Back in 2010 a Bruce Willis movie called Red (Retired, Extremely Dangerous) came out. I don’t especially love action movies but this one was great — a comedy action movie with a load of outstanding actors in it, including John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, and Helen Mirren. They all play retired secret agents whom Willis convinces to come out of retirement when he finds himself targeted by mysterious forces. Helen Mirren was my favorite as a bad ass weapons expert who has been running a genteel B&B until Willis comes knocking to “get the band back together.” If you haven’t seen Red, I highly recommend it. Anyway, when I read the blurb for Killers of a Certain Age (which has been reviewed on CBR several times and which my niece recommended to me), I was reminded of Red, and I enjoyed reading it every bit as much as I enjoy watching Red. In what I hope will be the first in a series, writer Deanna Raybourn introduces us to four women in their sixties who have retired from a life as hired assassins. While on a celebratory cruise, it becomes apparent that they are being targeted for assassination themselves. They may be eligible for AARP but they still have their formidable skills, and thus begins a rip roaring adventure that takes us into their origin story as assassins for hire as well as the current plot to take them out.
Billie, Natalie, Helen and MaryAlice are retired agents of “the Museum,” a private and secret organization that former OSS and SOE agents developed after WWII. The goal of the Museum has been to bring justice to those who have escaped it so far. Initially the Museum targeted Nazis who had fled Europe after the war, but over the decades they have branched out to target drug cartels, sex traffickers and other bad guys. The Museum is “extra-legal,” but they are the “good guys,” avenging angels who have murdered bad guys and restored stolen art to its rightful owners. The financing of the organization is murky, but assassins who work for the Museum are well paid and protected. Billie, who is our main character, and her three friends were hired at the end of the 1970s, fresh out of college, and they were chosen for their personalities and their abilities. Billie, we learn, is highly intelligent and a scrappy fighter who has gotten in trouble with the law and who has a history of underachieving. Billie is also a product of the foster care system, with no family and no interest in marriage (although she is very interested in sex). She and the other women are contacted by Lord Halliday and taken to England to train with “Shepherdess” Constance Halliday, a former SOE agent who saw action in Europe during the war. Training, of course, is rigorous, and the first missions don’t always go as planned, but Billie & Co get the reputation for excellence within the Museum and they all seem to love what they do — killing bad guys.
By the time the women are ready to retire, it seems some of them at least are ready to hang up their knives/guns/poisons. MaryAlice has a girlfriend who doesn’t know she is an assassin. Helen is mourning the death of her husband. Natalie is still on the prowl for men and loves to shop. Billie is tired but seems to have no particular direction. It is Billie who figures out on their cruise that a Museum agent is on board and that they are his targets. The women use their superior intelligence and skills to get away, but they now know that the Museum is after them for some reason. Nowhere is safe, and they now have to figure out why they are targets. This involves active investigation (and some cool James Bond-type evasive action) as well as delving into the past to figure out the root of the problem.
I loved reading about women my age(-ish) being bad asses and outsmarting their male co-workers and younger agents. Raybourn gives readers a lot of exciting action and excellent sleuthing. The dynamic between Billie and her friends is fun to read and I hope will be further developed in future books. There’s also the introduction of a really cool character at the end who would also be fun to get to know in future stories. This book is a quick read and very entertaining. I feel like fans of Richard Osman’s books might like Killers of a Certain Age, too.