Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - Killers of a Certain Age

Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

90 reviews

emmdashed's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

I had a lot of fun with this one. Love this premise, Heist/Spy/Assassin thriller featuring women in their 60s? Love it! On board immediately. Really hoping they make this one into a movie some day.

The story is executed well, it hits the beats you're looking for with this type of fiction, and does them well. The stakes are high, but the characters are smart and capable and ready to take them on. I enjoyed the dialogue and interactions of the characters. Perhaps not the most unique story but there was plenty to keep it fresh and entertaining.

My main criticism is that the book is told only from Billie's POV (with a little bit of omniscient narrator in some flashbacks). To be honest, I found Billie to be the least compelling of the main characters. I wish we could have had the story told from multiple POVs. I would have loved to hear how Mary-Alice, Natalie, and Helen were recruited; about their lives as assassins; and how they are emotionally handling the events of the actual book.

Still, all that being said I would still recommend this one if you want an assassin thriller with Heist elements, and older lady protagonists (a disappointing rarity in this kind of fiction.)

@Hollywood seriously though make this movie.

Content Warnings

beckyremillard's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Billie and three of her friends/coworkers/fellow assassins are at retirement age. They’re ready to move on from the assassin lifestyle, accept their pensions, and follow wherever life leads them. However, the agency they are retiring from, The Museum, seems to have other plans.

I’m not normally interested in spy stories and, while they are assassins and not spies, they do have the covert operations thing going on. But I really enjoyed this book. I liked the characters and I didn’t guess everything that was going on before it happened. I’m sure it was predictable to some, but it was at the sweet spot where everything wasn’t super obvious but wasn’t so out of left field it would have been impossible to see it all coming.

The story is told from Billie’s perspective. We get the story in present time as well as some backstory on the four assassins.

Overall, I definitely recommend giving this a chance.

Content Warnings

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This was as funny as her Veronica Speedwell books, I also liked the older protagonists (around 60 yrs old) and that they, for the most part, were realistic. They had all the older women's problems, both health-wise and socially but used them to their advantage. It was a fun book and just what I needed, the narrator was excellent and I'd love a prequel!

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3arth2kaye's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

madsmcw_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

kimalah's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Great book. Great, great, great. Fun, bloody, angry, smart with a found family who bond over bloodshed. As a woman reaching a certain age, I appreciate the use of society treating older women as invisible as a weapon, that these women are successful in their lives without having to have a man except when they want, and I greatly enjoy Menopaws! as their secret weapon. I ate this up like cake. Great fun can be had while smashing the patriarchy.

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starrysteph's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A ladies quartet of 60 year old assassins, ready to retire but pulled back in to save their skins against the very organization that trained them? It was as fun as anticipated.

We follow Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie. They were hand-plucked as young women to train as elite assassins for a society called the Museum. After forty years of dedicated killing, they’re sent on a luxury cruise to celebrate their retirement. But once they arrive, they realize they’re being targeted by one of their own. That organization they’ve been loyal to for so many years? They’ve now got to take them down.

Raybourn offers a playful sense of humor here. There’s lots of banter and sass and well-developed relationships between the ladies with lots of quippy fun. And I’m not someone who typically enjoys pop culture/modern references - but they worked well within the text and were genuinely funny. There’s big action scenes, but also fun slices of life moments; and also plenty of planning and prep work.

The timeline shifts between present day, and their training & first assignments as young women. Overall, it was refreshing to read a book from the perspective of an older narrator. And there were fun plot points centered around the fact that their age renders them more or less invisible – though to be clear, they aged themselves up a bit for their disguises. 60 isn’t elderly. :)

But building off of their invisibility as older women, over a series of flashbacks we witness the men who sent them on missions time and time again underestimate and undervalue them. And the women? They’re the ones who save their skins when things go wrong. Now those men - who hold grudges against the quartet because they” stole their thunder” - are the ones running the Museum, while the women are sent on their merry way.

This is a book about RAGE. Revenge is sometimes placed over justice, from the women’s initial recruitment to the final takedown.

The setup seems to point us towards viewing the ladies as heroic. They attempt to justify their assassinations time & time again - like, “oh, we’re killing BAD guys, people that are definitely going to harm others and get away with it because of their wealth and power!”. Lots of talk about killing Nazis and so on.

But of course … killing is still killing, and vigilante justice never has clear boundaries. I felt a bit of craving to just let them be villainous - I enjoy a villain story centered around murderers (think: Dexter or Hannibal). There was some pressure from the storytelling to view them as like, feminist baddies. But the truth is that they are … well, murderers. And they’re putting full faith in the Museum to find the worst of the worst to take down. They go through planning sessions fairly often, and they mentioned quite a bit that the Museum does research & there are many steps to confirm a hit. But this is the same entity that so easily put out a hit on them based on totally fake information! This is the major conflict of the book, and so it puts a pretty big shadow over their earlier kills. How many could have been political moves rather than “justified”?

Anyway, we wrap up neatly but with some hope. There’s a hint at a continuing story, but this works as a standalone.

Overall, it was a quick, fun read. I think it would work even better on screen!

CW: murder, gun violence, death, gore, misogyny, violence, blood, colonization, homophobia, grief, pregnancy, sexual content, torture, kidnapping, war

Content Warnings

emharris's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

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readlikeamother's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

4.5/5

I enjoyed this one so much! What a delightful blend of spy thriller and dry comedy. It was like the Golden girls meets John Wick. I was never bored or wishing the plot would move faster. I did wish a couple things were filled in more at the end (I was so curious to learn more about Minka!) But overall just a really delightful read.

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srm's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

So much fun! I want all the comedy thrillers about 60-year-old women assassins now, please. The four women at the heart of this book are who I want to grow up to be--at the end of middle age and still vital and still ready to take on the world.

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