Why I liked EVERYONE IN THIS BANK IS A THIEF

Ten heists. Ten suspects. All locked in a small bank in rural Australia. Each with a plausible reason for committing larceny…and possibly murder. Or should that be murders?

Amateur detective, Ernest Cunningham, confined with his nine fellow inmates, is the engaging narrator of this highly inventive and marvelously humorous story. In the Prologue, he promises to ‘play fair’ and put every clue before the reader’s eye in the spirit of full transparency as in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Even so, the reader will need some scientific knowledge – magnetism, spontaneous combustion, electrolysis – and an almost Holmesian talent for deduction to get anywhere near the solution to this cleverly wrought and highly entertaining mystery. Of course, the reader is not expected to crack this ingenious compound of crimes, deceptions and outright lies. That is left to our unlikely hero who risks life and limb to figure out the links between an insurance fraud, a parrot, a computer game, a locked safe, holy water, and a revolver. Not easy, but Ernest does it spectacularly, if occasionally implausibly. Throughout, his insights and daring are overlaid with the hilarious wit and amusing patter of a stand-up comedian, the author’s other job.

Star Rating: 5 out of 5

Available on Amazon

Published by Mariner Books

March 17, 2026