Author: Deanna Raybourn

Publisher: Berkley Books

ISBN: 9780593200681

Four retired women from an elite force discover they’re being targeted. As they work to find out why, they relive memories of their glory days and what getting older means. Author Deanna Raybourn gives readers unusual protagonists in senior citizen women but allows the plot to progress too easily in her newest book Killers of a Certain Age.

But it doesn’t matter, because the covert organization she works for, known only as the Museum, has decided that Billie and the other members of her squad—Mary Alice, Natalie, and Helen—need to turn in their guns. Literally. The Museum has paid for all of the expenses on a fancy Caribbean cruise to show its appreciation to the women with the expectation that after this they need to go back to their lives.

What lives, though? Billie put everything toward this job, giving up all of the conventional things people have. She has no strong romantic attachments; she doesn’t even own her own home, renting instead. And the retirement feels like it came out of nowhere. One day she and the others were the recruits of the Museum’s first-ever all-female assassin squad. The next they’re supposed to play Bingo and knit the rest of their days away.

When Billie, Mary Alice, Natalie, and Helen meet on the cruise, something seems off. Despite the never-ending cocktails and Michelin-starred food, the women feel uncomfortable. Like they’re in the middle of a mission, except this time they didn’t get the assignment—they are the assignment.

After a murder attempt on one of them, the four friends realize someone at the Museum wants them dead. But why? The squad has always stuck to what they were taught: no contract killings on the side. Pursue the target they were assigned—the warlords, human and drug traffickers, and the heads of cartels—and no one else. Think of the bigger justice the assassinations provide the rest of the world, even if the world doesn’t know it.

The women have been model assassins from the beginning. Now that someone wants them dead, and that someone comes from the same organization that trained them, they’ve decided to turn everything they’ve learned on the organization itself. The four friends will have to use all of their intuition, their skills, and all the favors they can call in to figure out who wants to target them in their golden years.

Author Deanna Raybourn gives readers an innovative concept in senior citizen female assassins. She balances with ease the challenges of that particular age group with the finesse each of these women have in their profession. While Billie is certainly the main character, owing to her first-person chapters in present day, readers also get third-person chapters from the early days the foursome spent in being recruited and trained.

The innovative concept doesn’t quite mask the fact that once the women start finding out who is targeting them, finding those people and taking them down is only a matter of time. Readers who might be expecting a major plot twist, like one of the women themselves being the traitor, will be disappointed. The friendship between the four is true from start to finish, but other than the occasional bickering normal for friend groups the plot doesn’t hold any surprises about them.

Readers also expecting a cool heist-type of book might also be a little let down. While some of the methods Billie and the others use to target their betrayers are intriguing, it’s so easy for them to reach each person that part of the charm—the challenge and false starts of spy stories—is lost. Also, the Museum sounds unique in concept, but many of the details about how it operates are left vague.

This might be a good book to take on a vacation. Readers who enjoy light reads with somewhat predictable endings will want to pick this up. Otherwise, I recommend readers Borrow Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn.