Ten suspects. Ten heists. A puzzle only Ernest Cunningham can solve.
I’ve spent the last few years solving murders. But a bank heist is a new one, even for me. I’ve never been a hostage before.
The doors are chained shut. No one in or out. Which means that when someone in the bank is murdered, hostages become suspects.
THE BANK ROBBER
THE MANAGER
THE SECURITY GUARD
THE KID
THE FILM PRODUCER
THE PRIEST
THE RECEPTIONIST
THE PATIENT
THE CARER
ME
Turns out, more than one person planned to rob the bank today. You can steal more from a bank than just money.
Who is stealing what? And are they willing to kill for it?
Everyone In This Bank is a Thief, Benjamin Stevenson
Ernest Cunningham is dying, in his own words, on the ice-cold floor of a steel box about the size of a fridge with, he's calculated, around fifteen hours of air left inside it. You'd think, under those circumstances, the dwindling ink in his pen would be put to good purpose, getting to the point, maybe sharing some messages for loved ones, some wisdom from his previous record of solving murders, anything but the story of a bank heist, well 10 bank heists to be precise. And a lot of information on exactly how he ended up in this predicament. But, being Ernest Cunningham, he also plays fair.
I was raised on a diet of Golden Age detective novels - the 'fair-play' mysteries where the clues are front and centre for the reader - which came in mighty handy when I found myself getting caught up in, and transcribing, real-life murders. I've always prided myself when I chronicled those three cases in my first three books, on being a reliable narrator. Everything I show is the truth, exactly how I saw it. The reader and the author solve the mystery together. There are no hidden facts or deliberate omissions.
Any readers who have encountered the first three novels in this series: EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE, EVERYONE ON THIS TRAIN IS A SUSPECT and EVERYONE THIS CHRISTMAS HAS A SECRET will attest to the fact that (with hindsight mostly) the author (be it Stevenson or Cunningham) has done just that. But that hindsight bit is the "clue" here. Don't know about any other readers, but the rides here are so hectic, so much fun, so multi-layered, and almost multidimensional, with interwoven timelines, suspects aplenty, complicated plots and epic levels of murder and mayhem, that I'm always struck at the end by what I missed and darn well should have seen at the time. I mean it is all there, but I suspect it will be only on the third or fourth reading of the books that you'll get all those ducks / clues / deaths / timelines / motivations / involvements and suspects lined up neatly. Notes may be required. A whiteboard came in handy here.
In EVERYBODY IN THIS BANK IS A THIEF, the blurb, to be fair again, does warn you up front
Ten suspects. Ten heists. A puzzle only Ernest Cunningham can solve.
So you know it's not a straightforward bank robbery, and you even know up front who the suspects are:
THE BANK ROBBER
THE MANAGER
THE SECURITY GUARD
THE KID
THE FILM PRODUCER
THE PRIEST
THE RECEPTIONIST
THE PATIENT
THE CARER
ME
The complications come about as the various "heists" are identified, including (but oh so not limited to) a missing Manager's Brother, the past of this particular bank, the film that's based on Cunningham's earlier books, the reason Cunningham and his fiancée Juliette are even in this bank in the middle of nowhere, and some pretty spectacular and gruesome spontaneous combustions. The whole "mystery" hinges, unsurprisingly on the various connections amongst this cast of characters. Good luck pre-guessing any of those. Even better luck come the end of this highly entertaining and absolutely enthralling novel if there just isn't the occasional "clue" that you find yourself wondering how the bloody hell you missed it!