Review: Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

 

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Publication Date: September 6th 2022 by Berkley

Pages: 368

Source: Publisher & Purchased Audiobook

Rating: ★★★★½

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Killers of a Certain Age introduces us to Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie at the start of their career, on their first mission, in 1979 and then flip to the present when the ladies meet up on a cruise to celebrate their retirement, forty years later. However, it becomes apparent someone is after the ladies and intent on a more permanent kind of retirement for them.

I love the idea of female assassins, so many underestimate women, even more so at these four women in their sixties, still lethal both mentally and physically!  All four were recruited by the Museum, an organization formed by ex-OSS and SOE operatives to hunt down escaped Nazi’s, recapture stolen art, and then later to kill human traffickers, drug lords, and anyone else needing to be eliminated, but escaping justice for one reason or another.

I’m a fan of Deanna Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell series (historical mysteries with a bit of romance), so I was eager to dive into her newest, excited about how she’d handle such a different kind of story. Killers of a Certain Age was a fun, addictive, thrilling journey from beginning to end!  I absolutely loved it! I think fans of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club Mystery series would definitely enjoy it. Although, these ladies are quite a bit more badass!  Chapters of the past gave glimpses of their assignments over the years and history, and the chapters set in the present, from Billie’s POV, follows the ladies trying to figure out why they’re being targeted and then striking back. I love well-deserved retribution and it was an excellent and gratifying conclusion!

4.5 Stars

Book Description:

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.

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.