While I enjoyed Deanna Raybourn’s second book featuring her retired spies, Kills Well with Others, I preferred the first in the series, Killers of a Certain Age. It’s not the author’s fault that I’ve read so many books since then that feature senior sleuths or spies.
For years, Billie Webster and three other women, Helene, Mary Alice, and Natalie, were professional assassins working for a British organization called the Museum. They’ve retired, but after a massive shake-up when members of the administration tried to kill them, the four women have been called back. Someone has killed an assassin, and the death may be connected to a recent security breach. Worst of all, all four women could be targets because of a case in the past when they took out a Bulgarian. Are they targets of the man’s son? They accomplish their goal of killing their target on their Queen Mary 2 trip, but it only grows more complicated with a web that goes back to World War II and art smuggling. Now, as they hide in plain site, and travel across Europe and Asia, they attempt to complete a job they started over thirty years earlier.
Fans of Killers of a Certain Age, will enjoy the return of the four senior assassins whose escapades from the past and present are intermixed in a fast-paced, humorous adventure. The books stand out with the wit and unlikely friendships.
Deanna Raybourn’s website is https://www.deannaraybourn.com/
Kills Well with Others by Deanna Raybourn. Berkley, 2025. ISBN 9780593638514 (Hardcover), 368p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I read a galley approved through the publisher at NetGalley, with only a promise of an honest review.
I did enjoy Killers of a Certain Age, but I also get your comment about ‘so many books’ featuring the senior sleuths/spies/assassins. These themes will certainly take off and then it seems there are books everywhere with similar characters. I just finished reading a book (that I won’t name because I honestly am not sure why I stuck with it) that had a storyline with a group of students vying for a scholarship and then murder, etc., etc. I kind of think some of the Agatha Christie ways of telling stories (locked room, island, etc.) are getting a little overused. What do I know though? I’m just a reader, not a writer. Ha! I will try this one I imagine in days to come. Thanks for featuring it!
Kay, Killers of a Certain Age seemed so fresh when it came out. As you said, as a reader, this one just didn’t have the same zing.
I know what. you mean. I’m waiting for something fresh now.
That’s funny, for two reasons.
1. I am reading (as you will see on Thursday) the second consecutive book that has at least a certain resemblance to this, though both are different in tone.
2. I just this minute got an email from the library here that my copy of the first book is available to pick up.
I’m not sure I want to read three in a row, but we’ll see how it goes.
Thanks for this review, Lesa. I have this book on my reading list and wondered how it compared to the first. It’s funny how senior spies and assassins didn’t exist as a trope even a few years ago and now there’s a flood of these books. Still, I like seeing older protagonists get some of the limelight in crime fiction.
I agree with you, Kate. It is refreshing to see seniors as sleuths and spies. (Thanks Richard Osman and Deanna Raybourn.) I had quit reading many mysteries in which the sleuth was always a bright twenty-some-year-old dating every single man in town.
Sounds as if there’s a glut right now with the theme, Jeff. Even when the story is polished, as this one is, it didn’t have the same feeling, for me, as the first one did. I’ll be interested to see what. you’re reading tomorrow.
I was curious what your thoughts were on this one, Lesa. I think Richard Osman does it so well anything else pales in comparison.
He does, Sharon. Deanna Raybourn’s first one was fresh, and different. This one didn’t feel the same to me.
I saw that book on GoodReads and did not enter for it.
Carol, That was nice of you to leave it for someone who might appreciate it more.
I was fairly neutral on the first book. Sounds like this is one for me to skip.
I would, Mark, since the first one didn’t grab you.