Many thanks to NetGalley , Tor Publishing Forge and MacMillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this timely and fun story by Spencer Quinn and wonderfully narrated by Petrea Burchard - 4.5 stars!

Loretta Plansky is settled into her new home in Florida, after the death of her beloved husband. Now she fills her day playing tennis and taking care of her 98-year-old father. In the middle of the night, she receives a phone call from who she believes is her grandson, asking for money to get him out of jail after a DWI. So of course, she quickly gives over her bank information and password. When she wakes in the morning, she realizes it was a scam and all her money is gone. But she's not one to sit back and cry - she goes on a quest to get her money back.

We've all heard of these scams and feel like we would never fall prey, but the crooks are smart and everyone is probably vulnerable. That's what makes this tale even more relatable - we can see this happening to elderly people or anyone who relaxes their rules for just a minute. Mrs. Plansky is one of those plunky characters who won't take no for an answer, and it's a fun ride to go along with her as she tries to get her money back and help others in the process. You'll be cheering her along!

Mrs. Loretta Plansky is a seventy-one-year-old widow who lives in a comfortable Florida condo. Her ninety-eight-year-old father is in an assisted-living facility where he often kicks up a fuss, necessitating frequent visits by his daughter to calm things down. Loretta handles her own financial affairs, plays tennis at a local club, and has two needy children whom she indulges a bit too much. One evening, the phone rings, and soon Loretta's life goes into a tailspin. Someone who claims to be Will, Mrs. Plansky's grandson, tells her that he has been arrested and needs money to get out of trouble. Can she please hand over her bank account information, including her password? She is a bit groggy from having been awakened, and she complies with the caller's request. Little does she know that she has fallen for a scam.

In "Mrs. Plansky's Revenge," by Spencer Quinn, we get to know the heroine intimately. She fondly remembers her late husband, Norm, and is grateful that their invention, a knife that toasts bread, made them millions. When she realizes that she has been cheated out of her hard-earned savings, she turns to the authorities to find the thieves and, if possible, recover her money. Unfortunately, the chances of restitution are slim, since these crooks are adept at evading the law.

This is an amusing and farcical novel in which Loretta improbably takes matters into her own hands. She flies to a town in Romania (ostensibly where the scam originated), intending to conduct her own investigation. From this point on, readers will need to suspend their disbelief big time. What are the odds that a septuagenarian could outwit a bunch of sadistic and violent thugs? Can Mrs. Plansky's tenacity, knowledge of human nature, and unthreatening appearance help her triumph over her greedy and heartless adversaries? In this diverting work of escapist fiction, we grow to care about the funny and spunky Loretta Plansky, who demonstrates that one should never assume that all little old ladies are docile and scatterbrained.

BOOK: MRS PLANSKY'S REVENGE
AUTHOR: SPENCER QUINN
PUB DATE: 25 July
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REVIEW
Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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I requested this book because I wanted to read about an older main character. Our FMC is a retired, Widowed 71 year old woman. Mrs Loretta Plansky was a beautiful character. I loved her, her thoughts, and her discussions with others, especially her children and her dad(yeah, her dad is still alive).
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After law enforcement agencies refused to take her scamming seriously, she did what any normal person would do, she took a plane to Georgia to investigate her case😂😂😂. That was really really brave and admirable of her because I can't imagine doing something like this. I enjoyed reading about her solving the case and I'd really love to read more of Loretta. I hope the author will make this book into a series.
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What I didn't like in this book were the culprits, obviously and Loretta's family especially her children. I felt they were negligent of their mother and only remember her when they need money. I also empathized with our young scammer, what He did was bad, but he was young and practically had no guidance so I understand him.
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When I started this book, I was confused because I didn't know it was a dual POV and the author didn't put the names before the start of the chapter. But, I got used to it after the first two chapters
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This book was beautiful and I'm glad I read it, but it had better be in a series
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DNF. The first fifty pages moved so slowly, I couldn't bear it anymore. I loved Quinn's Echo Falls series (written under the name Peter Abrahams) but this one just took too long to get off the ground.

Mrs. Plansky's Revenge reminded me so much of one of my old favorites, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax. Both are about ladies in their seventies who go on sudden adventures overseas and surprise everyone, including themselves, by how smart and capable an older woman can be. Mrs. Plansky gets the bad guys, makes new friends, and has a whole lot of fun. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Spencer Quinn also writes the successful and funny Chet and Bernie series.

What a fun story. A spunky 71 year old attempting to get back money that was fraudulently taken from her. Completely impossible but fun none the less.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest opinion. 3⭐️

If you're in the mood to suspend your disbelief for a few hours, Mrs. Plansky's Revenge is guaranteed to be a light, fun read. Of course, you may first have to overcome the desire to lock up all her family members who take her for granted as their Cash Cow of Choice.

It's easy to find yourself firmly on Loretta Plansky's side as she navigates tidal waves of humiliation and fury. Loretta is no fool, yet a pair of young Romanian scammers take her in. This book is even better because author Spencer Quinn makes those two scammers, Dinu and Romeo, sympathetic. They aren't mere cardboard villains.

Loretta really doesn't have a clue of how much danger she's courting once she's in Romania, but Quinn keeps it light by showing how so many of her life experiences save the day. We should all be so lucky in our own adventures.

If you've enjoyed Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie mysteries (as I have) and are in the mood for something light and fun, you should give Mrs. Plansky's Revenge a try.

Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge by Spencer Quinn
Publisher Forge Books
Release Date July 25, 2023


Characters: 5/5
Plot: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Suspense: 4/5
Overall Enjoyment: 4/5


WOW! If this does not scare you into using harder passwords, I do not know what will. I found the blurb for this book to really be impressive and interesting enough to want to read this book. Quinn is a very talented storyteller that has the ability to make a story flow well from chapter to chapter.. Our protagonist is a take charge heroine that will have you jumping up and down excitedly and laughing at the same time. I love this book and how the author takes a “little ole lady” and brings her to life. There are times where Quinn is overly descriptive and adds more to the story than necessary. The characters were developed well and most were likable some you had to keep reading and see them in action to decide. Overall though, this was a very well written book that gets you excited and your heart pounding. There are so many scammers out there scamming older people and this puts a different spin on it with a kick ass older woman who will do just that to get her money back.

Mrs. Loretta Plansky is a 71 year old widow who is living a life that has no worries when it comes to money. She has plenty of that thanks to the Plansky toaster knife that she and her husband created years ago. It made millions. So when her husband Norm, passed away she moved to a small condo and started playing tennis and hanging out with friends. The only problem is that family members are asking for money and she gives it. Taking care of her father also by spending 10k a month for his retirement home. So when she gets a phone call late in the evening from who she thinks is her grandson Will about needing bail money, she only asks where to send it. She logs into her account using the same password that she uses for everything and sends the money directly to a fake scammers account. Will calls again to say he was released and thanks her. The next morning she discovers something horrible. A phone call from the bank telling her all of her money is gone and another call asking her why she closed her investment accounts. Everything totaling almost 4 million dollars was taken from her. She calls law enforcement and meets them at her bank where they tell her the words that will change everything. There is nothing they can do, it was the cruel work of scammers. She will never see her money again. The scammers work out of Europe and they have no jurisdiction there, Loretta decides to take action on her own. She moves her father in with her to stop the monthly charge for the nursing home. Then she gets a plane ticket and flies first to Bucharest, to the embassy and then after learning the cyber scammers usually reside in Romania, she heads there. This is really when the story starts to get good. The author does leave a few bread crumbs here and there to show the reader what will happen but it still is not something predictable.
Will Loretta find the scammers and get her money back! Will the people in Romania help her and will they want something in return? Or will Loretta fall victim again to the scammers? To find out the answers you need to get your copy on the release day.

Cons……I have a couple. First the author continues to say Mrs Plansky instead of Loretta. I think for the ease of reading it would have been better to just use Loretta. Secondly, there were too many extras put in when it was time to describe things. The scenery, or extras about her late husband that was really not needed and just added to the time it took to read the book and caused me to get out of my zone some.

4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

An old adage goes something like "don't mess with old people because they are old and have less to lose". This doesn't completely sum up the widowed Mrs Loretta Plansky, but it is a start.

When someone pretending to be her grandson calls and gets information from her that results in wiping out all her (and her late husband's) hard-earned money, she decides to get the money back. Getting no help from the local police, her bankers, her investment broker, the FBI or, basically ANYONE, she decides she is the best person for the job and takes off for Romania, where the criminals "probably" operate. She doesn't know any Romanian, has problems reading maps, and is not in the best physical shape, but she is GAME!

Through many an unlikely and happenstance situation, she actually DOES find the perpetrators!!And she DOES get her money back!!

This is almost a guilty read, as it is so implausible, but you always root for Mrs Plansky, and you are NEVER disappointed.

This was a fun read with extremely likable characters (even a couple of the “bad guys” are largely sympathetic), interesting locations, and a novel take on cybercrime and older folks with real agency to effect positive change in their lives. Compassion and caring make appearances, too, leading to the possibility of real redemption. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Mrs. Plansky's Revenge is a frolic through the retired life of Loretta Plansky, a seventy two year old widow who has more pluck and drive than many two decades younger. Retirement in Florida is not exactly as tranquil as she expected. While mourning her husband, her elderly father, children and grandchildren give her ample reasons not to let grass grow beneath her feet. She even has a phone call from a young man claiming to be her grandson, Will, who has run into a bit of a pickle and needs $10,000 yesterday. She grants his request but is chagrined to discover her account has been cleared out. Her scamming situation leads her to Romania where she tackles her problems head on.

Spencer Quinn writes wit, charm and sarcasm brilliantly. Some characters were aggravating and though the story didn't thoroughly engage me as I had hoped, it was a fun read and I do look forward to see what is in store next. For those who desire lighthearted mysteries with a spunky older female main character, this may be for you.

My sincere thank you to Forge Books and NetGalley for providing me with an early digital copy of this amusing novel.

One night Mrs. Plansky is startled awake by a phone call from a voice claiming to be her grandson Will, who desperately needs ten thousand dollars to get out of a jam. Of course, Loretta obliges—after all, what are grandmothers for, even grandmothers who still haven’t gotten a simple “thank you” for a gift sent weeks ago. Not that she's counting. By morning she has lost everything. She is determined to get her money back.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion of this book.

Mrs. Loretta Plansky is a wealthy widow who enjoys playing tennis during her retirement years. Having money, Mrs. Plansky is often asked for money from her 98 year old father, her children, and grandchildren, so naturally when she receives a call late one night from Will, her grandson, asking for money because he got a DUI, she is ready and willing to help. Little did she know, by morning, all of her money would be gone, having fallen victim to a scam. Determined to get her money back and bring the scammers to justice, Mrs. Plansky travels to a small village in
Romania. 

When I read the summary of this novel it sounded like just my kind of novel, but to me it fell a little flat. Throughout the story Mrs. Plansky is referred to as just that: Mrs. Plansky. I found this to be almost disruptive to the flow of the novel, bordering on annoying. I also found her family to be maddening and exasperating, especially her daughter, always asking for money and being almost flaky. I cared about Dinu and his life more than I did her’s, and his story is what kept me reading this book. I really wanted to like this novel, but it just didn’t do it for me.

This is an enjoyable, life affirming story. A wealthy woman in a retirement home falls for a scam and travels to Romania to try and get her money back, having adventures and solving mysteries. Highly recommended! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge by Spencer Quinn has an interesting premise, but it did not live up to it. Mrs. Loretta Plansky is an active woman in her early 70s who is a recent widow. Mrs. Plansky has recently moved into a retirement community from the house she lived in with her beloved husband, Norm. She has two grown children who see her as a bank. Loretta and her husband were lucky to invent an item that a hot seller and sell out at the right time. Unfortunately, Loretta uses one password for all her financial accounts. In the middle of the night, she receives a call from someone claiming to be Mrs. Plansky’s grandson, Will, who needs money immediately and does not want his mother to know. Personally, I would have immediately been suspicious. The next morning, Mrs. Plansky’s various accounts were drained. The FBI gets involved, but she is told not to get her hopes up. They were able to pinpoint the city where the transaction took place. Mrs. Plansky decides to take matters into her own hands and heads for Romania. The author is an overly descriptive writer. The long, drawn-out descriptions are not needed. We learn way too much about Mrs. Plansky’s deceased husband, Norm (including a tale about a tree cutting that he planted and all the work it entailed). It appears that Mrs. Plansky is a little out of it in the beginning (zoning out frequently and forgetting things). Later, though, she comes up with a plan to get herself to Romania and find a way to retrieve her money. The setting up of the characters and plot takes up the first third of the book. I had trouble liking any of the characters. Mrs. Plansky enables her children. They only visit or call when they need money. I did not understand how she could give them money for their cockamamie ventures (it is like Mrs. Plansky is throwing her money away). Mrs. Plansky needed to learn to say no or make those ungrateful kids sign loan agreements. The story is told from Mrs. Plansky and Dinu, a budding criminal, point of view (it is sad when you start liking the criminal more than the protagonist). Mrs. Plansky refers to herself in the third person throughout the whole book. It is odd. I found the internal dialogue to be awkward and dreary. The story moves at a slow pace (actually, snails move faster) until near the end. The ending is swift and farfetched. I believe some things are supposed to be humorous, but I did not feel like laughing. I was just grateful to turn the last page. The story does contain mild foul language, intimate relations, swindling people of money, physical abuse, and alcohol consumption. Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge is a monotonous tale with a wealthy widow, avaricious kids, a currency scam, a difficult father, a magnetic writer, cybercrime criminals, and a farfetched finale.

Charming. A bit slow to start, but that’s largely because I forget what a book is going to be about between when I download it and when I read it. This trend of older women having adventures is delightful. May we all be as brave hearted as Mrs. Plansky, loved by Norm.

What a great feel-good novel! You go, Mrs. P! A well-do-do senior in a Florida retirement home falls for a grandparent scam and her bank accounts are drained. With some of her remaining funds, she boldly travels all the way to Romania to try to get her money back and, in unraveling the mystery of her missing cash and a tangle of related mysteries, makes some very unlikely friends and allies, to say the least!

I absolutely loved every bit of it.

Spencer Quinn takes a break from Chet & Bernie to give us a stand-alone - the wonderful Mrs. Plansky's Revenge.

"Loretta Plansky is a recent widow, living out her retirement in Florida. One night she gets a call from her grandson, needing money to help with a problem. The next day she discovers that she is the victim of a scam and her bank account and investment account is empty. The FBI tells her that her caller probably called from a little village in Romania so she heads there looking for answers. Mayhem ensues!"

You have to love Loretta. She is dealing with all of those things that happen as we age, but still plays a mean game of tennis. And is pretty handy driving a motorcycle when she needs to be. She has to face some challenges, especially as a widow. That doesn't stop her.

If you have older parents you'll recognize a lot of what Loretta is going through.
This is a fun story from Quinn.

3.5 stars

Seventy-one year old Loretta Plansky is having a pleasant retirement in Punta D'Oro, Florida. Years ago, Loretta and her husband Norm made millions of dollars with their patented 'Plansky Toaster Knife', which slices and toasts bread simultaneously. After Norm passed, Loretta moved into a pretty little condo, and though Loretta misses Norm terribly, she's enjoying her life - shopping, playing tennis, seeing her friends, etc.

Loretta is comfortable financially, and her family seems to view her as something like an ATM machine. Loretta's daughter Nina and son Jack request hundreds-of-thousands of dollars for sure-to-fail business ventures; and Loretta spends nearly $10,000 a month for her cranky, 98-year-old father's upscale retirement home.

Thus Loretta doesn't give it a second thought when she gets a middle-of-the-night phone call from her grandson Will. The line is fuzzy, but Loretta can hear Will say he needs $9,000+ to bail himself out for a DUI, and to get his car out of impound. Loretta sends the money to 'Safemo' - which Will says is the best - and which requires Loretta's banking password. Unfortunately, the call is not from Will at all. The call is from a scammer, and by the following morning Loretta finds out she's been bilked out of all her money - nearly $4,000,000.

Loretta has a meeting with bankers and FBI agents, who say they'll investigate the theft. However, the FBI cautions Loretta that these scams originate in Eastern Europe, and Loretta is unlikely to get her money back.

Loretta is no shrinking violet and she's angry. Thus, when Loretta learns the cyberthieves are in Romania, she makes her way to the American Embassy in Bucharest, and then to a Romanian town known to harbor cyberscammers. The Romanian townsfolk assume Loretta is an American tourist as she goes about her investigation. Loretta's skills - like driving a stick shift, riding a motorcycle, and befriending people - serve her well in her quest.

In the Romanian town, Loretta happens to make the acquaintance of two teenage boys, Dinu and Romeo, who - unknown to Loretta - are involved in the cyberthief scam. The boys work for Dinu's Uncle Dragomir, a thug who runs the operation, bullies the boys, and pays them a pittance.

As the story unfolds, Loretta's serendipitous discoveries lead to danger and adventure. On the upside, Loretta meets some helpful people, and gets to enjoy Romanian specialties like Țuică (plum brandy) and plum jam.

Loretta is a plucky heroine with a good sense of humor, and it's great to see her hold her own in this 'cozy thriller.'

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Petrea Burchard, who does an excellent job.

Thanks to Netgalley, Spencer Quinn, and Macmillan Audio for a copy of the book.

3.75 stars

Appealing and gentle story of Mrs. Loretta Plansky, a wealthy widow who also is dealing with her cantankerous 98 year old father. Loretta is plucky and capable, but still gets taken in by an elaborate phone scam perpetrated by a gang in Europe. Here's where it gets interesting: after being told that she basically has zero chance of recovering her money, Loretta puts some clues together and flies to Europe to track down the thieves. Against all odds, she manages to find and confront them.

Yes, it's an unlikely scenario. But the characterizations are nicely done and Loretta is admirable in her determination and her humanity. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.