Well, I messed up on reviewing this one. I thought I’d already written the review and have since moved on to other things… so now my memory of the details is a little fuzzy! My apologies that things like names and places are going to be vague.
I was attracted to this because I love books with older characters, particularly older characters whose pasts are interesting, surprising, fully fleshed out and who carry their skills and knowledge through into their current lives. This book was particularly interesting to me, because it’s about a group of four women who have worked together for decades and are retiring from their work together. The great twist is that the work they engaged in together was working as assassins who went after those who deserved it.
They worked for an organization called, simply, The Museum. It’s not a complex organization, but it’s one with a long and proud history of searching out those who have escaped justice and… well, giving it to them. It was set up shortly after the second world war to track down escaped Nazis. As time passed and fewer and fewer Nazis remained, the organization began to diversify into searching out more current evil-doers like human traffickers, but still with the same dark yet morally defensible goal.
But something, somewhere, has gone wrong. When the four are on their final company-sponsored farewell cruise, they soon begin to notice something odd is happening on board. There are some hints at suspicious goings-on, and then one of them recognizes a member of the crew – not from their ship, but from their previous employment. Soon it becomes clear that this assassin isn’t there looking for an outside mark, but is, in fact, trying to dispose of them.
What follows is a fast-paced cat and mouse adventure, but with the main difference of the “mouse” in this case being a crew of highly trained and experienced assassins who are about to put all their skills to the test in an attempt to turn the tables and figure out exactly why they are being targeted and how to save their lives (and the lives of those they care about).
This wasn’t the best thriller I’ve ever read, but the unique premise was as wonderful as I’d hoped. I loved the mixture of action and cold, calculated violence – with elderly bones, reduced staminas and frequent bathroom breaks. I loved that these characters are realistically mature, with all the bodily deterioration that accompanies this part of life, but at the same time they are deadly adversaries. I loved their ability to work together seamlessly as a team – since they’ve been doing it their whole adult lives – and how they are able to navigate not only avoiding being killed, but finding clues that will lead them to some answers.
I think this is the beginning of a series, and I plan to continue on with it when the next book comes is available. I enjoyed these characters, and the premise is one I absolutely loved. Well worth the read if it appeals to you!
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. – Goodreads
Book Title: Killers of a Certain Age
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Series: Yes – Killers of a Certain Age #1
Edition: Audiobook (Libby)
Published By: Berkeley
Released: September 6, 2022
Genre: Fiction, Thriller, Tough Ladies, Secret Society, Senior Assassins
Pages: 368
Date Read: January 4-6, 2025
Rating: 7/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.86/5 (102,216 ratings)