I jumped for joy when I read the cover. At last, we were about to learn the truth of that greatest of all Rumpole's cases: the one, the only, "Penge Bungalow Murders".Now, Horace is in superb form. Nothing wrong with our Rumpole. But I was expecting a different case than the one his scribe John Mortimer put to paper.
First off: the doctor. According to one of the former stories, Rumpole had the fine forensic assistance of a doctor (whose son Rumpole later got off the charge of wife murder) He wasn't there.
2nd) Three Fingers Doherty does not seem the same man. His 'Three fingers' nickname was given him for a different reason here than the reason Rumpole gave it in an earlier story.
Hilda, however is wonderfully masterful, even as a young woman.
And how Rumpole won, alone and without a leader, is classic Rumpole.
But it seems somehow a very gloom laden story - as if Horace, in his wheelchair awaiting summons to his last court appearance, no longer found satisfaction in recalling it.
Is this the last Rumpole story?
