ARC Review: Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Killers of a Certain Age
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Publication: Berkley (September 6, 2022)

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 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.

My Thoughts: This story tells about four women, aged sixty, who have worked for a clandestine organization for forty years. It is time for them to retire, but things don't go smoothly. It seems that their organization would prefer to have them dead rather than pay their retirement pensions.

Billie, Mary Anne, Helen and Natalie have been invited on a cruise to celebrate their retirement only to learn that another assassin is there to blow up the ship and see that they don't survive.

This story is told by Billie who was recruited after a college protest in 1979. She had been raised by a single mother always looking for love until she abandoned Billie in a Mall pizza place when she was twelve. Thereafter, she spent her teens in foster care and on the streets. She was recruited by appealing to her sense of justice.

The four women who were all trained by the same woman who was herself a spy during World War II have a variety of skills. Flashbacks tell about some of their past missions and introduce the current Board of Directors, all of whom has interacted with the women on past missions.

When they learn that kill orders have been issued for them, they decide that their only hope of survival is to kill the current Board of Directors while determining who instigated the orders for their deaths. The story was filled with action and had a number of creative ways to kill their targets. It also did a nice job of introducing each of the four women and their lives. With the focus on Billie, I wished I could have learned more about each of the other women though there was enough to make their actions understandable. 

I liked this story very much. It was a different take on spy thrillers just because the main characters were women with forty years of experience in their job. I recommend this book highly.

Favorite Quote:

"I hope you had a wonderful arrival dinner!" she enthused. "I have a special treat for you!"

She beckoned us to follow her, and Mary Alice fell into step next to me. "Ten bucks says that child used to twirl a baton."

"Flaming," I agreed.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.