Book Review: Rumpole and the Reign of Terror (2006)
When the character of Rumpole was first created in the mid-1970s, he was described as being on the cusp of retirement. The television series and the books detailing Rumpole’s subsequent adventures have continued for over three decades, but the character has remained about the same age while the world and society alters around him. Keeping a static, stable and unchanging known-quantity as his main character allows author John Mortimer to give us an old-fashioned outlook into an increasingly changing world.
In the past few books this was used mostly for comic effect: Rumpole dealing with political correctness and smoking bans, the revelation of Sam Ballard’s punk-rock youth, the need for his legal chambers to possess a modern and engaging website. However, in Rumpole and the Reign of Terror we see Rumpole’s values and principles challenged in a world of post-9/11 laws and procedures.
Fortunately for Rumpole, he isn’t having to deal with the indignity of pointless shoe-removal at airport security lines; instead he’s looking at the impact on the British justice system, the weakening of habeas corpus and the decline of the presumption of innocence.
In the story, a Pakistani doctor is being held without charge on terrorism suspicions. Of course, given the level of coincidence that’s endearingly present in most Rumpole stories, it won’t be a shock to reveal that the connection to Rumpole is not because of his stellar legal reputation. Rather it is because of the fact that the doctor’s in-laws happen to be the Timson clan, a family of minor criminals who pop up frequently in the Rumpole stories.
In any event, the thought of someone held in custody without charge or explanation rattles the core of Rumpole’s principles, regardless of whether the suspected crime is terrorism or not (although Rumpole does begin to have the glimmerings of doubt when he finds some disturbing correspondence which the accused supposedly had in his possession). Defending such a person leaves Rumpole out on his own, and not for the first time in his career. Not only is the press skeptical and unconvinced that terror suspects require access to the judicial system, She Who Must Be Obeyed cannot understand Rumpole’s insistence that even accused terrorists are innocent until proven guilty.
Speaking of Rumpole’s wife, a fun subplot involves Hilda Rumpole beginning to write her own memoirs as a balance to Rumpole’s own writings, which she assumes will paint a less than flattering portrait of herself. As with many of the previous stories, the Hilda subplot is amusing and entertaining. And not for the first time, this seemingly unrelated storyline ends up having a major impact on Rumpole’s success in the courtroom.
The tone of THE REIGN OF TERROR is light and comfortable, as is now traditional in Mortimer’s Rumpole series. While there are important topics raised and discussed, they never overwhelm the narrative. The story is fun and never overly serious.
It says something about the power of Leo McKern’s performance in the television version of the Rumpole stories that reading dialog written over four years after his death and fourteen years after his final performance as the character, I can easily imagine McKern reciting lines from THE REIGN OF TERROR. John Mortimer is still utterly consistent in his writing, so fans of his earlier work should enjoy this. As for myself, I’m sure I’ll be reading the Rumpole stories for as long as Mortimer can keep turning them out.
This review was originally posted on September 7, 2008.
