Book 1
From the publisher:
Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that’s their secret weapon. They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they’re sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire—it’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller by New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Deanna Raybourn.
Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.
When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death.
Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They’re about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman—and a killer—of a certain age.
Being that I am a woman of a certain age, I was intrigued by the premise of this book, and it did not disappoint. Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have been friends and co-workers for forty years. Now that they are sixty, it is time to retire. From being assassins.
They worked for an extra-governmental agency called the Museum. It was founded after World War II in order to hunt down and kill all the Nazis that had escaped Germany after the war. They were also involved in finding all the art stolen by the Nazis, and returning it to the proper owners. In other words, killing for good, not evil. Over the years their targets expanded beyond Nazis to drug traffickers, human traffickers, the occasional dictator, etc. And these women were excellent at their job.
To celebrate their retirement, they take a cruise together, but they spot a former co-worker. Since he hasn’t contacted them, they immediately get suspicious. Two of them search his room and find a briefcase with a bomb in it, set to detonate in a few hours. They realize that they are the targets and need to figure out who is responsible for making that decision, and why. The rest of the book is in pursuit of that end, and it is a lot of fun getting there! There is plenty of tension and some surprises, some laughs and some tender moments. All in all, it was a fun, satisfying read and I am looking forward to the next book in the series, Kills Well with Others, which comes out March 4. Pre-order now!
1/2025 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE by Deanna Raybourn. Berkley; Reprint edition (August 15, 2023). ISBN: 978-0593200704. 368p.
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