjoyed the British television series from the last century featuring Leo McKern as the title character. ( )

More Rumpole. The angel of death is a doctor performs what she regards as a mercy killing, and at the end if prepared to offer her services to Rumpole, who abruptly recovers from a hangover. ( )

In this latest volume, Rumpole takes on kidnapping and fraud, a mercy killer, an assassination, animal rights activists and upper class murderers and animal rights. One of the stories is narrated by Rumpole's wife Hilda and shows that Rumpole isn't the only legal talent in the family. Mortimer takes what I think is a very intelligent viewpoint: that Rumpole is comfortably out of step with the moden world. Occasionally he uses this to foil the politically correct police, but on rare occasions he is defeated by circumstances he doesn't understand. Nothing new here, but Rumpole is always reliable and fun to spend time with. ( )