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Like Men Betrayed
When Kit, the son of solicitor Christopher Kennett disappears, the father leaves behind his safe and well-ordered life to search in London's rougher quarters and learns much about others' struggles and his own heart
- GenresFiction
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1953
22 people want to read
About the author
John Mortimer
250 books231 followersJohn Clifford Mortimer was a novelist, playwright and former practising barrister. Among his many publications are several volumes of Rumpole stories and a trilogy of political novels, Paradise Postponed, Titmuss Regained and The Sound of Trumpets, featuring Leslie Titmuss - a character as brilliant as Rumpole. John Mortimer received a knighthood for his services to the arts in 1998.
Series:
Rumpole of the Bailey
Rapstone Chronicles
Series:
Rumpole of the Bailey
Rapstone Chronicles
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 9, 2017
A very cloistered attorney must venture out of his comfort zone when he finds his son may have been naughty, and finds all sorts of things he didn't even know existed.
Very British.
Very British.
Read
June 9, 2015A truly empathetic book. How scary to find out your own son is dishonest and cannot be trusted. Yet, how can you not try to save him from himself.
This remarkable book forces Christopher Kennet to leave his safe, ordered life to search for his son in the dubius and dangerous underworld of London.
Great read with an interesting look at humanity.
November 26, 2015
Let me begin by saying I really enjoy John Mortimer's writing, his Rumple, his commentaries etc., however I must say his dedicated prose (what I have read) leaves me cold. This joyous writer with a great turn of phrase(which at times is evident here) seems to me to come up short in his so-called serious novels seeing to paint wholly inadequate characters. I had to constantly remind myself that this "Noir" approach was written in the early 1950s and while it is in some manner reflective of that gloomy time, its a complete turn off. Was this an effort at an "angry" commentary? It reads at times like an "angry young writers" of the era copy that fails to elicit one centime of empathy for ANY of the characters. At least the "angry young writers" of the era produced authenticity and elicited some sympathy for their protagonists, this appears to be an effort to move the angst from row-housing in Manchester to upper-middle class of London and country-side. The in-bred horse loving hunters of the rural scenes are utterly dreadful in all depictions with nary a decent bone in their collective bodies. It fails miserably.
August 26, 2013
"Christopher Kennet has dined at the same club for twenty-five years; his home and marriage are perfectly ordered, as is his solicitor's practice. But when Kennet suspects that his estranged son,Kit, has been doing something extraordinary with the property of a valued client, Kennet is forced to leave his comfortable world behind.
"In search of his son, Kennet enters Kit's hard world--the London of late-night cafes, pimps, whores, disenchanted students, and shadowy men who pursue dubious, and dangerous, ends. As imagined threats become frighteningly real, Kennet discovers a great deal about the unpredictable workings of the world--and of his own heart."
~~backcover
A strange book -- it took me a while to finally get everybody straight in my head, so that I didn't have to go back & review every time I picked the book up & started reading again. I wasn't able to identify very closely with any of the characters, except Kennet Sr. Everyone else was too self-centered, vague or ruthless to be anything more than characters on the page.
A very surprising ending!
"In search of his son, Kennet enters Kit's hard world--the London of late-night cafes, pimps, whores, disenchanted students, and shadowy men who pursue dubious, and dangerous, ends. As imagined threats become frighteningly real, Kennet discovers a great deal about the unpredictable workings of the world--and of his own heart."
~~backcover
A strange book -- it took me a while to finally get everybody straight in my head, so that I didn't have to go back & review every time I picked the book up & started reading again. I wasn't able to identify very closely with any of the characters, except Kennet Sr. Everyone else was too self-centered, vague or ruthless to be anything more than characters on the page.
A very surprising ending!
April 4, 2010
A middle-aged laywer discovers the shady business dealings of his son and tries to remedy the situation.
Mortimer uses a lot of similes, but they're usually good ones. It seemed to me that a few of the characters could have been dialled back and a few others brought more to the fore. But the protagonist was a guy I could root for, despite his imperfections (and a personality so unlike mine). It's an attention-keeping read, though the ending could have been better.
Mortimer uses a lot of similes, but they're usually good ones. It seemed to me that a few of the characters could have been dialled back and a few others brought more to the fore. But the protagonist was a guy I could root for, despite his imperfections (and a personality so unlike mine). It's an attention-keeping read, though the ending could have been better.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews