Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge, Spencer Quinn, author
There are some books you wish would go on forever, because you fall in love with a character, and don’t want that relationship to end; this is one of them. I love Loretta Plansky. She has an indomitable spirit, with the courage of a warrior. When her naivete caught her in a monstrous scam that left her practically penniless, she literally took the challenge onto her own shoulders, even when The FBI told her there was little chance to recover her lost funds. She connived, encouraged herself to take risks and flew off to a foreign country that harbored the type of criminals conducting these scams that targeted and took advantage of lonely, elderly people.
This is how it happened. In the middle of the night, after a day of being hit up for money by both of her adult children, Nina and Jack, Mrs. Plansky is awakened by a call from her grandson Will, or was it her grandson? Well, it turns out it wasn’t, but nevertheless, he too hit her up for money and convinced her to turn over her password to her bank accounts. Then he stole her assets.
The next day, she was aghast when her banks called her to ask why she had emptied her accounts. She informed them that she had not, but she was guilty of turning over her password, and suddenly she was hoping this was just a glitch in the system. It was not. The FBI was called, and the cybercrime division took her case, but Agent Perryman gave her little hope. Loretta was retired, a widow living in a condo in Florida, paying for the care of her 98 years old father, Chandler Wills Banning, a demanding handful who was living in a costly facility she funded, agreeing to lend her adult children funds for prospective business ventures, and now, suddenly, she had no ready cash, no way to help them or her father or herself. She sells an heirloom for immediate ready cash. Then she brings her dad home, hires a caregiver, Lucrecia Santiago, and on a wing and a prayer, she flies to Romania where she gets lost and accidentally actually meets the culprits who scammed her that fateful night. Of course, none of them are aware of that connection. Dinu and Romeo like her and take her to the town, Alba Gemina, that she is seeking. By chance, it is also where Dinu’s uncle operates a hotel. His uncle, Dragomir Tiriac, is a dangerous gangster who engineered and operated the entire scam that Dinu and Romeo were using to filch her out of her money. He is a dangerous man. It takes Loretta a long time to realize this, but once she does, all bets are off. She gets angry. Because Loretta has tried to behave like a “spy”, or an operative, she takes risks and uses her phone to capture the information on documents and other evidence she decides might be important. She contacts people, makes clandestine arrangements and naively and bravely stumbles forward. Sometimes she has a plan, sometimes she has no plan, but still moves ahead discovering clues others have missed. She is in danger, but she seems to manage to thwart the threats. She witnesses other people who have been compromised by Dragomir in his criminal enterprise. She is a simple woman, and she is horrified by what she learns about the way their selfishness and greed rule over their lives. It is a place without traditional law and order. It is the country of the tyrannical Ceau?escu’s.
The confluence of coincidences requires the suspension of disbelief, at times, and yet, those times are also somehow believable with the author’s explanation of Loretta's experiences and behavior. She is a character, a true example of the sandwich generation, and a very lovable one. She defies the forces of evil because she muddles through each situation with a combination of luck and innocent happenstance. Relax and enjoy this book, because it exposes our very human flaws with an affectionate and witty hand.