Killers of a Certain Age

What I loved about this book is that these four women, all aged 60 use the invisibility of ageism to their advantage time and time again. If that is not the ultimate societal truism- far more than the virility and vitality of James Bond or the equivalent head turning beauty of a young Charlies Angels type. Old women are invisible and thus they can get away with murder. Now understand me- anyone reading this knows that 60 isn't OLD- but it's also not young and it's not sexy, not by conventional standards. These women age themselves by decades more in order to play up this idea that old people are harmless, and can thus be ignored. Then add in their decades of traditional training. Sure they can fire guns and blow things up, but they are taught the subtle art of killing- quietly and surreptitiously. The ingenious ways they kill people in this book astonished me. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know these four women: their specialties, their histories, both shared and individual, and also how they lived through and understood, first sexism, then ageism and how they used both to their advantage and for their survival. This would make a killer movie. Highly recommend this one and it is a FUN read.

A fun thriller with an atypical cast. I like the idea of having heroes from various walks in life, not just James Bond knock-offs. The story kept my attention all the way through. The author weaves in the angst of older women who are done with misogyny in its various forms. There isn't a man-hater message. It's just not putting up with men who treat women as lessers and judges their abilities because they are women. 

The summary of this book promises a lot. When I saw it was included in the Book of the Month lineup, I made this my selection for the month without even looking at the others being offered. At a glance, it sounds like an action-packed take on the Golden Girls. In a way, it is, but as far as the story is concerned, it fell through the cracks for me.

Having spent most of their lives working as assassins, Billie, Natalie, Mary Alice, and Helen are heading into retirement. What they think is a grand send-off turns out to be a setup. Is there such a thing as retirement for people who know too much? Their vacation turns into a game of survival.

I'm grateful to have read this as part of a buddy read because I was feeling bad about my lack of interest past the first chapter. The person I was reading with had many of the same thoughts as the story progressed, the biggest quip being how difficult the story was to follow. I'm no stranger to non-linear timelines. In a lot of cases I enjoy them more than going straight from A to Z. Unfortunately, this was not one of those situations. I didn't find the story at all engaging and it was crasser than I care for. 

4th May, 2023:

I have never read a book that uses “the less you say, the more it will be,” this well.

Things introduced always came around full circle. And everything held a good delicate balance. Themes, monologues, flashbacks, action scenes, everything told in the right place, at the right time without being too overwhelming.

It reminded me a little of Ursula K LeGuin's writing even though this wasn't a fantasy read. 


Final rating: 4/5

I had such high hopes for this one and it just fell flat. Nothing was surprising, there were no real twists (unless the glaringly obvious things were meant to be twists), there wasn't anything funny or really emotional to suck you in... It just kind of was.

My biggest complaint of the whole thing was the nonlinear timeline. It seemed so choppy and forced. I had the hardest time keeping track of the past chapters that it made everything kind of confusing.

To start, I'll just say I expected to really like this. After all, this is the same author who brought Veronica Speedwell to life. Add in some lady assassins of a certain age, and I was prepared to be riveted. Despite all my issues with the book, I did wind up enjoying it more than it bothered me and read the bulk of it in one day. 

After an exciting start, set in the past, the pacing slowed to almost nonexistent for about 30 pages; it honestly felt more like a travelogue than a thriller. (I have nothing against books centered around traveling, but that's not you expect when you pick up a book like this.) The book does pick up though, when the ladies discover that their old employers want to take them out. Though, honestly? A bomb set to detonate aboard a cruise ship of 200, simply to kill four older women? Not only does that feel like overkill, I had a difficult time believing in the organization after that. They're supposed to be about making the world a better place and protecting the innocent. I know, the likelihood of an organization like that ever actually existing is pure fairy tale, but the thing is, the Board had to okay this attack, okay the deaths of approximately 200 people. Regardless of what these older women supposedly did, this level of collateral damage is unacceptable. But then the ladies set fire to the boat to give everyone a chance to get safely off. I admit this is where I became marginally invested. But, who cares about the environment, right? I guess the ship was going down anyway...

The swapping back and forth between timelines was both fairly jarring and came across as a little clunky. Mostly because the chapters set in the present are told in past tense from Billie's POV, while the chapters set in the past are told in third person omniscient in present tense. Even events that happened before the events being recounted are told in present tense (like when Billie is baking, but it also seems like she's at the airport, or when Nat's grandmother is being narrated about as though her antics are happening currently, even though she's been dead for 30 years). I cannot fathom the reason this decision was made. It made the past sections feel pretty amateurly written, like the author didn't have the best grasp of how to use present tense, and I found myself editing the book as I read instead of, you know, paying attention to the story. 

I also really wish we had gotten some sections from the perspective of the other four women instead of just Billie. While Billie eventually grew on me, it did feel like she was too “tough” to process her emotions even to the reader. For that matter, none of the characters felt especially well developed, but I do wonder if that's merely because we're seeing them largely through Billie's eyes. 

Now, this is relatively minor, but as a romance girlie, I wanted more from the relationship between Billie and Taverner, even though I know that was not the point of the story, but the way it was executed was decidedly meh. Also, an epilogue would have been nice.    

Killers of a Certain Age is a great book about a team of retired assassins...of a certain age. Imagine The Thursday Murder Club meets Kingsmen with a bit of Jason Bourne, and you'll maybe have a sense of what this book is like. Four middle aged women are retiring from The Museum, a mysterious international extra-governmental agency, but just when they think they're going to finally move on to a new phase of life...SURPRISE...things get complicated. While I felt some parts dragged a little bit, overall I enjoyed this book. I liked the characters and hearing about their exploits. This is a fun book! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Bit of a shout FOR feminism and AGAINST ageism, but mostly just well-paced, well-plotted violent fun.
More action adventure than spy mystery, with a ‘gang's all here' feel. Sort of like an assassin's travelogue/memoir. 

Weird one for me, because of the flaws inherent in an organization with a noble mission statement having some members that are doing the work just for the money leaves obvious room for corruption, and absolute trust in a few people to ensure best intentions remain in extra governmental assassination, also seems like it's incredibly vulnerable to decay from the original purpose.

I think a complaint could be fairly levied that each challenge is surmounted a little too smoothly, but as the tag line on the cover says...
The parallels of missions recalled and methods used to infiltrate and dispatch years later a nice touch.

Switch from first to third person for present  vs flashbacks with same character perspective is interesting choice, worked well for me once I figured it out! 
 
Had my fair share of guffaws. 

Recounting a past fling in the 80s - one chapter where I admit to swooning - Raybourn's Speedwell/Stoker romance chops coming out to play. 

All the pieces were there, can't figure out why it still feels like something was missing. Maybe I'm just not cut out for assassin stories. 🤷🏼‍♂️