finished reading

I think this would be considered a cozy thriller.   It's not quite a mystery, not quite a thriller, not quite a heist, but a blend of them all.  I'll try to describe it without spoilers: it's a series of mishaps and miscommunications among four long-married, best-friend couples.  Some of the situations and plot lines go a bit sideways as the story progresses, but it's full of unexpected twists and turns.  Suspend belief and enjoy the ride! With a big cast of main characters, I had a hard time remembering who's married to whom. I thoroughly enjoyed Hector and Brenda as secondary characters.  They deserve a spinoff.  Elmer was my favorite character.

From the publisher:

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, and their dreams of beachfront condos and a sunny, carefree retirement vanish. The golden years are looking as dreary as their marriages.

But when one husband dies in a freak accident, the other three women are shocked to see his widow rebound with a huge life insurance payout and a new life in Florida. In the aftermath, the women discover that their husbands have identical, seven-figure life insurance policies. A new dream forms, and this time, it involves a hitman.

Meanwhile, their husbands have a secret retirement plan of their own. So, when things begin to go awry, they fear their own scheme may have backfired…with deadly consequences. The husbands scramble to stay alive, but they may not be fast enough to outmaneuver their wives.

What follows is a high-stakes tale of cat and mouse, both laugh-out-loud funny and unbearably tense, while ultimately a big-hearted look at marriage, friendship, and middle-age.