Do Butlers Burgle Banks

Even at 87, Wodehouse hadn't lost his touch. The MacGuffin in this case is the missing money from the bank that Mike Bond has inherited from the philanthropist, Sir Hugo, who spent the depositors' funds on good works. Shady characters---one acting as a butler---and insurance policies and bank burgling plans along with two couples whose roads to happiness are bumpy all culminate in a happy ending and a monetary solution that I didn't guess.
Reading this after all the Ponzi schemes and bank problems in the news puts a different light on it. Wodehouse's sees in Sir Hugo's actions a need for love and approval, not greed or a desire to put one over on anyone.

A master criminal takes a job as a butler in order to burgle the bank owned by his employer. Two spirited young "gairls" get involved, in furtherance of their true loves. A safe cracker gets religion, and casts well-laid plans agley. Fate is always doing things like that.

Typical Wodehouse, with a tangled yet frothy plot, and not a scene or character wasted. His characters here follow familiar archetypes, although the crooks offer something different.

Almost as good as Jeeves, though not quite. A complex and unlikely plot features Mike Bond, the almost ruined owner of Bond's Bank. It also features his new butler Appleby who plans to rob the bank. Sub-plots galore; classic Wodehouse understatements and long-winded obvious lines are full of humour. All ends well if a little relying on coincidence to extricate everyone from an incredible plot. Three-and-a-half stars, really.

Pretty much perfectly paced, except for the end, which felt more like a chapter ending than the end of a story or book. The ending was sufficiently abrupt to knock an otherwise perfectly enjoyable Wodehouse novel down from a 5 to a 4 -- but don't let that deter the curious, by any means! It is otherwise more or less perfect for its genre.

Short humorous novel, not featuring usual Wodehouse characters. Enjoyable with a glass of Malbec on a dank day. Would have made an excellent black and white film adaptation with Ian Carmichael and George Cole.

A huge fan of PG Wodehouse, I will almost always give one of his books a default four stars. That was precisely the case here, a good solid late-Wodehouse entry that breaks no new ground, but presents an enjoyable cast of characters in inimitable Wodehousian style.

The premise is simple, or at least that simple kind of complicated at which Wodehouse excels. Peril is never too perilous, even with the rare act of gun violence and a plot including an array of burglars and thieves. Love, of course, forms the backbone of the story, and by the end everyone is happily paired off and ready to get on with happily living their lives.

Like most of Wodehouse's later works, the flesh is a little more bare on the bones, compared to his earlier prose, show more but for fans this is well worth a read. show less

Although this is in many ways a typical Wodehouse novel, I didn’t find it particularly funny. The plot was humorous but not hilarious. It made me smile at times but not laugh, and I didn’t smile often.

The story hangs together well enough, and the characters are vivid, but the plot isn’t gripping, and nor are the characters Wodehouse’s best creations.

It’s a strange one to sum up, really. I liked it but was disappointed that it lacked the comedy associated with this talented author.