Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“She might be less than what she had once been, but she was still worth a hell of a lot.”

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

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The older I get, the more out of touch I feel with the twenty-something heroines in certain books. The romance genre especially has a lot of really young heroines, and my 45-yr-old self has a hard time, sometimes, not rolling her eyes at just how young they actually are/act, or how implausibly far away 27 feels at this point. Which is not to say that I am ready to read only the quiet, cozy mysteries that seem most populated by people older  – and still […]

“Not everyone in our acquaintance needs to be murdered, Veronica. In fact, some people find it preferable to make friends with normal folk.”

A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn

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This is book 9 in an ongoing series, and as such, not the best place to start. Start with A Curious Beginning. Official plot summary (because it’s been too long since I read the book): Lord Rosemorran has purchased a wax figure of a beautiful reclining woman and asks Stoker to incorporate a clockwork mechanism to give the Rosemorran Collection its own Sleeping Beauty in the style of Madame Tussaud’s. But when Stoker goes to cut the mannequin open to insert the mechanism, he makes […]

Golden Girls with Guns

Killers of a Certain Age: A Novel by Deanna Raybourn

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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 […]

More Lady Killers, Please

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

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I am so excited about this book, y’all. I’ve been gushing about it in all my book-related chats since I started listening to it. I set it aside yesterday with about 80% finished because I wanted it to last just a little bit longer. It has been an exciting and fun escape during the awful end of summer break. A team of female assassins are set to retire and to celebrate, their employers “The Museum” have sent them on a fancy shmancy cruise. While sitting […]

Probably the weakest entry in the series so far

A Sinister Revenge by Deanna Raybourn

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This is book 8 in the Veronica Speedwell series. It’s not a good place to start. You want the first book, A Curious Beginning. 15-word review: Veronica tries to discover who wants to murder Stoker’s brother. Stoker is sadly mostly absent. Official book summary: Veronica’s natural-historian beau, Stoker, has been away in Bavaria for months and their relationship is at an impasse. But when Veronica shows up before him with his brother, Tiberius, Lord Templeton-Vane, he is lured back home by an intriguing job offer: […]

Justice and the law aren’t the same thing.

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

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I have read nearly all of Deanna Raybourn’s books and this one is a definite departure from her usual historical fiction. However, she keeps her penchant for mystery solving shenaningans here, and her trademark sense of humor is intact. Just a wee bit snarkier. Four retiring lady assassins are invited by their former employer to literally sail into the next phase of their lives aboard a complimentary cruise. How are former assassins allowed to just retire and sail off into the sunset, you ask? Well, […]



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