"Killers of a Certain Age" by Deanna Raybourn (re-read)

I don't do a lot of re-reading these days, let alone re-read a book that I only just read three months ago (in mid-December). There are just so many other books calling my name that I want to read...!  

But when the chosen book proved too difficult for people to get their hands on, my Gateway/Lighthouse Women book club decided that "Killers of a Certain Age" by Deanna Raybourn -- which I had suggested as a possible future pick -- would be the subject of our March discussion. And I couldn't resist the opportunity to revisit a book I had so thoroughly enjoyed (plus I wanted to refresh my memory on the intricacies of the plot before our discussion next week).  

The GW/LW book club has one ironclad main rule:  no miracle babies. :)  This book fits the bill:  all four heroines are childless/free. And any change in that status is highly unlikely:  they're also all now 60, menopausal, and celebrating retirement after 40 years of working together -- as an elite squad of highly trained professional assassins, whose job was to help rid the world of dictators, drug lords, arms dealers and the like. Their employer -- a secretive international organization known only as "the Museum" -- is sending them off in style on a luxurious Caribbean cruise. 

Then one of them recognizes a fellow operative on board in disguise -- and they quickly realize that the now-retired hunters have become the hunted. Someone from the Museum has put a hit out on them -- but who, and why?  

I wondered, as I opened this book again, whether it would prove to be as much fun the second time around.  

It was. I (still) loved it, and (as with my first read) blazed through it quickly. Not everyone will like it, obviously, and there are a few less-than-glowing reviews on Goodreads (albeit the average score is currently a pretty favourable 3.92 out of 5). The book unfolds from Billie's perspective (with some flashbacks showing how she was recruited in 1978, and how the four were trained);  it might have been nice to learn a little more about the others than we do.  (Besides tough-girl Billie, there's widowed Helen, the crack sharpshooter;  practical Mary Alice, who hasn't told her wife what she does for a living;  and flirtatious, much-divorced Natalie.)  And yes, there's a lot of killing going on (with the attendant gore), and some readers might find that disturbing.  

From an adoption/loss/infertility/childless content warning perspective, there are a few small potential pitfalls:  there is a pregnant women who makes an appearance near the end of the book (and complains about her pregnancy symptoms).  There's a younger female character who is clearly a surrogate daughter figure for one of the women.  

But quite simply, I (still) thought it was a whole lot of fun, with a lot of humour and some deft comments about ageism and aging, sexism, friendship, grief and loss, roads not taken, and the corporate world. As I wrote the first time around, I'm hoping for sequels -- and a movie adaptation. (I read an interview with the author who admits she had Diane Lane in mind as she wrote!)      

My original rating of 5 stars on Goodreads still stands. :) 

My original review here. 

This was Book #12 read to date in 2023 (and Book #2 finished in March), bringing me to 27% of my 2023 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 4 books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2023 tagged as "2023 books."