Review: Everyone in this Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson

* Copy courtesy of Penguin Random House *

The Ernest Cunningham series of books is my favourite Australian mystery series and Ern is back for the fourth time in Everyone in this Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson. This time, Ern and Juliette are in a bank when it's held up by a gun wielding robber and they become hostages in a situation where there are ten suspects and ten heists.

Yep, you read that right! The suspects are listed in the blurb so it's not a spoiler to disclose them here as Ern considers the motives of: the bank robber, the manager, the security guard, the kid, the film producer, the priest, the receptionist, the patient, the carer and Ern himself. Each person is guilty of stealing something (including Ern and Juliette!) and Stevenson cleverly discloses the stolen items on page 4 immediately building atmosphere and suspense.

How's this for an opening line:

"Given I'm dying, and have just the one pen, let's motor through the pleasantries." Page 1

Ern is a reliable narrator and the reader knows up front his survival isn't guaranteed but he's determined to get to the truth no matter what. Ern is an amateur detective inspired by the Golden Age of detective novels and fair play mysteries where the clues are front and centre for the reader. He solves impossible crimes and was in the bank to apply for a business loan to start a detective agency.

"Solving murders is just a series of people lying to you in succession: the detective part is figuring out which lies are worth killing for. It's an endless pinball of deceit." Page 193

The thefts were creative and despite being the fourth installation in the series, the mystery felt far from formulaic. Stevenson's signature humour bursts from the page and the dialogue crackles along as Ern asks questions to identify the motives for each of the ten suspects while making questionable decisions himself along the way.

"Everyone steals, whether it's product or effort, money or time. There's more you can steal from a man than just his wallet. Air, for example." Page 310

The author is a comedian and earlier this year I attended the Melbourne Comedy Festival to see The Stevenson Experience, a comedy act he performs with his twin brother James. The show includes a little audience participation and during the performance James asked if anyone knew his brother was a published author. I clapped and cheered a little too enthusiastically and the brothers asked me a few questions. I answered that my name was Tracey and mentioned that I've reviewed Ben's books on my blog, to which Ben said: "You're not Carpe Librum are you?"

It was such a mind-blowing moment that the author knew who I was but he was quick to clarify that he doesn't read reviews of his own books but has read my reviews of other books by Australian authors. This was such a memorable experience and it's a shame he'll never see my glowing reviews for this bestselling and beloved series but I admire the self discipline required. Perhaps that's how he's able to keep producing such excellent work; he's never bogged down by negative reviews and his ego is kept in check by not reading the positive reviews either.

Everyone in this Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson is a terrific bank heist mystery and you don't even need to make a deposit to read a FREE extract. Each of the Ernest Cunningham books have been published a year apart and I can't wait to see where the author takes the series next; hopefully we'll find out in October 2026! 

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone (Book 1) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Everyone on This Train is a Suspect (Book 2) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Everyone This Christmas as a Secret (Book 3) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James

Rebecca James is an Australian author and in 2011 and 2013 I enjoyed Beautiful Malice and Sweet Damage respectively. They were both YA novels set in Australia and in this offering she takes us across the seas to England.

Published in 2018, The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James is an historical fiction novel with dual timelines centred around the ominous property of Winterbourne Hall.

In 1947, Alice takes on the role of governess to twins living at Winterbourne Hall, a property situated on the cliffs of Cornwall overlooking the sea.

In present day New York, adopted art gallery curator Rachel knows nothing about her birth parents and is shocked when she learns she's the heir of Winterbourne Hall after the death of her Aunt Constance.

I love books where a building is its own character and we definitely have this in spades here. Winterbourne sits high on the clifftops and dominates the skyline of small town Polcreath, with a dark wood on the other side. One of the characters is filled with wonder when they see Winterbourne for the first time.

"It's hard to imagine a more dramatic facade. The place instantly brings to mind an imposing religious house - a Parisian cathedral, perhaps, decorated with gaping arches and delicate spires. Turrets thrust skyward, and to the east the blunt teeth of a battlement crown remind me of a game of chess. Plunging gargoyles are laced around its many necks, long and thin, jutting, as if leaping from the building's skin. Lancet windows, too many to count, adorn the exterior, and set on the western front is what appears to be a chapel." Page 15

I think it'd be awesome to see this gothic tale adapted for the big screen, even if it's just to see Winterbourne Hall. If you've been following my reviews for a while, you'll know I also love a book with twins and in this case the twins are manipulative and up to no good; perfect for a struggling governess with secrets of her own.

The romantic elements in both timelines were necessary and well-balanced, but it's fair to say they were the parts I connected with the least. Every time we were in a romance thread I found myself wishing we were back with the haunted mirror, the creepy oil painting and the duplicitous twins.

Elements of Alice's fascination with the late mistress of Winterbourne reminded me a lot of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and I wonder if Rebecca is one of the author's favourite books.

The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James is a dark gothic mystery about secrets, inheritance, haunting and a curse and is perfect to read at this time of year.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton

Chloe Dalton was a political advisor living in the English countryside when she came across a baby hare (leveret) on a country lane near her home. Leaving it for a few hours in the hope it would be found by its mother, Dalton later returned to the location to find the leveret still sitting there. Deciding to take it home, Dalton discovers very little information on how to look after a leveret and embarks on a crash course of trial and error.

Raising Hare - A Memoir documents Chloe Dalton's life changing experience finding and raising the leveret and I was totally there for it. I'm not really an animal person but I loved listening to the antics of the leveret as it slowly developed into an adult hare. From the outset the author strived not to stroke or cuddle the leveret, believing it should remain wild and one day be released into its natural habitat. The author's detailed observations and interactions with the leveret were endearing and greatly entertaining and I enjoyed following her experiences.

During this period, Dalton takes an interest in learning about the history of hares, and takes the reader along for the ride. I knew the hare was symbolic in certain cultures, but this was a timely reminder:

"The mythology and lore around hares was puzzling to me since it appeared to divide into extremes, with the hare a signifier of virtue, renewal and self sacrifice on the one hand, and a witch's familiar and harbinger of death, revenge or misfortune on the other. How, I wondered, could the same creature be both sacred and profane, chaste and promiscuous, lucky and unlucky, an emblem of self sacrifice but also a witch in animal form, the embodiment of madness and foolishness but also wisdom." Chapter 5 May Days: Witch-Hare

Hares are mythical creatures and in medieval times it was believed hares were shapeshifters. Hares have been seen as sacred animals connected to the supernatural world and were once linked to the underworld in Ancient Egypt.

I admired the lengths the author went to in order to accomodate the leveret but I'll admit I found myself wishing I had a leveret to keep me company in my study. 

Ultimately I'll remember this book for the nature writing and sheer wonder of raising a wild animal in a domestic setting. I listened to the audiobook perfectly narrated by Louise Brealey, who sounds - to me at least - like the character of Anna Bates in Downton Abbey, making this a sheer delight to listen to.

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton was a real unexpected joy and I'll be recommending it to my sister!

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Dinner At The Night Library by Hika Harada

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *

A bestseller in Japan, Dinner at the Night Library by Hika Harada is translated by Philip Gabriel (translator of The Travelling Cat Chronicles) and is my first foray into the seemingly exploding genre of Japanese comfort novels. The genre contains character-driven, cozy, feel-good stories set in everyday locations like bookstores or cafes and focusses on themes of relationships and loneliness. Usually featuring an illustrated cover and written to be uplifting in its examination of human connection in everyday life, I believe this was a fair representation of the genre.

The Night Library of the title is located outside Tokyo and contains collections of books both owned and written by famous authors now deceased.

"An old library . . . a library devoted just to writers' collections . . . definitely a most odd, unconventional sort of place." Page 112

Our protagonist Otaha loves working with books and when she receives a message inviting her to apply for a job at the Night Library she can't believe her luck.

Open only at night, staff working at the library share her love of literature although nobody has ever met the owner. A series of workplace projects begin to take shape as collections are entrusted to the care of the library and books mysteriously appear on the shelves without being catalogued.

Before being employed by the Night Library, one of the characters worked in a used book store where books were judged on how new, clean and popular they were. I was shocked to read one of the practices employed in the used book trade:

"With old books, we'd just clean them up, using sandpaper to clean off what was called in the trade the upper part, the outside of the pages, which get faded and dirty, and then sell them." Page 183

What? Surely this isn't a 'thing' but I put the book down to do a quick search and swiftly stumbled onto a bunch of videos showing book lovers how to remove foxing and yellowed page edges with a fine grit piece of sandpaper. I'm still deciding how I feel about this, would you ever do it?

Back to the book, and the library employs a dedicated cook to prepare dishes from the books held in the collection and I was certainly hungry while reading this cozy mystery. Otaha gets to know her coworkers and we learn some of their backstories as she tries to work out who the mysterious owner is.

Dinner at the Night Library by Hika Harada is a gentle cozy mystery with plenty of Japanese culture and a tonne of Japanese books and authors mentioned. Not having read widely of Japanese fiction, I couldn't enjoy the references or bookish chat between the characters but I'm sure many other readers will.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Buckeye by Patrick Ryan

* Copy courtesy of Bloomsbury *

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan is a family saga set in small town Bonhomie, Ohio about the lives of Cal Jenkins and his eventual wife Becky and Margaret Salt and her eventual husband Felix. Cal is born in 1920 with one leg shorter than the other making him ineligible to serve in World War II, while Felix serves in the Navy on a cargo ship. Becky realises her gift of mediumship during the war and Margaret is still troubled by her upbringing as a foundling in an orphanage.

A novel that examines these four lives and the families they create in detail wouldn't be my usual reading choice but there was something about the blurb and early praise from the likes of Tom Hanks ("I've been yearning for a novel that connects the American generations who dealt with our two Wars - one of Omaha Beach, the other of the la Drang Valley. Buckeye is that book, and it soars") that drew me in and I'm so glad it did.

The author made me care deeply about each of the characters as they went about their lives, bearing witness to their flaws and insecurities, following their struggles and yearning for their inner peace and happiness.

There were plenty of daily references to suburban life in this era and I especially loved the mention of a mailbox bookclub where four older men enjoyed reading and discussing westerns.

"They agreed ahead of time on what book they would read - often a reread - and when there was only the one copy available, they worked out a system wherein each of them would get three days with it, then tape a nickel inside the book's cover and leave it in their mailbox. Skip would then collect the nickel and carry the book on his bicycle over to the next house, where he would leave it in the mailbox and put the flag up." Page 286

Brilliant! My favourite character arc was that of Cal's alcoholic father who suffered from PTSD related to his service in WWI. A hoarder living on his own, he had a turbulent relationship with his son which came into focus after a near tragedy.

Ryan includes many touching and amusing moments to offset the struggles of our characters, like Becky asking her father-in-law his thoughts on the book Death on the Nile. He said he hadn't especially enjoyed it:

"But that Poy-Rot is in the right business." Page 336

The book spans a period of 60 years and Ryan takes us right through to events in the Vietnam War and in doing so shines a light on the complex effects war has on each generation of characters. Also under the author's microscope is the marriage between Cal and Becky and Margaret and Felix.

At the end of Buckeye, there didn't appear to be a logical conclusion reached with any of the four main characters, rather it felt as though 'this is where the reader will leave the characters.'

"What is it about time that confounds us? We spend it. We save it. We while it away. We waste it. We kill it. We complain about not having enough of it, or about having too much of it on our hands. We regret what we've done with it. We give it away. We want it back. We say 'time and again' when something is bothering us and 'it's time' when something is supposed to end. ...all we should ever want of time is more of it." Page 430

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan is a moving historical family saga set in the American midwest about ambition, love, longing, marriage, parenthood, service, sacrifice, loss, grief, forgiveness, guilt and survival.

Highly recommended!

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Sleep Hacks by Keith Barry

The latest audiobook in my never ending exploration of the topic of sleep is Sleep Hacks - Discover the Life-Changing Tranquility of Deep Sleep by Keith Barry. Interestingly, the author provides 21 hacks in 3 sections, advising the reader to choose 1 hack from each section in order to achieve a rejuvenating night's sleep. If for some reason you don't see any improvement in your sleep patterns, switch out one of the hacks for something else.

It seems simple enough but Barry is firm early on that this system won't help readers who aren't determined to apply the learnings and stick to the program. If you don't have the discipline, Barry essentially encourages the reader to come back another time which I respected. He's essentially advocating the success of his program based on the dedication and discipline from those who choose to apply it as intended.

My sleep has improved greatly over the years and I decided to read for interest without strictly implementing his program.

In Chapter 3 Feed Your Brain: Eat Well to Sleep Well, the author provides an interesting list of foods that have been scientifically proven to potentially aid sleep. These include: cherries, walnuts, almonds, pecans, oats, bananas, kiwi fruit, spinach, live yoghurt, turkey, salmon or other oily fish, passionfruit, dragon fruit, pumpkin seeds, cheese, prunes, whole grains and watermelon. The author then asks the reader to choose two food items to eat each day from this list. For those struggling with sleep, it couldn't hurt to try some of these foods, but I doubt they'll cure your insomnia if you don't make any of the other changes suggested in his program.

I believe it was Jade Wu who solidified the phenomenon of sleep arousal in my mind when I read Hello Sleep and I've never forgotten it. Coincidentally, my favourite part of Sleep Hacks wasn't a new concept or breakthrough, but a simple list of the types of thoughts that keep people awake (sleep arousal) as they attempt to sleep. This is from Chapter 7 Mind Wipe.

Did I lock the back door?
What if my alarm doesn't go off tomorrow?
I'm not ready for the big meeting on Friday
Why did I arrange to meet someone after work when I'd rather go home to my kids?
I think that person took what I said the wrong way
I keep buying clothes I don't need and my credit card bill is terrifying
What will I cook for dinner tomorrow?
Will my mother remember she has the kids after school?
Can I skip the gym tomorrow?
How can I quit my job?
Why is the pain in my shoulder getting worse?
The house is a tip and I don't have the energy to sort it out
I am so annoyed my boss called for a meeting at 4.30PM
Can polystyrene go in the recycling bin? I'd better check
How am I going to be able to afford a holiday this year?
I forgot to text my sister back, she's going to be annoyed

I loved these examples of self talk that go on in the minds of people in general, not just when it's time to sleep. My internal chatter sounds a lot like this, and the native Irish accent by narrator Brendan Dempsey was absolutely perfect for this section.

Sleep Hacks by Keith Barry was an enjoyable read on the topic of sleep and I have faith his program will work for those dedicated enough to apply and stick with it.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★