Synopsis

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.

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Review

Let’s just say that I loved this book! We follow four women back and forth in time that were recruited to become assassins, and they were darn good at their job. Perhaps too good. Once they retired, a contract was put out on their lives and what ensues is their efforts to stay alive and uncover who was behind this death notice.

We always see paid assassins in the movies and such, but I don’t think we have ever seen an all-female squad. Not that it doesn’t happen, but these four are a team from start to finish, and they all have their own individual skills. I think that because they are women, this lets them into places that men may not be able to enter. But after forty years, they know each other very well and are able to complete their missions successfully.

I was impressed by their observation skills, which should be surprising considering how long they have been in this field. They aren’t sure who to trust, that circle is very small, but there are a few. I know that once everything is uncovered as to who was behind everything, it is somewhat surprising. Part of it was expected, but there is a small twist. And even after the truth is revealed, there is even another twist.

The book is told primarily from Billie’s point of view, but it encompasses all four women and their lives outside of this hit squad. I enjoyed the jumps in time to understand how they were recruited and some of the jobs they worked. The book is action, suspense, and humor all rolled into one.

Make sure to read the author’s notes at the beginning and the end of the book. These cracked me up!

I could see this becoming a series or even a movie made from this book.

We give this book 5 paws up.

About the Author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist Deanna Raybourn is a 6th-generation native Texan. She graduated with a double major in English and history from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Married to her college sweetheart and the mother of one, Raybourn makes her home in Virginia. Her novels have been nominated for numerous awards including two RT Reviewers’ Choice awards, the Agatha, two Dilys Winns, a Last Laugh, three du Mauriers, and most recently the 2019 Edgar Award for Best Novel. She launched a new Victorian mystery series with the 2015 release of A CURIOUS BEGINNING, featuring intrepid butterfly-hunter and amateur sleuth, Veronica Speedwell. Veronica has returned in several more adventures, most recently AN IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSTOR, book seven, which released in early 2022. Deanna’s first contemporary novel, KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE, about four female assassins on the cusp of retirement publishes in September 2022.

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