Spencer Quinn, author of the bestselling Chet and Bernie mysteries, returns with an unusual story about a determined senior. Fans of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club might want to check out Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge. It’s a little slow getting started, but Quinn has to provide the background before the action kicks in.

Mrs. Loretta Plansky is a very wealthy widow. Although she and her husband Norm sold their business for seven figures, Norm died soon after they moved to Florida. Mrs. Plansky sold the house and moved to a smaller condo. At seventy-one, she even rattles around there, and isn’t always sure where her last thought took her. Her two grown children come to her with investment schemes, and she senses that her daughter, Nina, is trying to hang on to to the latest man in her life. Her son, Jack, quit his job in Arizona, and has a plan for frozen storage. Loretta’s ninety-eight-year-old father is in a very expensive retirement home, and management just announced he needs to be moved to a floor where he can be watched more closely. It’s also more expensive.

It’s no wonder Loretta doesn’t really know what’s going on when she receives a phone call that wakes her during the night. The young man on the other end says he’s her grandson, Will, and he needs access to her bank account. Of course, Loretta wants to help her grandson. By the next morning, though, all of her accounts are empty, and her millions are gone.

Of course, Mrs. Plansky wants her money back. A Special Agent from the FBI warns her that won’t happen, that they seldom have success in getting money back. Loretta Plansky isn’t happy with that answer. The agents involved in her case make one mistake. They tell her they suspect her money ended up in Romania. If Loretta pawns a ring, she’ll have enough money to get a ticket to Romania. She moves her father into her home, hires a home aide, and sets off to get her money back.

The action in the book really happens after Loretta Plansky heads to Romania. Before that, readers watched as disaster headed her way in the form of a young man named Dinu who was training to scam Americans. While it’s terrible what he did under the watchful eye of his uncle, it’s easy to feel sympathy for the young man who is beaten and abused in order to keep him working. But, Loretta Plansky only wants her money back. She isn’t one to take advantage of a teenager.

As I said, Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge is a little slow at the beginning. Once I got to know Loretta Plansky, though, I kept going because I wanted her to get her money back, and I wanted to see how she did it. She’s a shrewd woman, despite a few memory lapses, and she uses that image of an elderly American grandmother to her advantage. She’ll do just fine.

Spencer Quinn’s website is https://www.peterabrahams.com/

Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge by Spencer Quinn. Forge Books, 2023. ISBN 9781250843333 (hardcover), 304p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I read a galley through NetGalley for a journal review, with nothing promised in return.