EVERYONE IN THIS BANK IS A THIEF (Ernest Cunningham Series)

EVERYONE IN THIS BANK IS A THIEF by Benjamin Stevenson

YELLOW LIGHT

AGES; 9TH GRADE - COLLEGE

The inside jacket of this book asks a question that I think aptly describes this mystery. "What if an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery happened inside Ocean's Eleven?" If you know me, then you know as soon as I saw the words "Agatha Christie," this book was coming home with me!

Ernest Cunningham is trying to get banks to loan him money to start up his detective agency business. So far, he has received rejection after rejection, so when a bank reaches out to him, he thinks his reputation for solving tough crimes is finally paying off. Imagine his shock when that's not the case. Instead, the bank has a crime of its own that it desperately needs solved without the involvement of law enforcement. The vault is locked and the manager who controls the code has disappeared. No one can get to the money inside which is kind of a big deal if you're a bank! While swallowing the disappointment of not getting a loan and deciding if he will take the case, the bank is robbed, and everyone is taken hostage. This robber isn't there for wads of money. He makes a strange request that doesn't make any sense in light of the circumstances. Ernest isn't going anywhere until he solves what's really going on. The deeper he digs, the more he uncovers including every one of the hostages at the bank is a thief of one kind or another. The question is, which one is responsible for the vault and missing manager? While solving that, he may just figure out what this robbery is all about as well!

The concept of this book is an amazing one, and there are a lot of great elements to it including fantastic twists and turns that are impossible to see coming! What some readers will get hung up on, myself included, is the fact that Ernest Cunningham is narrating this book, and he is a wordy man! I found myself wishing he would move on sometimes and not get hung up in the wordy, descriptive weeds!

Everyone in this Bank is a Thief is Book 4 in the Ernest Cunningham series, but it is not necessary to read the other 3 before this one. I didn't! There are a couple of references to past information, but nothing that keeps you from understanding what's going on in this story.

HEADS UP - There is a smattering of language including two f-bombs.