BOOK REVIEW- Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

 

 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.

AMAZON LINK 

5 STARS

Loved the author's note, funny and it made me smile.  That was unexpected before the story began,  in part it said..I'm not trying to protect the innocent, I'm trying to protect the guilty. 

I agree with another reviewer that they didn't think that the book cover did it justice. BUT it did get my attention. So I think that was an  important choice to get people to stop and take a look. It was different, that's for sure.

At first, it took me a while to get the four women sorted out.  Who was who and what their personalities and skill sets were.  Even how they got drawn into  the Museum.    But once settled, the wild ride really took off. 

I will say that I am not a fan of books that jump back and forth from past to present.  BUT once again it did set a really good foundation and it didn't make me too dizzy. 

Talk about the big heads men in charge underestimated this team of women!  Yikes.  They should have known better but they counted them out to their peril.  And final resting place.  And it was interesting to see how the women found out their retirement was going to be death.

This not just a cut and dry clinical assassin's piece.  There is plenty of emotions, some disagreements and even unexpected humor.   And through the whole intense story I kept wondering if any of them were going to make it out alive.  

You'll just have to read it to find out. And I have to say that I've never read anything quite like this.

I just have to add this: The acknowledgements at the back of the book were funny. My favorite has to be "when my go-to person for all things physical and the pal who never flinches when my text messages start" So I need to kill a guy..."

I read this book through the HOOPLA Library App