Title: Killers of a Certain Age
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Genre: Mystery, thriller, fiction
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publication Date: 2022
Format: Audiobook
Length: 10 hours

Rating:

When I read the synopsis for Killers of a Certain Age, it immediately pulled me in. A group of retired 60-something female assassins who are on the run from their former employer? I mean, how interesting does that sound?

While I expected this book to be entertaining, what I didn’t expect was for it to be so fun. I would have loved to have seen Raybourn dive a little more into the serious feminist aspects of what it is to be a senior woman in general, let alone in male-dominated fields (lol this is an assumption based on how assassins were portrayed in the book because it’s not exactly an available stat), but I still really enjoyed the plot just as it was, and it did lightly touch on those aspects. The characters were bold and funny, the espionage and assassinations were original and clever, and there was a lot of great action.

I read listened to this book via audiobook and it was a really fun ride. I found myself smiling and enjoying learning about the characters and their histories while I was cleaning my house or grocery shopping. If you’re looking for a quick, light mystery with a unique premise and some badass senior citizens, I’d recommend giving this one a go, particularly if you’re looking for something new to listen to.

The Book: Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Killers of a Certain Age follows four female assassins, all of whom are now in their 60s and entering retirement. They’ve spent their entire careers working for an organization called The Museum which serves as an independent group that seeks to take down the bad guys that operate outside of what governments are able to handle.

The book opens with Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie all boarding an all-expenses-paid vacation to mark their retirement, where they quickly find themselves the target of one of their organization’s operations. The group is confused about why they’re being terminated after so many years of service, so once it’s clear that there’s a bounty on their head, they promptly burn their own records and head to a safe house to determine their next steps and figure out why it is that The Museum is out for them.

The story intersperses flashbacks of how each of the women found themselves being recruited by The Museum and some of their earlier missions where they’re still trying to prove themselves. As one of the organization’s first teams of women assassins, they had to work twice as hard as their male counterparts to ensure they were taken seriously. Despite full and successful careers, as the women have aged, they now find themselves in a frustratingly similar circumstance as when they were beginning where people around them no longer feel the need to take them seriously. No one considers that a 60-year-old woman may be capable of still being a brutally effective assassin, and their ignorance is to the benefit of the women as they attempt to outrun the hit that’s on each of their heads.

As the plot progresses, the women try to work out how it is that The Museum came to believe that they’d done something worthy of warranting a kill order, and in true assassin fashion, vow to take out those in power who have issued the order in the first place. They’ll have to work together on this one, final mission as they attempt to exonerate themselves and hopefully secure the peaceful retirement they feel is owed to them.

The Review

As I mentioned before, this book was a whole lot of fun. All four of the main characters are witty, sharp, and often funny, and their relationships with each other really exude one that’s both lasted a long time and through many trials and tribulations. The nature of their jobs is difficult and could have been traumatic, but the women are exceptionally strong-minded and willed and have long since come to terms with their actions, particularly given that they believe they’ve been fighting the good fight all along.

The journey that they go on, and the tactics that they use in order to take out their enemies, are also wildly entertaining. Some are a little outrageous, all are creative, and the chase of it all made for a quick pace and a decent amount of action. I’ve seen this book described as a thriller and I think there were definitely aspects of that, particularly in the excitement or anticipation as you came to a particular assassination. I didn’t find it particularly scary or stressful, it was more of a really fun ride.

Raybourn does touch on aspects of age and gender discrimination, particularly when looking at the women’s pasts and how they wound up with The Museum, but I would have loved to have seen a little more of that in terms of the perception of these women in their 60s. It’s not particularly common to have a group of senior women as protagonists with such aggressive and demanding careers, so I think it would have been great to see more there, but I also recognize a book can only be so long, and there was a lot going on in this book.

This one was a quick and enjoyable read. I’m glad I picked it up and would recommend it to anyone looking for something unique with a dash of humour and adventure.