Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for “the Museum”, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. This all-female assassination team recruited in their 20s have reached retirement age feeling as though they still have more to offer. On their retirement cruise, they realized they’ve been framed and are about to be taken out.
Killers of a Certain Age Deanna Rayburn Berkley September 6, 2022
I loved the setup of former OSS, Nazi hunters, and monument men coming together to freelance stopping bad guys. The team’s background is told through flashbacks and it’s almost a parallel story between their recruitment in the late 70s and their present day dilemma. All four women are fleshed out, although Billie is our hard-nosed protagonist in both timelines.
I’m a fan of Deanna Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell series, so I expected a lot of dry wit, fast-paced action, and smart women in this new contemporary from hers so this didn’t disappoint. I didn’t expect so many poignant insights into what it’s like to be a woman, especially an older woman.
“That’s the thing about being a sixty-year-old woman—no one notices you unless you want them to.”
This is both fun and gritty, and screams to be made into a movie. And if the Veronica books have Jonathan, then this one has Kevin. IYKYK.
Have you read a lot of fiction with older women heroines? It's a market that read a great deal, but how often do you see a heroine of that age? Now often enough.