Wow. This book really does have it all. For fans of “The Thursday Murder Club” this will be just as enjoyable. Funny, riveting, twisty and brutal, the authors really has tapped into a genre of its own.

A fun, funny story that knows what it is from the beginning. Great pacing and interesting characters that leave you wanting more (in the best way).

A very good mystery that will probably enjoyed by Osman fans, too. Interesting female characters, some humor, and a good plot made this a good read. Recommended.

Thanks very much for the free review copy!!

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. But now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates their real-world resourcefulness in an age of technology. When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses-paid cruise to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realise they've been marked for death. To survive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They're about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman - and a killer - of a certain age.
This is the first book I’ve read by the author & it certainly won't be the last. A very well written book that kept my interest all the way through, I loved the humour, the action but most of all the characters who were wonderful. There are a few flashbacks to previous assignments. I loved the friendships & must admit kept seeing The Golden Girls in my mind’s eye. I recommend this book & hope it’s the start of a series
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

Murder Is Ageless…
The business of murder is ageless and, after all, what could more innocuous than a group of elderly ladies? These particular four ladies are old school, highly trained and dangerous but with new technology come new ideas - so are they destined for the scrap heap? They’re about to turn the tables and teach some hard lessons, turning against those who have ultimately turned against them. Wholly enjoyable and entertaining with a cast of wonderfully well crafted characters and a fun, immersive plot.

4.5 rounded up

If I can offer one piece of advice that is to ignore these women of a certain age at your peril.
Mary Alice, Helen, Natalie and Billie have been members of an elite assassination squad for the last forty years. The organisation is so secret it’s referred to as The Museum. These four start as Project Sphinx, the first all female squad, recruited in 1978. Now they face their retirement and are to receive an all-expenses-paid cruise aboard the Aphritrite as a reward for their services. All is well, they happily wine and dine until Billie spots an operative she’s worked with previously posing as a crew member. Why is he undercover? Who is the mark? Heaven forfend it’s them because these ladies are no ordinary ladies and they won’t go down without a fight.
After all, they’re killers of a certain age.

When I saw the title I have my fingers crossed hoping it’s not something similar to a Richard Osman. It’s so not like his books and I love this one just as much as those!! This is a fun read from the get go. I enjoy the background to The Museum’s foundation which gives its shades of authenticity and the inserts of some of the four ladies training and assignments are terrifically colourful. It’s a very entertaining caper told at a fast pace and there’s never a dull moment. It’s written in a very lively way with plenty of really good humour. There are so many clever sections but the app Menopaws (LOL) deserves a specific mention!! That really makes me laugh!

The characters are very well portrayed, they’re all really likeable when the chips are down you root for them but have confidence in their ingenuity and multiple skills.

It’s an audacious tale, there is danger and excitement, it’s tense on occasions and at times they have to be ferocious . It ends as well as it begins and it makes me chuckle! I sincerely hope there’s a sequel and I could see a television company making an offer too… That would be so entertaining to watch! Who would play the fab four????

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Hodder and Stoughton for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

This was a very entertaining read with plenty of action and a satisfying ending. The story was mainly told by Billie and the reader had flashbacks of her recruitment and previous assignments. The four women are all just retired but are still a force to be reckoned with. I enjoyed the way the women all had their different strengths and achieved their objective by working together. The story also illustrated how when you get older you become invisible to others, something they put to good use. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a fun read, I liked the humor and it had some really funny scenes. Overall the plot was just okay to me though, I wish the characters had been a bit more fleshed out and some bits were a bit boring and slow. Overall a fun, quick read.

Enjoyed this, a light, entertaining read. Some clever twists and a fast paced plot, it lacked detail in places which would have given it more credence but overall one to take on holiday and lose yourself in for a few hours.

Kudos to the author for writing about middle aged women AND referencing the menopause throughout the book. More please.

Forty years ago, in the 70’s, four women, Billie, Helen, Natalie and Mary Alice are recruited by a prestigious organisation called the Museum as an all-female group of assassins. Forty years later the same women are now retiring and have been given an all-expenses trip on a cruise by their employers. When they find a bomb on the boat that means only one thing. The museum now wants them dead. The four of them do everything they can to stay alive and devise a plan to take out the four directors.
Killer of a certain age is an enjoyable read by author Deanna Raybourn. This is my first book from the author, and it won’t be my last.
I couldn’t wait to read this after reading the blurb of this story. A thriller about sixty something female assassins, what could go wrong. I found this story quite humorous and very imaginative. And each character had their own different strengths to the group which I enjoyed learning about. As the story went back and forth in time. This story shows that just because you are older you are not passed it yet. This is a great thriller and I hope there is another book to this fabulous story. I would love another story involving these four women. 5 stars from me.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy of Killers of a Certain Age, a comedy thriller set all over the world.

Billie, Helen, Mary Alice and Natalie are retired assassins who worked for an organisation known as The Museum for forty years taking out the bad guys. When they discover they are marked for assassination on a cruise arranged to celebrate their retirement they have no choice but to fight back against the organisation they served loyally and the three directors who issued the termination notice.

Killers of a Certain Age is a strange novel with an unusual premise. I liked bits of it and found other bits annoying. It has a Richard Osman vibe with can do pensioners, although this is more absurd and cosmopolitan.

Picture the setting: four retired ladies with a price on their heads. Of course these aren’t ordinary 60 year olds, they are trained assassins who have been getting away with it for most of their lives and so have the nous and tradecraft to fight back. There’s the absurdity and it’s compounded by how they deal with their revenge/mission/whatever you want to call it, which is inventive and ingenious. Unfortunately the comedy is not extended to the dialogue, which is rather plodding when it’s not discussions about creaking joints and the menopause.

The novel opens in 1979 with the ladies’ first mission and sets the tone - intricate planning, mishaps and recovery. It then moves to the present day and the cruise. It switches between the present and descriptions of past jobs throughout the narrative with each slide into the past highlighting their connection to their targets and inserting a touch of character assassination for the reader. It works very well.

Killers of a Certain Age is a novel that I’m glad I read but I don’t know if I would pick up a sequel. 3.5*

Something new from a much-loved author.

I've been a fan of Deanna Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell and Lady Julia Grey books for a while, so I looked forward to more of the same. I was wrong.

What the author offers here is "Charlie's Angels for the Mature Woman". And that's not a criticism. It's a fabulous ride.

The book opens with newly-trained assassins Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie on a plane, dressed as air stewards, ready to take out some bad guys. All does not go exactly to plan.

We then jump ahead forty years, to their retirement party. Having worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, their talents and skills are now considered old-school and not suited to an era of technology. It soon transpires that rather than be allowed to retire, they are marked for death by their own Board. To survive they must turn against their own organization, relying on the very skills it considered redundant.

Inevitably, readers and reviewers will all relate this book to Charlie's Angels. It plays out like a movie-length episode, full of adventure, chases, menopausal-woman jokes and shoot-outs. It's all quite light-hearted, but with enough red herrings and subtle clues to keep the reader interested. We learn a little more about the intervening forty years through flashbacks, and the characters grow a little more three-dimensional as we go along. There's a few unresolved plotlines which might feed into subsequent books, so here's hoping.

While unlike the author's previous books, this is a wonderful adventure, which is sure to appeal to fans. Definitely recommended.

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash the plot - instead, I recommend that you read this for yourself!

I really enjoyed this book. There is a great cast of main and supporting characters - all very well written and believable IMHO. The plot is action-packed, and switches back and forth in time (which I always enjoy in a novel) and several interesting locations.

The plot itself is well thought out, and there are a few red herrings to keep you guessing along the way. I really hope that this is the start of a series, and if so, look forward to reading more!

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

This was just a very enjoyable read by a writer who knows the tricks of the trade to keep her readers engaged and happy. The story itself is not particularly original but the strength lies in the characters who are indeed "of a certain age". Since that age is close to mine it was easy for me to get into their heads, but even if you are not I am pretty sure you will enjoy this fun novel. It reminds me a bit of a James Bond story, just funnier and with female characters in charge, leaving the men the second class roles usually reserved for women. Deanna Raybourn knows how to entertain so you're bound to get a few hours of fun out of this.

After forty years of working for the Museum, a network of elite assassins targeting horrible people, Billie, Natalie, Helen, and Mary Alice are sent on an all-expenses-paid cruise to celebrate their retirements. Soon they discover their bosses have a more permanent retirement plan in mind, and it is up to a group of sixty-something women to fight for their lives and take down the corruption inside the Museum. Though things have changed since they joined the organization, these women are still just as deadly as ever.

This is a very fun book, regardless of the carnage. It takes a familiar story - clandestine agency turns against its own agents and tries to kill them while agents fight back - and makes it lighter and more humorous than the usual treatment. Billie is the focal point of the story, which means the reader gets a good look into her point of view and experiences, but it does leave the other women in the story more two-dimensional than they could be. Though the women are in their 60s, Billie's voice doesn't quite come across as being that old, which could pull the reader out of the story a bit. However, the capers are clever and fun, as are the women themselves, which makes the whole book a fast, thoroughly enjoyable ride.

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the chance to read Killers of a Certain Age early in exchange for an honest review.

Yes. This just shows what women can do when trained right. And yes, the Fini paintjng exists of a Shepherdess and Sphinxs. In Venice. At the Peggy Guggenheim collection. Interesting art work.
Just an FYI to the author, Lyme disease is in England, and the diseases carried by rat droppings - especially Weils, is just as nasty. Always wear gloves when gardening!
I enjoyed this book immensely and willl forever be wary of mud wraps, I used to like them.
I think this is an important novel to demonstrate that women of a certain age should not be written off too soon, we may be capable of doing more than you expect!
Well plotted, good style and grammar and such an unusual topic.

I am a huge fan of Raybourn's book but sadly this one was just ok for me. I did not particularly chime with the humour, did not enjoy the plot that much and the individual characters did not feel that fleshed out. What I did enjoy were that we had older female protagonists and that they were working in a male field. I liked the thoughts on getting older, how to remain useful, but overall it was not a hit like the other Raybourn books are for me.

I'm still mystified what the exact plan with Brady and the the lovely feisty ladies on the cruise ship was, but apart from that and from there on the book started to come alive. The story nicely flowing in and out of the scenes and settings (with descriptive parts that I really appreciated such as about the Sheba, or should I say 'Billie's Sheba') with me glued to the e-reader.

Hopefully there will be another book as I would love to read about what happens to Naomi, Taverner and the four spicy women.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book.

The premise of the book is great and I was really looking forward to it but the execution is not for me unfortunately.

I wish the author and publishers all the best for this book but unfortunately it’s not for me.

This is so much fun! I'd absolutely love to see it made into a film with Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep - it would be awesome!

Basically, you have four women who have been assassins all their lives but have now reached retirement age. Only suddenly they find themselves on the receiving end of a kill order and need to figure who's behind it and how they can call it off before they all suffer the same fate they've dealt out to so many over the years.

It's fast paced and intriguing, perfect if you want a little bit of escapism with some tough old women thrown in for the lols.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC without obligation.