Killers of a Certain Age

This book was a nominee for a Goodreads Award (2022) in the category of Best Mystery and Thriller.

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.

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 Verdict

I found this book to be a charming departure from the normal thriller tropes. It is a fun mix of heist, thriller, and mystery. Besides all that action, the four main characters are shifting from one phase of their lives to another. There is chemistry, both literal and interpersonal, murder, plotting, hunting, and scheming. There’s also a lot of on-page murder, but because everyone who is dispatched is quite terrible, it didn’t bother me in the least.

If you like clever people doing everything they can think of to survive and being outrageously smart about it, you’ll like this story. The author develops each of the main characters in the alternating chapters highlighting the women early in their careers.

I really liked how all of them, especially Billie, rely on stereotypes about older women to get past or through situations. Their greatest asset is that as women, and as women who are 60+, they are very used to being underestimated, ignored, or devalued. Sexism and misogyny are deliberately used as camouflage in their plans and their daily work, and the snarky bits of humor that mock all the misogyny and ageist BS punctuate the perilous and tense moments. I enjoyed this book and I give this one 4 stars.