Elizabeth is invited to a meeting by someone who's been dead for years (actually he's a fake character invited when she was in MI5). When she arrives she finds that it's Douglas, her ex-husband. While looking around Martin Lomax's house for evidence he'd stolen £20 million of jewels. Lomax suspects him (the jewels belong to US Mafia), so he's in hiding, being protected by young Poppy.
Elizabeth's friends (Ron, Joyce and Ibrahim - all 70+) don't know all about her past, but they've solved cases together. Ibrahim, has just been mugged by someone called Ryan. Elizabeth says that she'll help protect Douglas if they give her info about Ryan.
One of Lomax's men break in and would have killed Douglas but Poppy killed the man first. Douglas wonders who revealed his location. Maybe MI5 want to get rid of him?
2 bodies are found in the safe house, the male one identified by DNA and the female one identified by her mother, Siobhan. Sue from MI5 interviews Elizabeth. Elizabeth works out that the diamonds are in a left luggage locker. She decides to use them as bait to catch the murderers. Siobhan was seen on CCTV trying to find the locker. Maybe Douglas rigged his own death? Maybe Poppy rigged hers? Maybe they're both alive?
Elizabeth is married to Steve who sometimes plays chess with a builder, Bob Dan. Elizabeth asks the builder to buy her £20k of coke. He gets it from Connie, a well known supplier. They plant it in Ryan's house and call the police. They assume it's a set-up. Ryan run away before the court case. The poilce are Donna and Chris. They've been staking out Connie's place without success. Chris is going out with Patrice, Donna's mother.
A meeting is arranged in a room at the end of the pier. Connie, driven by Ryan, thinks she's going there to establish a drug deal. A US Mafia person has flown in thinking he's getting his diamonds back. Martin is there too. Martin and the Mafia guy are shot. Connie and Ryan are arrested outside. It dawns on Elizabeth that maybe Sue is the mastermind. By then however, Sue has Elizabeth and Joyce at gunpoint. Elizabeth tells Sue her theory, Sue correcting the details. Sue had kept Elizabeth interested in the plot because only Elizabeth could lead her to the jewels. Sue and Douglas were lovers and had planned the crime, but when Sue discovered that Douglas still loved Elizabeth, she decided to kill Douglas too. Siobhan wasn't Poppy's mother. She was one of Martin's exs. When the 3 women get to Joyce's, where the diamonds and Sue's accomplices are, they discover Bob Dan with a gun. The friends decide to donate the £20 million to a dementia charity - a man they knew had died of it and had thus "died twice".
Joyce's journal entries provide an alternative viewpoint. Running jokes include Joyce's interest in men, the trouble old people have with new tech, the reputation of various newspapers, etc. And there's lots of fun on the way - friends are impressed that a woman's going out with diving instructor. When he turns out to be a driving instructor they ask if he looks in the mirror before pulling out, but that's as rude as it gets. I enjoyed it.
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