Book Review: Bank Job

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Bank Job     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Steve Brewer
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Intrigue Press, Oct 2005, $24.00, 234 pp.

Leon and Junior Daggett are dimwitted petty criminals who are robbing gas stations and liquor stores waiting for the big score to come along. Sociopath Roy Wade loves to kill people with his bare hands; thus he is the leader of this motley crew. When Junior is assigned his first big job of robbing a liquor store in upstate California, the two owners bloody him up forcing him to up escape with nothing to show for his efforts.

Bleeding heavily and needing medical attention the trio drive until they reach the secluded home of Vince and Maria. They force Maria at gunpoint to take care of Junior while Vince, trying to connect with them so they won’t kill him or his wife, tells them he is a retired bank robber. They force him to rob a bank by holding Maria hostage but Vince is smart and has many more years of experience so he intends to outwit these criminals because he knows that if does what they ask, they will kill him and his wife after the heist.

Vince is a suave urbane man in his seventies who can’t get help from the police because he broke parole and if caught will spend the rest of his days behind bars. The way he plays these idiots is a virtuoso performance and readers will think of Carry Grant when they picture him. There is plenty of action and the pace is so fast readers will feel like they are on the space shuttle. Steve Brewer has written a funny and entertaining crime caper in which it takes a thief to catch a thief or three.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner