A comic crime caper about five Swedish
pensioners who break out of their retirement home and become criminals.
When
Lily of the Valley retirement home in Stockholm is sold to ghastly new owners
and renamed Diamond House, the cloistered pensioners who reside there get fed
up. Their food is "delivered and served under cellophane wrapping,"
and budget cuts curb their daily coffee consumption. Believing they would be
better treated and have more freedom in prison, one clique at the facility--a
close-knit group of five friends who, in their late 50s, decided to live
together in old age--start a rebellion to test their theory. The group, banded
together by 79-year-old, childless, crime fiction fan Martha Andersson, call
themselves "The League of Pensioners" and go on the lam. The League
consists of handsome, dapper Rake; Oscar "Brains," an optimistic solution-finder
and inventor; Christina, who's in search of simple pleasures; and hard of
hearing Anna-Greta, a former banker and financier. The quintet set out to rob
from the rich and contribute the funds to improve living conditions for seniors
throughout Sweden. After a successful robbery at a luxury hotel, they attempt
the heist of a Renoir and a Monet from the National Museum that ultimately
lands them behind bars.
The missing paintings,
however, continue to elude the police and ultimately, even the Yugoslavian
mafia.
A
comedy of errors, oversights and obstacles infuse Catharina
Ingelman-Sundberg's clever American debut, where a spirited cast of walker-dependent characters in
their 70s and 80s cause hilarious, escalating antics that will have readers of
all ages rooting for their cause.
Harper Paperbacks, $15.99 Paperback, 9780062447975, 400 pp
Publication
Date: July 12, 2016
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book via INDIEBOUND link HERE
Note: This review is a reprint and is being
posted (in a slightly different form) with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this
review on Shelf
Awareness: Reader's Edition (7/19/16), link HERE