I really enjoyed this book. The characters were so fun and the audiobook really added to the experience.

A good read but too slow for me and not gruesome or gritty enough. However, the book is certainly engaging and has a good plot.

Beware of Killers of A Certain Age. They're not as past their best as they appear to be...

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie are no ordinary older women. They worked for an an elite network of assassins, now considered to be "old school" in their methods. It's an entertaining read as they work to get their own back, except someone in the pack turns on them.

There's a few books in many genres now having the older woman as a protagonist, it's an interesting trend and fascinating to see how these, considered, invisible women are written. It's fun how this is, in Killers of a Certain Age use their "invisibility" to their advantage in the end as they do things people aren't expecting.

Bearing in mind the women are assassins, they are, oddly actually quite endearing and you easily want them to "win-out". You learn about their backgrounds as the book progresses, so you feel like you really get to know them and a bit "under their skin".
Rated 4.5 stars on my blog

I loved this, being ‘of a certain age’ myself, and feeling a bit stuck in my career, such as it is. Is this story, or at least parts of it, implausible? Sure, but no more so than James Bond, let’s be honest. I thought the characters were really well done and at least realistic in their coming to terms with what they were physically able to do, or continue to do. The mystery of who was behind their hit was cleverly done, and the clues are there if you’re clever enough to spot them (I’m not).

Recommended for those of us ‘of a certain age’ and who like well-thought out characters, a steady pace and great dialogue.

Very much looking forward to the next in the series!

This was a tremendously good read. It was a real page turner and kept me glued to every page. I found it quire funny in places. A great premise of ladies of a certain age. I certainly burned the midnight oil I was so caught up with the story.

Fans of cosy crime and the likes of Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club series will surely enjoy this book.
It did fall a little flat for me/wasn't as impressive as I hoped it would be but it was still a solid story.
I appreciated the idea of them being underestimated and then proving everyone wrong.
It was definitely a fun premise and overall, I liked the main characters too.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A fun story, the concept was well thought out. Predictable in places, but didn't ruin the story. One for fans of Thursday Murder Club, I would say.

💬 "Aging in our business was a luxury most never got." 💬

Thank you to @netgalley for this arc. I'm super late with this review 🫣 and was super late with downloading the arc itself so I ordered a copy from Google play books 😅

I really enjoyed this! I loved the characters and the humour in this was 😙👌🏻I loved the friendship group and how different all the ladies were. I loved the LGBT rep, and ughh everyone in this group was just a badass. I just enjoyed this so so much!

The only thing that threw me off was the switch between 1st and 3rd person when changing from present to flashback scenes. However, I did easily adjust to this so it didn't affect how much I enjoyed this book.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for an invitation to read this book via NetGalley.

What when four top-notch assassins, just beginning their retirement find they’re being targeted themselves—and by the very organisation they’re been employed by all these years—the Museum. Can they work out why? And more importantly will they be able to stop it before the Museum is successful?

In a story that moves back and forth in time, between the present when the four are being targeted to various times in the past, from the days of being selected and training to various missions, Killers of a Certain Age (2022) introduces us to Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie, four women who come from very different backgrounds, details we learn as the story progresses. Some are from privileged homes with family who have served in similar jobs, others from the very opposite end of the social spectrum, but all four have talents that the Museum values. The Museum is a secret and elite network of assassins which targets quite literally the scum of the earth—from former Nazis who got away to drug dealers, traffickers and their ilk—seeking to ensure justice and a somewhat better world. To this organisation the four women have devoted forty years—executing each mission with panache and efficiency (with of course the odd bumps on the way). But now it seems the Museum wants them gone for good. To not only save their lives but recover the worlds they’ve created for themselves (they don’t work all the time and all have their individual lives), they must find out. While they have the skills and training to do it, age has brought its problems and alongside they no longer have the Museum’s resources at their command. Nonetheless, with a choice between living with having to look over one’s shoulder for the rest of one’s life and just sorting the whole thing out (read: ‘dealing’ with those who are targeting them), it’s no surprise they choose the later. With it begins a journey with involving plenty of travel, adventure, and also death and danger.

For a book about assassins which does involve plenty of killing and its fair share of blood (there are also the Paris catacombs and plenty of musty bones), this turned out a light and enjoyable read with plenty of humour, and one that surprisingly didn’t feel too gory either.

The book didn’t immediately pull me in entirely, especially the initial sections where we are introduced to the characters, read about their first mission years ago, and the planned attempts on their lives in the present, and it almost felt like they were jumping to the worst conclusions about events that were unfolding (though this does make sense a little later), but once they get their heads around the situation and start working out why this is happening and how they can stop it, the story began to pick up for me and I found myself wanting to read on. The solution they have in mind means having to do what they do best—killing—and it was interesting to see them plan and execute their missions while factoring in the troubles that come with age. This mission and those in the past take us all over the world be it Rome or Zanzibar (and various other destinations) and like any ‘fun’ spy film, we have them donning disguises, and preparing different methods to dispatch their targets (something that will work very well on the screen). These past missions also reveal some clues relevant for present events as we also see. With it, in the present is the mystery of who it is that is targeting them, and this I thought was nicely done with plenty of twisty strategies and counterstrategies being played against each other. This meant that while we get hints that the four have worked out something, we’re unsure what and to what extent so the final ‘showdown’ as it were continues to have that element of suspense and surprise, with us wondering how things will play out.

Alongside these, we also learn about the characters themselves—the four women, their early lives, recruitment, loves and heartbreaks, the lives they’ve built for themselves and the changes that have come with age. This last aspect was partly why I had decided to read the book, and while a lot of their concerns and complaints were genuine and valid, I somehow felt they came across as a little ‘whiny’ compared to say the characters in the Thursday Murder Club books who also have age related troubles but seem to take things in their stride much better (of course, only one of those was an ex-spy).

But all-in-all this is a quick, fun read with plenty of action—a nice bit of entertainment to while away some time.

3.5 stars

Well, Deanna Raybourn. You’re now on my list. The list I keep in my head of authors who I want to read more of.

This book was so good. I can’t remember what made me pick it up, I’ll have followed a recommendation from someone, but I’m so glad I did.

Four ageing female assassins, celebrating their retirement with a cruise, find that they’re not quite as out of the game as they thought.

Female main characters who are capable. Female main characters who are capable and not bright, young things. Yes, thank you Deanna Raybourn. These characters were awesome.

The plot and storytelling was just masterful. I opened the book and was immediately swept up into the story. The present day timeline is interspersed with scenes from the women’s past which provide context and depth to the plot and characters. This book is extremely readable and I whizzed through it.

Just great, honestly. It’s one I’m shouting about, pick it up!

This is a good fun story that I enjoyed reading, some bits were fairly obvious but it didn't spoil the book for me.
If you like Osman and Rev. Richard Coles then it's another good edition to the reading pile

A fun concept, I really enjoyed this book, it made a change from your run of the mill thrillers. Off to find more books by the author

I really enjoyed this. The idea was great and I think it was written really well. It was a fun adventure and I had a fun time reading it. 4.5 stars

I’m usually not a fan of spy thrillers, but Deanna Raybourn caught my attention with her Veronica Speedwell series years ago, so I was willing to give this a try.

Four assassins, ready for retirement, instead find themselves on the wrong end of a kill order from the very organization they used to work for. Fortunately, these ladies have a lot of tricks up their sleeves and the knowledge needed to find out what is going on.

This ended up being so much more fun than I thought it was going to be. The four ladies are charming to follow, although I do wish some more time had been spent on actually developing the characters. Even Billie, our first person POV, felt fairly flat. But it was so much fun watching the four ladies rally and kick ass together.

I feel that the flashbacks weren’t really necessary to the story, the information given could have been said at other times. They really slowed down the pace for me.

But this was a fun read and if it ends up starting a new series, I will absolutely be following up!

Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this ARC.

I received this book from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love this book so hard. The premise is so fun. And yet it fell a little flat for me :(

The characters weren't as well fleshed out as I'd have liked, but also didn't really act their age or experience level most of the time. Additionally, while there are a lot of active people in their sixties, this still felt infeasible.

Anyway. Fun enough, but should have (and could have) been better. 3 stars.

First off, I want to say that while I know that this book did very well with the general public, I found it very hard to get into. I'd probably recommend this to people that enjoyed, The Thursday Murder Club, another book that I found hard to get into, and this book had a very similar vibe.

Four women, Billie, Mary-Alice, Natalie and Helen all work for the Museum. To mark their retirement after forty years, they are all sent on an all expense paid holiday.

What could possibly be wrong with that – something, clearly as all four women become the target of an assassin. And they know it is from one of their own.

You need to know the Museum is a network of assassins which have been working for a number of years, formed during dying days of the Second World War.

If they have been targeted then that means it is from instruction from the Board at the Museum and thwarting the first assassin, they go on a mission, across America, across the world to discover who has ordered their destruction and most importantly why.

Using all the skills they have learnt over the last forty years or so and their ability to blend into the background as older overlooked women, it becomes a race against time.

Told entirely from Billie’s point of view, we do go back to previous kills that they women have been involved in as well as see a glimpse into their ‘normal’ lives as well. It all culminates in them arriving back to where it all began for them, but will they all make it out safely?

Whilst the premise of the book sounds quite grim, it has a light hearted touch and humour which seems in complete contrast and whilst it works across the majority of the book, there were times where it seemed rather callous and out of place. A bit bizarre if you will.

That said, this was an pleasant diversion of a book and whilst not up to previous novels I have read by this author it was a bit of escapist entertainment.

Really enjoyed this book after a plethora of older people solving murders over cups of tea. This put a different spin on (almost) pensioners having fun. Story does not seem to lend itself to a sequel so presume this is a standalone. Thanks to Netgalley.

Assassination with a conscience!

I wasn’t quite sure about the title “Killers Of A Certain Age” as it sounded unusual.

However, once I started reading and discovered more about the characters concerned, I enjoyed the concept of killing undesirable evil people in society, such as drug smugglers and groups who groom children, to name just a couple.

These four ladies have a conscience, because they would not assassinate innocent people. In fact, there is a lot of humour throughout the book, which defuses the severity of the violence occurring.

Billie narrates the tale in two timelines. Her companions are Natalie, Mary Alice, and Helen. They are all 60 years old, after a lengthy career of 40 years. I shall look out for other books by Deanna Raybourn, as I really enjoyed her quirky style.

Galadriel.

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of this book to review.

This was an enjoyable caper with some good characters, but there were times when the narrative felt tonally unbalanced for me. I thought the relationship between our four retired assassins was good, but I did feel that other than Billie (our narrator), the other women weren't as fleshed out as I would have liked. I thought that the Museum as a concept was great and was well done. I was also quite surprised (pleasantly) by how vicious the action got at times and it was this that was quite tonally jarring for me. Overall, I enjoyed my time with this one, but it isn't a new all time fave.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.