Pam, Nancy and Shalisa once imagined retirement would mean setting aside their worries, picking up their margaritas, and lying back in a hot tub. Right up until their husbands lost all their savings in a reckless investment.
Now, collecting their husbands’ life insurance is starting to sound more appealing than growing old with them. But enlisting the help of the local barber/hitman isn’t merely the most daring thing the friends have ever done – it’s also where the trouble really begins.
Because they don’t realise their husbands have some tricks up their sleeves. And there’s no turning back now . . .

‘The Retirement Plan‘ surprised me in the best possible way. I’d expected brittle, dark humour about women banding together to get the better of (and probably kill) their deadbeat husbands. I would have been OK with that. (which probablydoes not reflect well on my character) but what I got was much better. 

‘The Retirement Plan‘ was a clever, well-written, bizarrely uplifting comedy of errors. With most thrillers, each plot twist darkens the story, raises the tension and makes me like the people less as their secrets are revealed. In this story, every plot twist (and there were lots of them) made me smile. made me like the people more and encouraged me to hope that, against the odds, everything might work out in the end. 

It was a story filled with believably flawed people who do bad things but who, given a choice, would rather be nice to people. It’s a story about fractured marriages that challenge the love they were founded on. It’s also a casino heist story with assassins, organised crime and clever fraud. Most of all, it’s a story about people learning that what they most value isn’t money but each other.  What could be more uplifting than that?

What I loved most about this book was that Sue Hinceberg managed to keep the focus of this story on the people in it. Not just the women. Not even just the women and their husbands. But the barber/assassin who “does what needs to be done” and his PI wife who gets a job running casino security and the young Indian woman who is trying to run the casino (which her mother’s company owns) while trying to mitigate the outcome of her mother’s attempts to get her married off to a suitable man from Mumbai. The people in this novel felt real. A little exaggerated perhaps but people I could imagine meeting or working with. The diverse backgrounds and conflicting motivations of the people power the plot and create opportunities for the humour that lubricates the entire book. 

I liked that the assassination, heist and fraud investigation aspects of the plot weren’t soft-peddled or played purely for laughs. They did make me laugh but the tension and the surprises that make a good thriller were also there. 

Finally, I liked that the main actors in the plot were in their sixties – hence the title of the book – but they weren’t portrayed either as ancient and decrepit or unrealistically youthful. They were just people my age who thought that most of the crap in life was already behind them and were having to adjust to the new problems that fate had handed them. They got through those problems in part because they’d known one another for decades and knew themselves well enough to accept that they might have messed up. 

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this book was that it’s a debut novel. I’d never have guessed that from the text. 

If you’re looking for a book that will keep you guessing and make you smile, put on your headphones and listen to ‘The Retirement Plan’. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample.

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GoodReads’ biography for Sue Hincebergs says:

Sue Hincenbergs is a former television producer who has worked on multiple award-winning programs ranging from sitcoms to lifestyle. She oversaw the content on two national daily shows, including Canada’s longest running morning show before turning her talents to live music specials.

And then she started writing.

Her darkly humorous crime debut was acquired in major six-figure deals in the UK and US & Canada, before being snapped up by multiple foreign territories for translation rights. The film rights have been optioned by an acclaimed Hollywood studio with seasoned A-list producers at the helm.

On her blog, Sue Hincebergs shares the story of how she came to write ‘The Retirement Plan‘ and how she got it published.