3.5 stars. I found that this book started out really slowly. The setup took far too long and the jumping back and forth for perspectives from different characters, covering the same material, really dragged the book down at the beginning. But luckily things picked up toward the middle and the ending was strong.
We first meet the couples, Pam & Hank, Nancy & Larry, Shalisa & Andre and Marlene and Dave, at a summer backyard BBQ. The couples, all in their early 60's, have been friends for decades, but their marriages and friendships have been strained since Hank got all of the men to invest in a sure thing that went belly up before their wives even knew that their life savings was missing. Now, the wives resent their husbands and the fact that they have to work and can't retire. Meanwhile, the men remain best friends and don't seem to notice their wives' disdain. When Dave is found dead after the garage door, that Marlene had been harassing him to fix for years, crushed his head, Marlene is at first devastated until she learns that Dave had a large insurance policy and she can sell her house and move to Florida. When the other women learn that their husbands have the same policy, they decide to hire a hitman to kill their husbands. They turn to Hector, a barber who was a former gangster in El Salvador.
Meanwhile, Hank is the one who discovers Dave's body and he is scared to death. The men had all been stealing millions from the casino where Hank & Dave work when Dave discovered a glitch in the new slot machines. Together, they worked with Andre, who owned a courier service that would get the betting slips cashed, and Larry, the banker who set up offshore accounts to hide the money, and started building their retirement plan. They were only a few hundred thousand dollars short of their $10 million goal when Dave was killed. They should have pulled the plug on the operation when the casino was sold to an Indian company with ties to the mob. They are convinced that Padma, the new manager of the casino, put a hit on Dave because he was found with a $1000 chip laying on his chest, a gang sign, and her mother is a powerful mob boss. If only they knew that Padma was in way over her head and had no idea how to run a casino and was more concerned about avoiding her mother's matchmaking attempts. To protect themselves, Hank and the husbands hire Hector to kill whoever is trying to kill them, not realizing that it is their own wives who have put a hit on them. Hector leverages the situation to get his wife, Brenda, a job at the casino in security. Thus ensues a series of events where the women begin to have cold feet, Brenda, Padma and her cohorts discover the slot machine glitch and start to look for the missing money, and Hank and the other husbands are presumed dead after their boat explodes in the harbor.
But wait! The husbands aren't really dead! Hector faked their deaths so that they could escape with their money. They originally planned to send for their wives but that plan changed once they found out that they put a hit on them for the insurance money. Eventually Padma, with Hector and Brenda's help, is able to pin the theft on a shady Indian mobster and escape from under her mother's thumb. Hector and Brenda take their earnings and move to El Salvador where they, together with the husbands, buy and run a resort hotel. Brenda, a year later, tells the wives that they have won an all expenses paid vacation and they come to the resort and are surprised to reconnect with their presumed to be dead husbands.

This book was FABULOUS! I loved it from the first page to the last page.

There was just enough character development that you weren't bored reading about it, but you knew exactly who everyone was and could tell them apart. The pacing was great - never bored, never a paragraph skipped. The story moved - and it moved realistically. And this especially spoke to mid-life women (like me) I think - not that I'm going to hire a hit man, lol. But there were so many identifiable things and you went along because it was SO PLAUSIBLE in an absurd, fiction way. After so many years of marriage there are so many things you make assumptions about and make judgements about - it all made so much sense.

I loved that there was no confusion - no "they don't know that we know that we know" - I loved Hector's morality, ha ha. This book was like the best kind of misunderstanding, one step behind comedy ever.

And of course, having Elmer in the story so much was great!
Can't wait to see what else this author comes out with.

Entertaining and delightfully ridiculous. This book kind of reminds me of one of those 80s rom-coms where everyone is running around misinterpreting things and getting involved in ridiculous shenanigans instead of just sitting down and having a simple conversation. I mean, the events of this novel could have been almost entirely avoided if the couples would have simply communicated with each other. But I guess I'm kind of glad they didn't because this story wouldn't have been nearly as fun if everyone had behaved like responsible adults, so …

But, yeah. This was a delightful read. What should you do when your husband loses your entire retirement savings and then kind of starts getting on your nerves? And what if your best friends are in the same exact situation? Well, you get together and hatch a plan to murder your (not so) significant others for the life insurance payouts … obviously. But what if your husbands have a secret retirement plan of their own? And what happens if you all happen to know the same very sketchy barber with a slightly-less-than-legal (and apparently booming) side business?

This novel switches points of view frequently. And while I enjoyed the antics of the husbands and wives tremendously, I think my favorite chapters were probably from the perspective of Padma, the frazzled casino boss (of two of the husbands) with a very overbearing mother. Hector the shady barber is also a delightful character to follow through the story – perhaps there's a lot more depth to his personality than it initially seems?

It's almost impossible properly discuss The Retirement Plan without spoilers, but expect lots of humor and twists and turns and all kinds of underhandedness. None of these couples have healthy relationships and they all suck a whole, whole lot at communication, but their antics are certainly amusing and make for a delightful read.

My overall rating: 4.25 stars, rounded down.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review. Its expected publication date is May 6, 2025.

I really enjoyed this story. It was funny and full of twists and turns. The characters are interesting. It’s crazy what a little miscommunication can start. Thank you NetGalley for the read.

@WmMorrowBooks

@williammorrowbooks

This was a light and humorous read. The characters were well developed, and the story line moved well. I will say is was rather predictable, in this case, that didn’t distract to much from the story being enjoyable. As I was reading it, I was picturing this book as a mini series, I think it would be fantastic!

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This is a humorous and satisfying caper. There were elements of predictability in the story (and, I am not one to generally see things coming. . .) but, that didn’t detract from the fun

It was an enjoyable light read, but one that might make an even better mini-series or movie. The characters were fun…broadly drawn, but full of life. This would be a great vacation read.

Three wives wanting a new life, three husbands in their way…

After thirty years of friendship, Pam dreams of her perfect retirement with Nancy, Shalisa, Marlene, and their husbands—until their husbands pool their funds for an investment that goes terribly wrong, and their dreams of beachfront condos and a sunny, carefree retirement vanish. The golden years are looking as dreary as their marriages.

But when one husband dies in a freak accident, the other three women are shocked to see his widow rebound with a huge life insurance payout and a new life in Florida. In the aftermath, the women discover that their husbands have identical, seven-figure life insurance policies. A new dream forms, and this time, it involves a hitman.

Meanwhile, their husbands have a secret retirement plan of their own. So, when things begin to go awry, they fear their own scheme may have backfired…with deadly consequences. The husbands scramble to stay alive, but they may not be fast enough to outmaneuver their wives.

What follows is a high-stakes tale of cat and mouse, both laugh-out-loud funny and unbearably tense, while ultimately a bighearted look at marriage, friendship, and middle-age.

Loved it. I loved the friendship between the ladies. Loved the humor and snark. Will recommend to others.

Thank you NetGalley for this early copy of The Retirement Plan.
This was a very fun book to read. Lots of misunderstanding is what fuels the plot but with enough intrigue that you do not know how it will all resolve itself.
I enjoyed the characters and loved that the main ones were in their 60s. I especially enjoyed the relationship of the barber and his wife. Dialogues for the most part rang true, not falling into the trap of stereotypes. Much has to don with the author herself being of the same age.
Fun that this was her first book. I look forward to what she writes next!

It took a little bit to get into and I really didn't care for most of the characters at first. But as the book went on and they started to learn some things, I wound up really enjoying it. Highly recommend, especially for those of us who aren't getting younger and get irritated with our spouses ;)

Thank you to NetGalley and Sphere for this ARC.

I thought this book was a fun read. Reminded me a bit of Ocean's 11, but a little messier. It makes for a nice, quick weekend read. While I did enjoy it, I didn't feel super connected to the story line. I think many will really enjoy this book, but I didn't feel strongly enough to love it or dislike it.

What a FUN read! "The Retirement Plan" is a crazy story - three mid-life women try to have their spouses bumped off for the insurance money, and meanwhile, the husbands.... Lots of snark in this one, but also a good commentary of life, marriage & friendships. My thanks to Net Galley & the publisher for my advance readers copy - enjoyed the ride!

I could not get into this - only made it about 20%. I was not invested in the characters and just found it boring.

I real A LOT of books, so I'm always looking to read something different, as a lot of mysteries and thrillers are a little formulaic. I loved how different The Retirement Plan is. The author did a great job of developing each character, creating their own relationship dynamics, and creating both love and tension between all of the different connections, I thought she made this book a really interesting, engaging read. Definitely a fun one to pick up when you're looking for something fresh and new.

I loved this book! It's a fun read! It's like desperate housewives but more modern day. I wasn't expecting the ending but it was still a great book!

Pam, Nancy, Shalisa and Marlene have been friends for years, ever since their children were growing up. Their husbands are also similarly close to each other. When one of the the men does unexpectedly, his wife receives and unexpected monetary windfall and it isn’t long before the wives begin plotting to take their husbands down so they are similarly set for life. Will the women be crafty enough to get away with it or have the men been plotting their own plans the entire time?

To make matters more complicated for the wives, all of their retirement money had been squandered by bad investment advice from Pam’s husband Hank. Mix in the possibility of some casino goons willing to break necks and end lives and you have a compelling plot to drive the story.

This book has been posited as a light mystery with a madcap, zany turn of events and I think that’s a very apt description. Though it drags a little in the middle it is still good, clean fun. A cute thriller if a little slow in the middle. 3.5 stars.

I received this advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and feedback.

This was a delightful and refreshing read. It's funny, full of twists and turns and surprisingly full of heart.
The story has an interesting setting, great pacing, and the characters are interesting.
It was a real page turner for me!

As Tolstoy famously wrote, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The Retirement Plan delves into the lives of four such unhappy couples: Pam and Hank, Shalisa and Andre, Nancy and Larry, and Marlene and Dave. Longtime friends, these couples have weathered unique struggles over the years. But their most recent challenge—a disastrous investment scheme by the husbands—has left all of them financially ruined. When Dave unexpectedly dies and his widow inherits his million-dollar life insurance policy, the other wives start to wonder if their spouses are worth more dead than alive. Meanwhile, their husbands are worried that the consequences of their new get-rich scheme are starting to catch up with them..

The Retirement Plan is a darkly humorous and engaging debut novel from Sue Hincenbergs. Hincenbergs masterfully juxtaposes a familiar suburban settling with dodgy investments, international cartels, hired killers, and other wild escapades. Although the scheming of the spouses is completely unhinged, each of the marriages and interactions between husband and wife are relatable in many ways. Hincenbergs skillfully ties together the couples’ mundane misunderstandings and petty arguments, presenting the reader with both sides of the story. Once the characters are introduced and the plot gets going, the twists and turns make this a delight to read!

Thank you to William Morrow for providing an advance copy of this book for review through NetGalley. All opinions expressed here are my own.

I loved this. I loved the drama, the characters, the story line. I loved all of it. I wish there was second one as a follow up.

Cute fun murder mystery- four couples living life different than they should be thanka to the husbands- one husband dies and widow gets lots of money to move to Florida to live her best life the other women start to think that's what they should be doing- cue the mystery and the drama of what happens next a few twists and turns and the last chapter is a fun one - recommend if you like fun light mysteries!

Four best friends look upon their savings as a way to someday provide them with a luxurious retirement. Little did they know that their husbands' retirement funds hit the skids after a bad investment. Their dreams of a retirement in paradise were gone.
They soon discover their husbands have lucrative life insurance policies. They immediately make a deal with their local town barber, who is known for his ability to make people disappear.
When the husbands begin planning for their lucrative retirement, things go awry, and they find their lives in danger. The wives are on to them, and if they want to stay alive, they are going to have to move quickly.