Killers of a Certain Age #2
This is the second in Raybourn’s delicious, breakout series following a group of sixty something lady assassins. They work for an organization called “The Museum” and their mission is to take out those who are doing serious wrong (originally Nazis) and take them out in a way where the deaths can’t be traced and don’t appear to be murder. The first book was a smorgasbord of beautifully executed little death scenes, each one a sharp and precise how-dunnit. It also introduced the main characters, Billie, Natalie, Helen and Mary Alice. In the first novel they were on an enforced “retirement cruise” but when it became clear they were actually the targets, they took action.
The women are now technically retired but they are called back to work by an old colleague who thinks that the child of one of their past kills is now after them as revenge. So, again targets, they get back to work, this time on board the Queen Mary II. Their target is aboard in the swankiest possible suite. The assassination that follows is as clever and entertaining as anything in the first book.
This novel has a few different timelines, as the first one did, but as the origin story of the women is out of the way, this is a more focused novel. The book does take some trips back in time and those subplots eventually tie into the main story. While this can be a tedious story telling method, in Raybourn’s expert hands, it’s absolutely delightful and serves to illuminate rather than slow the action.
When their first kill is complete they return to Helen’s home in the UK only to find it in the process of burning to the ground. It becomes clear that their target has company and the resulting going to ground and figuring out who is after them is a beautiful chase sequence. As the women undergo extreme travel and a series of attempts on their lives, I was thinking to myself of Mrs. Pollifax, a hardy late in life adventurer who undergoes some traumas, extreme travel and many adventures through her work as an unlikely CIA agent.
While this book centers on four women, not one woman, the books have a similar feel and spirit to the Mrs. Pollifax books, though Raybourn’s are updated and a lot more lethal. This book takes the women back in time and takes a closer look at the organization they have worked for. The slow fleshing out of their various personal lives is also well done, with Billie being front and center here.
Pro reader tip: I would not miss one scene where the women don their disguises – often travel pants from Chico’s. Raybourn has a funny pen but also an affectionate one. This book is as relentlessly entertaining and as appealing and well told as the first book, and I hope there will be more of them. I already miss these well-meaning assassins. Long may Raybourn wield her witty and inventive voice. — Robin Agnew