Do you know someone who’s been snagged by a romance scam?
I do.
Two women — acquaintances through mutual friends — have fallen victim over the past five years — with both being hurt not only emotionally, but also financially.
Friends warned them that things seemed too good to be true in their online relationships. But when you think you’re in love...
Looking back, the two women were probably the ideal victims. Each had just gone through an emotional turmoil in their lives and thus were susceptible to attention and flattery from a skilled con artist. Both were also the kind of personality that willingly helped others, even at their own expense. Needless to say, the outcome of these online relationships — which dragged out over months of last-minute cancellations of planned in-person meet-ups and requests for money to “help family members” were not pretty.
Those brushes with the effects of romance scams were, I think, what piqued my interest when Susan Jayne Kaplan — a former story contact through her work with Link to Libraries — sent me an email promoting her friend, Sandra Howell’s new book about a 60-something woman who goes undercover in the world of online dating to track down the con artist who’s caught her girlfriend in a romance scam.
A little background research on my part pointed up that Howell had hit on a growing trend with her book — that romance scams were on the upswing, with women over the age of 60 frequent targets, with devastating consequences.
I met with Howell to talk about her book and her writing. Retired from a career both working in and teaching respiratory therapy, she’s been a published author for over 10 years, with a well-respected middle-school series called Angels Club and an adult series, the Samantha Smith mysteries, already to her credit. Both involve horses – Howell was the first breeder of the American Curly Horse in Massachusetts – and draw heavily from her background raising and showing horses, and the people and issues she’s encountered in that world.
But her new book, “Izzy, the Reluctant Spy,” has taken her in a new direction. “One day, I was three-quarters through the latest Samantha Steel book and I’m in the car, and I have time to think,” Howell told Prime. “I said [to myself] ‘someone needs to see that women are still viable at 60 years old and older, so yeah, change it up a bit.’”
Her new book has done just that — showcased a vibrant woman — and a cast of equally vibrant friends of both sexes — tackling a very contemporary, and ultimately dangerous, problem with grace, humor and a touch of romance. “When I wrote ‘Izzy’ it was for two reasons, no, three reasons, “Howell explained to Prime “I wanted to show that retired women are still vibrant, that they can still think, that they can still have a whole life. The second reason was to show how these scams happen. The third reason was I wanted to show a story of how you can change; that we can keep changing, it doesn’t matter your age or what’s happening in our life. We can’t get stuck.”
I hope you enjoy reading about Howell and “Izzy,” her plans for a sequel and why so many book club fans think it should be a movie.
Introducing “The Sandwich”
This month Prime is excited to launch what we plan to be a recurring column tackling issues faced by individuals caring for both their elders and their families. I hope you find the information timely and useful! The inaugural column on planning for family caregiving responsibilities is on page 18.
As always, thanks for reading,
Debbie Gardner
dgardner@thereminder.com
