THEY’D KILL TO BE WIDOWS.
Three best friends turn to murder to collect on their husbands’ life insurance policies… But the husbands have a plan of their own in this darklyfunny debut that will delight readers from the first laugh to the final twist.
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. Suddenly, their golden years are looking as dreary as their marriages.
But when the women discover their husbands have seven-figure life insurance policies, a new dream forms. And this time, they need a hitman.
Meanwhile, their husbands are working on their own secret retirement scheme and when things begin to go sideways, they fear it’s backfired. The husbands scramble to stay alive…but soon realize they may not be quick enough to outmaneuver their wives.
Dear Ms. Hincenbergs,
I requested this because I thought it looked like fun. It turned out to be a book that did what I love best, kept me guessing – well, mostly – until the end. It could have twisted in so many ways and is so good I finished reading the last 250 pages in one day in massive gulps, hanging on for the ride. I can definitely see this as a 1990s Cohn brothers film.
“We can’t not kill them! We’ve hired the hitman.” Nancy crossed her arms and stood with her back to the door.
“We’ve only paid the deposit.”
Shalisa put her hands on her hips. “It’s not like we’re canceling the lawn guy, Pam. I doubt Hector has a refund policy. And do you really want to renege on your hitman?”
To say anything more than what the blurb reveals would be to spoil things. There are a lot of characters involved and it takes a few chapters to be able to keep it straight about who is married to whom. Then things take off. Imagine riding a long roller coaster with a slow climb up which then begins a fast race down, then loops, twists, turns, goes through some tunnels and repeats a few times. It’s entertaining and also darkly funny.
“That’s what friends do. In our twenties we keep each other from being roofied; in our sixties we let each other know if we’re doing old-lady shit and when it’s time to pluck our chin hair.”
There are plot flips and a ton of morally gray people. I liked and disliked most of them, hated a few, cheered when certain things happened, worried about who was going to make it through to the end of the book, changed my opinion about people a time or three, and waited to understand why some of them did and said what they did. I read another advanced review that said if these couples had talked to each other a bit more, a lot of misunderstandings would have been avoided but then the book wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.
Shalisa slammed her hand on the table, and Pam and Nancy jumped. “It always comes back to this. Our fucking husbands. Our fucking husbands who lost all our money and ruined our lives. And now because of our fucking husbands, we could be killed.
“I’m sixty-three. This kind of shit isn’t supposed to be happening to me.” She pushed her chair back, picked up the empty plate, and headed toward the sink. “I shouldn’t be hiring hitmen and dodging threats. I should be scrapbooking and playing pickleball.”
I loved seeing the older couples who had wrinkles, slight paunches, hair loss, lives spent together, and those annoyances that come from thirty plus years of marriage. There is a lot of really dark humor which might be more than readers are looking for. Mistakes are made based on that sketchy communication about important things and the results set off a chain reaction that keeps the story moving and the tempo fast.
“You should watch one. There’s four in the franchise. Gotta love Keanu Reeves. Start with the first one. Then maybe you’ll understand why you don’t mess around with someone’s dog.”
There’s a lot of heart in the story. My favorite couple from the book are not in the initial friend group. Instead it’s a man who “gets things done” and also lives by the credo of “happy wife, happy life” and the woman he chose who changed his life. There’s also a lovable mixed breed dog, Elmer.
The book flipped and twisted more than an Olympic diver from the ten meter platform. Would the dive end in a splashless finish or a belly flop? I could guess at a few things but even getting those correct still left me unsure about major events. Some shit goes down and hard truths must be faced and examined. Remember morally gray. Is this a realistic book? Nah. Or at least I hope not. Some plot things go a little sideways by the end but it’s entertaining as heck and hard to believe that it’s a debut effort. My enjoyment is worth the grade. I look forward to more to come. A-
~Jayne
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Jayne
Another long time reader who read romance novels in her teens, then took a long break before started back again about 25 years ago. She enjoys historical romance/fiction best, likes contemporaries, action- adventure and mysteries, will read suspense if there’s no TSTL characters and is currently reading more fantasy and SciFi.
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