The Solitary Auditor

by Michael Chris Knapp

The Solitary Auditor fills a gap in the available instructional materials for undergraduate and graduate auditing courses. This innovative text tracks the timeline of an audit from the initial planning session through the completion of the audit as seen through the eyes of Michael Bishop, an audit senior. Bishop and his colleagues face a series of challenging circumstances as the five-month audit of BRIC Industries, a large public company, unfolds. Those circumstances include missing client documents, conflicting audit evidence, time pressure, and client personnel intent on subverting the work of the auditors. Bishop eventually learns that BRIC’s accounting records are being distorted by a large-scale fraud orchestrated by the company’s three top executives. To salvage the jobs, if not careers, of the senior BRIC accountants who have been browbeaten into participating in the fraud, Bishop agrees to cooperate with a plan developed by those accountants to end the fraud. But the plan backfires, and Bishop becomes a pawn in a three-handed cat-and-mouse game involving the fraudsters, federal law enforcement authorities, and a shadowy syndicate of inside traders who intend to make a “killing” in the stock market when the accounting fraud is exposed. Sound far-fetched? In fact, the circumstances woven into the entertaining storyline of the BRIC Industries audit were drawn from actual audit failures researched by the author over his 35-year academic career. The Solitary Auditor will capture students’ attention while at the same time revealing to them the nature and purpose of an independent audit. No other available auditing text provides such a realistic, comprehensive, and no-holds-barred view of the challenging work role of the independent auditor.

175 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 1, 2016

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

actually mad at the ending, the Bishop basically just becomes a mirror-image of the power-hungry corporate crooks benefiting from fraud and insider trading and he justifies this by saying it’s more exciting than being a boring accountant and the FBI says it’s for the greater good so it must be 😔

aside from that, I actually really enjoyed reading this and I think it did a good job of illustrating the auditing process and showcasing some of the ethical dilemmas that may arise. I think it also maybe shows how even the most strait-laced accountants (eg nelson and bishop) can be persuaded to act illegally/unethically.

[AlinaMarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an interesting read seeing the kinds of environments auditors can find themselves in but also very revealing of how it’s hard to trust anyone in the auditing process.

[Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had to read for this for class and I actually enjoyed it a lot. The ending felt kinda rushed and I was disappointed tho