When they spot a younger fellow operative wearing a crew uniform, they soon realize that either they are marks or are about to become collateral damage. Raybourn alternates masterfully between the distant past when their training begins in the late 1970s under the tutelage of “The Shepherdess,” who makes “avenging goddesses of them” by teaching the women how to hot-wire automobiles, build bombs, decipher codes, suffocate victims, slit throats, and waltz, and 2018 when the quartet is on an all-expenses paid cruise as a reward for their dedicated years of service. It’s a sort of wild west, “with no law but natural justice.” Its mission is to seek out and exterminate humanity’s worst: arms dealers, dictators, human traffickers, and Nazis. The fictional clandestine organization for which the women work - nicknamed “The Museum” - was established post-WWII by former members of the UK’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), the US’s Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and other resistance operatives.
It’s kill or be killed - the novel’s perfect tag line - but Billie Webster, Helen Randolph, Mary Alice Tuttle, and Natalie Schuyler have been at this a long time, so you’d be wise to wager they’ll survive.
If, like me, you’re a woman of a certain age, you will know how it feels to be invisible. Celebrated historical mystery writer Deanna Raybourn (Veronica Speedwell Mystery series, The Lady Julia Grey series) returns with “Killers of a Certain Age,” a stand-alone retirement romp featuring a smart, sassy, savvy quartet of female assassins who have worked together for forty years.
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