Do Butlers Burgle Banks?

First US edition

Do Butlers Burgle Banks? is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 5 August 1968 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, and in the United Kingdom on 19 September 1968 by Barrie & Jenkins, London.^[1]

Plot introduction

Bond's Bank, which Mike Bond has inherited from his over-enthusiastically philanthropist uncle Horace, is insolvent. With the examiners due shortly and no solution in sight, Mike faces the prospect of a stretch in the clink for not revealing this earlier. If the criminal mastermind Appleby had known this, he probably wouldn't have insinuated his way into the temporary butler vacancy. But then he probably wouldn't have fallen in love with Ada. And Chicago mobster Charlie Yost wouldn't have come along to settle his score with Appleby.

The fortunate owner of Bond’s Bank, Mike finds himself in a bit of trouble when he takes over the sinking ship after his uncle. He needs to sort out the finances so badly that he hires someone, a butler, to burgle the bank before the trustees inspect it. This butler, Horace Appleby, is no real butler, but posing as one at the moment. Horace Appleby is, in fact, a real first degree American gangster, just currently under cover and in hiding from his competition in the green backyards of England. Horace is really only after some peace and quiet, but he is soon to discover that the English countryside is far more stressful than the hotspots in Chicago.^[2]

References

External links

• The Russian Wodehouse Society's page, with a list of characters