On Wednesday, January 24, 2007 at 8:56:43 PM UTC-7, Francis A. Miniter wrote:
This is a novel dealing with terrorism. But the terrorism that Rumpole fears
here is not the bomb blast in the subway but the deprivation of rights that the
government believes will somehow help them land terrorists in prison. So, Rumpole is asked by woman of the Timpson clan to help her find her husband, a
medical doctor from Pakistan, who was whisked away by people claiming to be government authorities. Finding him is hard enough, getting to him with notepad
in hand is near impossible, and learning why he is being held is wholly impossible. The government wishes to present its evidence without Rumpole or
his client in the room, and they have brushed aside the law against hearsay, and
of course, made disclosure of informants impossible, in the belief that terrorists would take vengeance on the sources.
On top of this, he has to fight public opinion in the shape of She Who Must Be
Obeyed, who tells him that the good doctor must have done something wrong. Why
else would the government have arrested him???
Mortimer uses humor to take the edge off a very uncomfortable subject. And he
accomplishes his goal well. A good read.
Francis A. Miniter
There is a so-so dramatization of Reign of Terror in the collection Rumpole and the Teenaged Werewolf, which is available on Audiobooks. Although the actors are adequate, the script is severely edited from the original and the direction is moribund.
There may be other audio narrations or dramatizations of these stories, which are very enjoyable, especially Reign of Terror. Teenaged Weerewolf is solved before it begins.
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