The Retirement Plan

TV producer Sue Hincenberg’s debut crime novel is fun, quirky, and pure entertainment! Three middle-aged women who have been best friends for over thirty years socialize regularly with their husbands and families. They’ve watched each other’s children grow up, leave for college, and start lives of their own. Now they’re all counting down the years until they can afford to give up their jobs and retire.

A few years ago, their husbands invested all their savings into an investment plan that crashed spectacularly. None of them have a nest egg anymore to spend in their golden years, and their dreams of buying side-by-side condos somewhere warm have been shattered. They’re all tired of their husbands—who constantly get on their nerves and take them for granted—and dread the thought of spending retirement with them.

When a fourth friend loses her husband in a freak accident, his generous life insurance payout allows her to buy a condo and move to Boca Raton to start a new, glamorous life. The three women become jealous and wonder if there might be a way for them to also shed their boring husbands. They hatch a cunning plan, but little do they know that their husbands have been hatching their own retirement plan—and they might just be about to throw a huge spanner in the works.

This comedy of errors and misunderstandings is delightfully written. I loved all the characters, including the hapless husbands, who totally fail at communication and relationships and really have no understanding of their wives or what they want. There are other entertaining characters, including Padma, the female boss at the casino where one of the husbands works. She’s been sent from the parent company in India by her wealthy mother—the owner of the company with connections to the mob—who has decided it’s time her short, plain daughter finds a husband. Then there’s also a very shady barber with a death stare named Hector, who has a very interesting sideline doing “whatever needs doin’.”

So, if you’re looking for something different in the cozy crime genre, this clever, amusing novel—with a fun streak of humour and plenty of twists—might be just what you’re looking for.

With thanks to Hachette ANZ for a copy to read.