Told in the sharp, self-aware voice readers have come to expect from Stevenson, this latest ‘Ernest Cunningham’ mystery blends classic whodunit elements with contemporary wit and chaos.
Ernest and his fiancée, Juliette, are visiting their local bank in the quaint town of Huxley. With their wedding approaching and finances tight, Ernest has decided to launch his own private investigation agency – and they’re hoping for a loan. Instead, they’re offered a job.
The bank’s owner, Winston Huxley, is less interested in lending money than in hiring Ernest to find his missing brother, Edward. Not out of sentiment, but necessity: Edward is the only person who knows the code to the bank’s sealed vault.
From here, everything spirals. A robbery takes place, the vault remains locked, and 10 people – including Ernest and Juliette – are taken hostage. But the thief isn’t after money. In fact, they only demand a single dollar.
The novel opens mid-crisis, with Ernest locked inside the vault, armed only with a gold pen, a notebook, and dwindling oxygen. The journey to that point is a winding, layered puzzle full of unreliable stories, buried secrets, and increasingly bizarre turns. Each hostage has something to hide – and any one of them could be behind the heist.
Stevenson’s plotting is clever, complex, and convoluted, reminiscent of Agatha Christie – if she had a laptop, and a wicked sense of irony.
The pacing can occasionally make your head spin, but the clues are all there, and the payoff is both satisfying and surprising.
Another Golden Age-inspired romp with a modern twist from Benjamin Stevenson.
Reviewed by Sue Stanbridge
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Benjamin Stevenson is an award-winning stand-up comedian and USA Today best-selling author. He is the author of the globally popular ‘Ernest Cunningham Mysteries’, including Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, which is currently being adapted into a major HBO TV series, and the sequels: Everyone on This Train is a Suspect and Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret.
His books have sold over 1.5 million copies in twenty-nine territories and have been nominated for nine ‘Book of the Year’ awards.
0 Comments