Fans of Spencer Quinn’s long-running Chet and Bernie series will not be disappointed with his new stand alone novel, “Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge.” In this cleverly constructed story, senior citizen and recipient of a new hip Loretta Plansky is bilked of all her money through a scam that isn’t even particularly clever.

We all read about people in impoverished countries who call senior citizens, usually women, claiming to be their grandson and needing bail money. Once they get the information regarding bank accounts, they steal everything in the account. Some people, maybe senior citizens more than most—I’m not judging—use the same password for all their accounts. Unfortunately for Mrs. Plansky, she had been one of those. The scammers got everything. Over three million hard-earned dollars.

Loretta is a kind and generous woman. If it were just for herself, she wouldn’t be terribly worried. But she has responsibilities. We see that she pays for the fabulous assisted living facilities where her father resides, and she gives generously to her two rather dependent adult children. She enjoys being generous with her two grandchildren. And she’s just angry that she was bilked out of her wealth by someone who sounded so nice and made her care. She’s upset and sad, and she’s not going to take it.

Meeting with the FBI about her loss, they tell her that there is little chance she will ever get her money back. It’s disappeared into the bowels of Romania, probably from a little town called Alba Gemina. Everyone assumes that Loretta will sit back, let the officials do their work or not do their work, and take the loss. But we find that Loretta is made of sterner stuff than they expect. She buys a ticket to Romania, packs her bag, and is off for what will be the adventure of her life.

While we are meeting and getting to know Loretta, Quinn also introduces us to Dinu and his friend Romeo in Alba Gemina. They live in squalid Soviet-era housing that has few amenities (like heat), and they work for Dinu’s uncle Dragomir, who is a criminal. Through his crimes, he has amassed wealth; he owns a hotel, a restaurant, and a casino in Alba Gemina. Dinu is working on his English, and Romeo is a computer wunderkind. They are the two who make the scamming process work. Dinu poses as the desperate grandson, and Romeo works the computer part, quickly emptying accounts and sending the proceeds to hidden accounts on the dark web.

While the plot is delightful, the story and themes are significant and serious. And there are many reasons that this book is worthy of long discussion by book clubs. Senior citizens are rarely main characters in action-filled books. Yet Mrs. Plansky, she of the fairly recent hip replacement, is a seventy-one-year-old widow who really misses her husband Norm. It’s poignant how often she thinks about Norm and wants to share things with him as most couples share things that happen to them throughout the day. But Norm is gone, and at times, Loretta feels lonely.

Dinu is a much different character. He’s still a teenager, but his life seems already quite hopeless. His uncle supports Dinu and his mother, and basically Dinu is forced to work for his uncle and rely on his uncle’s largess, which is not very large as his uncle is a mean, miserly, violent and vicious person.

But Loretta? We kind of fall in love with her. Her determination and her cleverness are surely worthy of admiration, but she accomplishes much in spite of her very sheltered life and her rather naive mindset. Over the course of this novel, we see her change and grow into someone we truly respect.

And I would be remiss not to mention the narrative. Those fans of the Chet and Bernie series will recognize the narrative as quite similar in nature. This is not to imply that the narrative in any way seems to be that of a dog; unfortunately, there are no dogs in this novel, its only shortcoming (IMHO). But the narrative includes the clever asides, the humorous twists that our thought processes can take, and just a kind of Chet-like way of viewing the action. If a Chet fan read this novel and didn’t know who the author was, they’d almost certainly recognize the unique style.

Important themes emerge effectively and even movingly throughout the novel. In America particularly, our senior citizens suffer all too often from the ravages of ageism. We tend to ignore and dismiss the opinions of our seniors, their cumulative wisdom as well as their collective lots in life. And those national character flaws work to our profound disadvantage. The experience and wisdom of our elders is sorely missed.

Another theme that’s all too easy to miss revolves around Mrs. Plansky’s unique character; we rarely take into account the fact that an individual who is understandably ignorant in some areas of knowledge and issues of our daily existence might be extraordinarily brilliant and disciplined in other areas. At first, Mrs. Plansky seems like easy prey for scammers. She has no idea how scammers can take advantage of the vulnerability of our financial affairs. But then, as the plot and the ironic themes unfold, we begin to understand that the uninformed and “ignorant” character whom we meet at first is, in fact, capable of brilliant planning and execution of those plans to exact her very satisfying revenge — as the villains learn the hard way. Brava and bravo to Mrs. Plansky and the author, respectively.

Quinn creates a noble protagonist who exhibits all the senior citizen moments that many of us have. She forgets names or information and then remembers them at a random future moment. She has some aches and pains that are unfamiliar to those under the age of thirty. She is not taken seriously by younger people, perhaps especially men. But in spite of her age, Loretta is a hero as fabulous as any beautiful woman in her prime. Her kind heart, her sense of justice, and her grit and determination make this novel one that should not be missed.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.