Rån och inga visor

Pensionärsligan #3

by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg

In the third hilarious, unforgettable installment in internationally bestselling author Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg's League of Pensioners series, Martha and the League's latest escapade has them headed for the French Riviera in what is sure to be the most daring caper of the summer.

Martha and her friends are sitting comfortably in Sweden... a little too comfortably. Determined to do more for their fellow pensioners--and jazz things up for themselves--they're up to their usual antics: bank robberies, money laundering, and figuring out how to disappear in a garbage-truck-cum-getaway-car. They have their sights sets on building a resort village for seniors, but that's going to take money. Lots of money.

While stalking their millionaire neighbor, Carl, on Facebook, Anna-Gretta scrolls through his photos--all of them featuring luxury yachts on the Riviera--and an idea comes to her on how to solve the League's cash problem. When she shares the hare-brained scheme with the others, they're all aboard.

Their plan to cheat billionaires out of their luxury yachts in the south of France's sun-bleached Saint-Tropez soon turns into the heist of their lives with the police hot on their heels--as well as a couple of ruthless ex-cons. Now this wily group of walker-equipped conspirators are hell-bent on accomplishing their dangerous mission--no matter the consequences...

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Audiobook, Mystery, Crime, Sweden, Book Club

399 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Catharina Ingelman-Sundbergs böcker har sålt i över 400 000 exemplar. 1999 belönades hon med Widdingpriset som årets författare av historiska romaner och populärhistoria i Sverige. Hennes böcker är hittills sålda till 14 länder.

Catharina ägnade femton år av sitt liv att som arkeolog söka efter vår historia på havets botten runt om i världen. Denna tid har hon skildrat i boken Bland hajar, karlar och vrak. I Norge har hon bland annat deltagit i utgrävningen av fregatten Lossen och har även varit anställd vid Norsk sjöfartsmuseum.

Som marinarkeolog dök hon på allt från vikingaskepp och ostindiefarare till slavskepp och försvarsspärrar utanför vikingastaden Birka i Mälaren.

Hon var även anställd vid Western Australian Museum i Perth där hon ledde arbetet med att bärga och utforska den holländska ostindiefararen "Zeewijk" från 1727. Om detta kan man läsa i den sjöhistoriska romanen Kampen mot bränningarna, klassad som en av de bästa sjöromanerna som skrivits på svenska.

Efter några år som marinarkeolog i Australien återvände hon till Sverige där hon arbetade flera år vid Malmö sjöfartsmusem och bärgade det vikingatida Fotevikskeppet utanför Skåne.

Därefter utbildade sig Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg till journalist vid Journalisthögskolan i Göteborg parallelt med att bokskrivandet kom igång. Förutom Kampen mot bränningarna och romantriologin Vikingablot, Vikingasilver och Vikingaguld har Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg även gett ut populärvetenskapliga faktaböcker, bl.a Boken om vikingarna och underhållningslitteratur som Tantlexikon.

Vikingaromanerna skildrar vad som hände när missionären Ansgar kom till Skandinavien för att kristna hedningarna, om vikingarnas härtåg i västerled och österled och om den starka vikingakvinnan. Böckerna har publicerats i flera länder.

Hon har även skrivit om vikingafurstinnan Ingegerd i romanen Mäktig mans kvinna och tre böcker från medeltiden. I romanerna Brännmärkt, Förföljd och Befriad berättar hon bland annat om Östersjöns sjörövare vitaliebröderna, den tyska Hansan och drottning Margareta. I Tempelbranden berättar hon om när Sverige kristnades och förstörelsen av Uppsalatemplet.

Idag delar Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg sin tid mellan det egna författandet och arbetet som frilansjournalist.

Snabbfakta om Catharina:
Utbildning:
* Adolf Fredrik musikgymnasium, student 1967
* Fil. kand i Historia, Konsthistoria och Nordisk och jämförande folklivsforskning 1970, Uppsala universitet. Därtill betyg i arkeologi och nordiska språk.
* Svenska sportdykarförbundets 1:a klassbrev 1971
* Skepparexamen 1981
* Journalistexamen 1986

Anställningar:
Dykinstruktör, AB Dyksport, Uppsala
Marinarkeolog och amanuens på Statens sjöhistoriska museum och Oslo Sjöfartsmuseum, Marinarkeolog och museiintendent på Western Australian museum, Perth och Malmö sjöfartsmuseum
Journalist på GT, Göteborgsposten, SVT Västnytt i Göteborg och Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm.

Böcker:
Marinarkeologi, dykaren, arkeologen fynden, 1985
Kampen mot bränningarna, 1991
Den svarta ejderungen (illustrationer S. Hellmark), 1991
Bland hajar, karlar och vrak, 1995
Vikingablot, 1995
Vikingasilver, 1997
Vikingaguld, 1999
Boken om vikingarna, 1998
Stockholms dolda museer, 2000
Mäktig mans kvinna, om vikingafurstinnan Ingegerd, 2001
Forntida kvinnor, 2004
Tantlexikon, 2004
Brännmärkt, 2006
Förföljd, 2007
Befriad, 2009
Tempelbranden, 2010
Kaffe med Rån, 2012

Reviews

[Carla · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't a bad book but I felt like it didn't draw me in as much as the first one or even as the second one. Seeing as I gave the 2nd one 3 stars, this would have to be rated lower. It all started to feel a bit obvious to me and the only reason I managed to finish it in 1 week was because I kept telling myself 'today you'll read another 50 pages. Come on, you can do it'. It still had its funny moments but overall it didn't have the same effect as the first one.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again the author succeeds in writing a breathtaking combination of mystery and comedy. I laughed out loud several times and smiled more times than I could count and it brought several nice surprises - as the books in this series tends to do...

[Ken Fredette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg did a superb job of creating caring and tax paying criminals. Even as if its a fictitious scenario its really funny and interesting how they worked each different robberies. Martha was the instigator of all the robberies and she showed how well she put them together. It was fortunate that they got caught in their own trap when they rented the barge for a restaurant. And then they learned that the city owned the barge. It was pretty lively when Oleg ran into all the groups of retirees when he went to tie up his newly bought ship and found these people with tickets to his ship. The only thing that was fortunate was that Anna-Greta finally fell in love with Blomberg who was a retired ex-cop who new IT and saved the day with the Russians bank account. And he was the one not to squeal on the League of Pensioners, but joined them. It was a fun read to say the least and I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to cheer up.

[Mika · Rating 1 out of 5]

Den tredje och förhoppningsvis den sista delen av pensionärsligan som knappast kan ses som något nyskapande eller en genomtänkt i serien. Mycket långsökt och en historia som glömts lika snabbt som den avslutats med en eftersmaken av en grå dimma. Ett par fniss som högst och bara en väldans lång bok att läsa av denna struktur. Skrivandet är ändå konsekvent från de två första och handlingen är högst detsamma.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

* Read for The 52 Book Club's 2022 Reading Challenge task: A book with less than 2022 Goodreads ratings

[Zelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pensionärsligan slår till igen. Har tyckt om de två tidigare böckerna, gillar denna med men det är något med den som gör att jag inte riktigt fastnar för den eller gillar dem som dess föregångare. Det är fortfarande en rolig bok som bjuder in till en hel del skratt år alla tokigheter. när pensionärsligan fortsätter att göra livet lyxigare och roligare för äldre människor, man kan inget än älska dessa karaktärer.

[Ira Therebel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not sure why I started reading this book. I found the last one to be just ok. But I guess a year has passed and reading a book about old people that isn't them reflecting on their life before dying but a funny one with them doing crazy things just sounds really good.

But I regretted getting it already after a few chapters. It just wasn't funny at all. The characters just annoyed me. Through the whole book I didn't laugh and was bored and waiting for it to end. And it was long! Over 400 pages. This made it so much worse. It is sad that such a good idea can't be done in a funny way. The first book was alright, not great but still not a bad read but then it just went down.

And one thing that was the most annoying about this book was that every few pages they kept on saying how they will steal the money from the bad people and give it to the poor ones. I got it, they are like elderly Robin Hoods. But how often do I need to hear it? If they cut it out the book would be 100 pages shorter. This part is what makes this book even less than ok but impossible to like.

[Nancy H · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very amusing story, this novel tells the exploits of a group of senior citizens - pensioners - who take it upon themselves to right society's wrongs in a Robin-Hood-type manner. They want to make life better for the poor, the poorly paid, and especially people who try to help others but don't receive a fair wage, such as health care workers. They develop wonderful plans, and almost get caught in their own traps occasionally, as they decide to rob banks, steal yachts, and much more. This is a very entertaining read.

[Lisa Allarid · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one didn't grab me like the other two in the series. I enjoyed it but am glad to be done.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one of those you'll either love or hate books (pretty common though when it comes to humorous fiction) and maybe the dividing line depends on how much you loved The Golden Girls. As in that show, the characters are all BFFs, elderly retirees in their 80s, with lots of romance (which in thinking back to many of the plot lines of Golden Girls, pretty racy). And you know, USUALLY I am the first to roll eyes when the detective starts romancing the suspect, or vice versa, but here I rooted so hard for Anna-Greta and Blomberg and was annoyed whenever the caper interfered because I wanted them to have more bonding over mobile apps.

Still planning their Robin Hood-esque capers, the gang hatches upon a scheme to steal a $100 million dollar yacht from a tax cheat, sell it to crooked Russian oligarch, and use the proceeds to secretly give nurses across Sweden a bonus, because health care workers deserve it. Mix in a lot of elderly romancing and that's this book.

Not sure though if the translator is the best for this light comedy and I think a lot of things come across stilted or not quite right (more so than the other books here)--but don't blame the author for that. The many typos or printing errors in this book makes me point a finger away from the author to the publisher too. Either way, this never pretends more than anything other than fun light comedy of elderly socially conscious Raffles outsmarting everyone around them--looking forward to more by this author.

[Joyce Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have enjoyed all three books as i look forward to how the elder will carry out their next crime. A group of Swedish pensioners commit crimes to give to other elders and health care workers who serve the elderly to make their lives better. In this book they rob a bank and steal a boat. They are working towards the goal of a village for seniors who cannot afford to live outside of the state-provided housing. At the start of the book they rob a bank using a garbage truck which ends up in their neighbor's pool. They start a restaurant with computerized speed-dating which is torched by the criminal who sold them the barge; he however did not own the barge. They buy the boat by paying the unpaid taxes. The criminal tried to get them to pay protection money which they refuse so he torches the barge. They then steal one of three yachts owned by their neighbor who they discover pays no taxes. With each book they become more sophisticated and more outrageous.

[Marcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 3rd book in the "Little Old Lady" series. The activities of the pensioners from Sweden is funny! For a group of senior citizens, they have others helping them through their plans. One of the pensioners is very computer savy and knows her ways about banking quite well. These books are a delight to read and you will love everyone of these characters in their quirky ways. I am hoping to see even more (in the future) of more "Little Old Lady" books.

[Julie Mestdagh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolut, idén kring pensionärsligan var rolig ett tag men tredje boken lyckas inte överraska mig. Inte heller skrattade jag lika mycket som jag gjorde när jag läste första 2 böckerna. Dags för pensionärsligan att gå i pension om du frågar mig.

[HerrPyssling · Rating 2 out of 5]

Den hade ingen röd tråd. Varje gång en risk eller motgång presenterades löste det sig för fort för att jag skulle hinna bry mig. Jag älskade verkligen konceptet och ville hemskt gärna tycka om den mer, men tyvärr. Jag kan tänka mig att de tidigare delarna är bättre!

[Inger Strand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humret meg gjennom denne.

[Nilo0 · Rating 4 out of 5]

کسی که به جلد سوم رسیده، حتما از کتاب و موضوعش خوشش اومده.
مارتا، کریستینا، آنا گرتا، بیل و شن‌کش سالمندان دوست‌داشتنی هستند که ماجراجویی‌هاشون رو دوست داشتم.

[Pat Brackenbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read in this series, Martha certainly gets herself and her friends into some fun things !

[Linda Dahlhöjd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Småmysig bok. Del tre i serien. Jag är nog mest förtjust i första boken, men helt klart värt att läsa alla tre delar.

[Emelie Johansson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mer underhållande än jag förväntat mig.

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
admittedly I did not realize I had bought the third book in this series so I know I've missed quite a bit of character developement, their relationships and what had led up to their current crime. It works as a stand alone novel as well so I decided to just read it.

It just didn't make any sense to me. I know its supposed to just be a fun read but none of it was even slightly realistic. They want to steal money so that they can give it away to people, like robin hood and his merry men, but the way they want to distribute funds makes no sense. Handing out $1000 goody bags at their boat restaraunt for one. How on earth can they manage to donate millions to museums, give every health care worker in the country a raise, and other types of donations to individuals? All while planning on, essentially, building an entire town for seniors. They had all of these crazy, unrealistic ideas and plans and the fact that they work out just fine is crazy to me.
I wanted to read a fun book that still made sense, but I felt like I was in some sort of elderly dream world where everything is rainbows and sunshine where you can do literally anything you want... and quickly.
Like in maybe a week tops, an eighty year old man built a complex dating app on an ipad, and put lights on a table that were associated with certain responses you put in the app... it was one of the most fake things I've ever read. Every one of their plans seemed to have each taken 5 minutes of discussion and somehow it all worked out every time.
This book was also so long for no good reason, it just kept going. I'd have to check if there is a fourth book (which I will not be reading) because the way this one ended didn't feel completely conclusive, even though it was about 450 pages...I dont even want to get into the characters, I was annoyed by every one of them for many different reasons. There were romantic interests that had no chemistry and also didn't make a whole lot of sense so basically I was just not a fan.

[Malin · Rating 3 out of 5]

En putslustig historia om ett gäng pensionärer som begår brott för att skänka pengarna till vård, skola och omsorg. Är det inte bankrån så är det en och annan skattesmitare som får vara med och bidra till pensionärernas välgörenhet. Pensionärsligan överkommer alla hinder och ve de yngre personer som försöker lura dem, då blir de också av med sina slantar.

Jag hade lite svårt att hålla ordning på karaktärerna i början, antagligen för att detta är den tredje boken i en serie och jag inte har läst de två första. Bokens ärende, att inte förminska äldre människor, är väl övertydligt beskrivet. Allt som allt en småputtrig deckare som bjöd på ett och annat skratt.

[melhara · Rating 2 out of 5]

The League of Pensioners strikes again!

What I enjoyed about the first two books was the unpredictability and the humor (old people getting away with robbing a bank is kind of funny). This third installment is just as unpredictable and entertaining (the first book was still my favourite though) but pensioners committing more crimes is getting kind of old (ha!).

Most of this book was about Martha trying to concoct another grand scheme to fulfill her dream of establishing a "Vintage Village" or a retreat for pensioners. The only way to get the funding needed to make this dream a reality is by committing more crimes (duh)! My main issue with this book is that it dragged a lot more than the previous two - there's a lot of focus on Martha trying to fulfill her dream (and neglecting Brains) and numerous pages focusing on how the funds should be allocated to those in need. It was nowhere near as fun to read as the previous books in this series.

*** #17 of my 2019 Popsugar Reading Challenge - A book set in Scandinavia ***

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My average rating for The League of Pensioners series: 3/5
Check out my reviews for the rest of the series:
Book 1: The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules
Book 2: The Little Old Lady Strikes Again!

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If you liked the following, then you'll probably enjoy The League of Pensioners series, and vice versa:

[Alicia L · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't a huge fan of this book. I had bought it a while ago and didn't realize at the time that it was actually the third book in a series (it really isn't marked anywhere on the physical copy of the book that it's part of a series). Maybe I would have liked it more had I read the other two books first, but I was still able to understand what was going on, just not all the references to past heists that they carried out.

This books was translated from Swedish, so it did read a little formal at times, but otherwise it was a really easy read. My problem is that it felt very long - like unnecessarily so. There seemed to be a lot of filler, which could have been condensed in my opinion.

While I enjoyed the characters, I felt like their individual voices read very similarly which made it hard to keep track of who was talking when. Especially since the author didn't always make it clear who was speaking during the dialogue.

I liked that it was shorter chapters, which made it easier to motivate myself to keep reading. I think that this was a well written book that had a really interesting idea, I just don't think that the authors writing style was for me.

[Jonas Toftefors · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sista boken med pensionärsligan för min del. Det finns en gräns när charmen hos hjortronlikörspimplande pensionärer som begår brott är nådd. Innehöll ändå en del höjdpunkter som skördemarknaden i Majorna och att begrava en sopbil i cement i en pool. Annars mest en rip-off på Paasiilina.

[Jaellayna Palmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I LOVED the 1st book in this series, thoroughly enjoyed the 2nd book, then found this 3rd one disappointing, at least for the 1st chunk of it. Slow, tedious, re-hashing of characters. And then suddenly- whoosh - it really picked up and I had a great time reading the rest of it.

[Lynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just more of the same. Everything that these characters need to say and do has been said and done. Not as humorous or clever as the first book, by far. At this point the author and publisher are just milking the established characters.

[Zahra · Rating 1 out of 5]

it wasnt bad- it was funny in places and I liked the overall concept. BUT. it moves tediously slow. it was like trying to watch a jake paul video. almost halfway into the book the characters are almost back at square one again; it seemed full of fillers not quite relevant to the plot

[Linda Hermanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mycket underhållande!
Helt klart den bästa om Pensionärligan

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the previous books by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg.

[Nicklas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Klart underhållande, men de två innan tycker jag var bättre.
Det blir mycket samma lika och denna är alltför långsökt, vilket förtar underhållningen. Klart läsvärd och en stark tre i betyg