I just finished re-reading this book by Ann Cornelisen. Like most of Cornelisen's books, this is set in Italy and opens with two women discussing how, in a summer of kidnappings & robberies, they are just waved through roadblocks. They're indignant that Italian police assume that females are incapable of any premeditated crime. ''I say women are as innately evil and grasping or selfish as men and fully as criminal,'' one character says. ''They have a right to equal suspicion.'' The friends conclude that "any four women could rob the Bank of Italy, and the police would still go around looking for four men." What begins as a light-hearted comment evolves into one character developing the idea into a movie script. As she involves her friends in helping solve the challenges of the robbery, the entire idea changes from "what if we did?" to "let's do it," and eventually becomes a stunningly successful robbery of a mail train-leaving the perpetrators in a hilarious struggle with their own consciences and the local police. The conclusion is a satisfying surprise.
