The Spy Coast is one of the more recent books that covers older assassins/government agents who have retired and are forced back into action. The few that I have gotten my hands on so far have all been a great tribute to women of "a certain age" that I love. I was already a fan of Tess Gerritsen's, but this book has increased my admiration for her writing. The Spy Coast is the first in the Martini Club series where several friends have all relocated to Purity, Maine, and still meet as friends in their everyday lives.

Maggie is a former spy who has left some serious baggage from her active career that appears to be following her to her new retired home at her farm in Maine. She tells her story throughout the book, and the reader just likes her strength and resilience more. The other retirees rally around her and work to help her find out the truth of the threat against her and also to stand with her as the threat grows more dangerous. The title of the second in the series has already been released, and I am really looking forward to the next installment in this series. This review can also be read along with other reviews at Lady Techie's Book Musings http://LadyTechiesbookmusings.blogspot.com

I would have loved The Spy Coast even if it didn't place in my beautiful home state of Maine, but, in the end, that was only part of what made The Spy Coast so good. The idea of a community of retired spies living their now quiet lives and calling themselves The Martini Club is just so intriguing, but so is the character of Jo Thibodeau. She's tough, persistent, and deeply committed to making her community safe, and I'm hoping that we see more of all these compelling characters in future installments of the series. After all, who does a series better than Tess Gerritsen?

The Spy Coast is the start to a new series The Martini Club by Tess Gerritsen.
I love this authors books. Her writing always keeps me hooked and wanting more.
A retired CIA operative in small-town Maine tackles the ghosts of her past in this fresh take on the spy thriller.
Former spy Maggie Bird is an interesting character and I loved her role and character in this story.
An excellent book with fascinating characters that keep me turning the pages.
It grabs you from the beginning and does not let go. Had to read it in one sitting.
The mystery and build up of tension kept me turning the pages and I can’t wait for book two The Summer Guests.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this spy novel! Retired from the CIA, a group of mature adults look out for one another. When one of their own is threatened, they all pitch in to find out who is responsible! Loved the characters, the writing, the plot…loved everything about it!

A fun start to a new spy series! Maggie is a retired CIA operative, now living a quiet life on a farm in Maine. Maggie is enjoying that quiet life when one day a body is found in her driveway, clearly meant as a message for her. Maggie teams up with a few friends who also happen to be retired spies, working together to solve this mystery while trying to remain under the radar.

Maggie and her “Martini Club” make for an entertaining and likable group to root for. There’s plenty of action and intrigue and adventure in this story, but also a good deal of humor, and insights into what it means to be considered “past your prime.” This was a quick read with no lags or time wasted. I was engaged from start to finish and will definitely be sure to pick up the next in the series when it is released.

Thank you Tess Gerritsen, Thomas & Mercer, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

Very cool back story!! I love it! Great book! The characters were awesome and just pulled you in! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one! This book had a bit of everything! It had suspense, Action, intrigue, mystery, murder, a sort of who done it, great plot twist, and some crazy twists and turns! The storyline was very interesting and kept me glued to my Kindle!! This was definitely a great mystery! I definitely recommend reading this book as it was well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

Tess Gerritsen introduces her exhilarating new series, The Martini Club #1—THE SPY COAST, featuring five fascinating retired CIA agents settling into Purity, Maine, without anyone in the town knowing their past. They want to blend in like their ordinary neighbors (known as the Martini Club) who meet for book club, martinis, great food, gossip, and much more.

However, after sixteen years, the past may come calling to Maine for Maggie, and an over-eager acting police chief suspects there is more to this group of friends than meets the eye.

Having lived all over the world as a CIA operative, retired Maggie Bird (age 60) purchased Blackberry Farm and has settled into a chicken farm in Purity, Maine. With gray hair, she fits in like any other retired senior citizen, which is what she wants. She has a website and a former occupation that fits in the event people start digging that should satisfy them. She checked all the backgrounds of her neighbors before buying the farm. (loved Luther & Callie next door).

However, it appears someone has found her. She has been tracked down with an operative showing up asking for her help.

She then heads to book club (Martini Club) with her retired old friends—(Maggie, Ingrid, Lloyd, Ben, and Declan), who have retired in Purity, as well. While there, she gets a call. The Fed ex-man found a woman dead in her driveaway. It appears she was moved.

Enter Jo Thibodeau, acting sheriff, who is complicating matters. She thinks this group of friends is not as they appear.

Told from POV: Maggie and Jo, the Author takes us on a wild adventure from past to present.

Jo's investigation collides with the Martini Club's moves and Maggie's search for answers from revisiting the globetrotting from eighteen years earlier —Bangkok to Istanbul, from London to Malta. The ghosts of her past have returned; however, with the help of her Martini Club friends and maybe Jo Thibodeau, Maggie might be able to keep the quiet life she has worked for.

THE SPY COAST is fresh, fun, and a cracker of a read. I loved the Martini Club and this age group! (I am in this group) and love books featuring these characters. They have so much experience and more than meets the eye. This is an excellent example of how often people overlook those after a certain age. My favorite parts were back in Maine with the group of friends, neighbors, and town.

Expect plenty of humor, thrills, mystery, suspense, spies, and action with a fun, entertaining cast of characters with many secrets! I am looking forward to Martini Club #2!

Fans of Mark de Castrique's Secret Lives series will enjoy this one!

AUDIOBOOK: I purchased the audiobook, narrated by my two favorites, Brittany Pressley and Hillary Huber, for an outstanding stellar performance! I also read the e-book for reference. Highly entertaining!

I usually am not a fan of spy and espionage tales; however, I enjoyed THE SPY COAST due to Maggie, Jo, and The Martini Club! I thoroughly enjoyed the Author's note and her inspiration for the book. Too Cool! Remember to consider seniors and their backgrounds and never underestimate them—retired but not dead by any means.

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for an early reading copy. I also purchased the audio (I highly recommend it).

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: Nov 1, 2023
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The Spy Coast had the recipe for things I love - spy stories, retirees that have secrets, and a good mystery. It did not disappoint.

In a small town in Maine, Maggie Bird is trying to retire quietly, but a body soon turns up in her driveway. Things go downhill quickly from there. She turns to her Martini Club friends (who all just happen to also be retired CIA) for help despite the police chief wanting desperately to get to the bottom of this saga. Told from dual time lines, we discover more about what is unfolding in the present day as well as the history of the "mission gone bad" that led to the current crisis.

This is the first of the series, and I am looking forward to the next installment.

Maggie is retired from the CIA living a quiet life under a new name in Maine when someone contacts her looking for an old colleague. Maggie may be retired but she hasn’t lost her skills and when a dead body is found in her driveway and an attempt is made on her life she needs to find out why. Maggie’s past is coming after her. This is an espionage thriller that I couldn’t put down. This is a fast paced spy novel that will keep you guessing. I hope this is the start of a new series, I would definitely read another book with these characters. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

This was my first title from Tess Gerritsen but, certainly won't be my last! In fact, I am crossing my fingers this is the first in a series of spy thrillers about Maggie and the rest of her retired friends! I was captivated from start to finish and loved reading about Maggie's abilities for "reading the room" with a trained eye and the dual timeline of learning what brought Maggie to where she is now. Un-patiently waiting for the next installment in this series!

Is it just me or do we all have that little desire in the back of our minds fantasizing the life of a spy? Well @tess.gerritsen first book in a new series brings that desire to life! The Spy Coast combines an intriguing tale of international espionage and the everyday life of a self-proclaimed chicken farmer. Or is she? Maggie Bird is not your typical old lady. This retiree has a past and it's coming for her.

Sometimes amusing, almost always intense, and just plain fun to read, The Spy Coast is an excellent and explosive start to a new series by Tess Gerritsen.

Maggie Bird is a former CIA spy who has retired to the tiny village of Purity, Maine and is living a simple life on her farm. Until her past catches up with her and she’s pulled back into a world she had hoped to leave behind. Especially given how her last mission ended in disaster. But now she has no choice but to engage the threat against her in hopes of reclaiming the peace and safety she desperately desires. Aided by a group of retired spies all living in the same town, the “Martini Club” as they call themselves will use their still sharp minds and skills to find who’s behind the plot to harm Maggie and help her thwart those who would do her harm. And in doing so – beyond feeling useful again – they may just save the quiet life they’ve built in this little corner of the country.

What’s not to love about retired senior citizens fighting off assassins, traveling the globe and outmaneuvering local law enforcement? Seriously, The Spy Coast is a refreshing and entertaining departure from spy thrillers featuring young, toned and gorgeous operators out for blood. And while there is plenty of suspenseful action to keep readers engaged and on the edge of their seats, this book focuses more on the themes of experience, loyalty, cunning, intellect, and a feeling everyone wants as they age – the desire to be useful. It also explores how past trauma shapes individuals and never truly leaves them, sometimes coming back in harmful ways. And while for most of us those harmful ways don’t involve assassination attempts on our lives, it’s still relatable and makes Maggie a sympathetic character worth rooting for. Because anyone who’s been through what she has deserves a calm and enjoyable retirement.

The Spy Coast contains great storytelling combined with fast pacing, memorable characters and an air of anticipation for the big reveal. A satisfying thriller that whets the appetite for further installments to this budding series.

Maggie is 60, a retired spy, and raising chickens on Blackberry Farm in Purity, Maine. Sixteen years ago, a mission went horribly wrong, forcing Maggie to walk away from a career she loved and disappear into the Maine countryside. She adores her new, ordinary life—“quiet and unobtrusive and safe.” Until she discovers a dead woman sprawled on her driveway.

She knows the body is a message from someone connected to her past. Maggie—along with a handful of former colleagues who are now neighbors—band together to hunt down the past’s demons and salvage the new life Maggie created for herself.

I raced through this fun page-turner and my first book by the author, who boasts quite a loyal following. I was a fan of the Rizzoli and Isles TV series, which is based on books by Gerritsen.

One con of the novel? The story presents the likable and talented CIA operatives, all in their sixties and seventies, as invisible, (author’s word, not mine) washed-up senior citizens who crave naps and relief from aching joints. Since I am older than Maggie (!), I grew tired of those reminders scattered throughout the book.

Purity, Maine has a population of three thousand people, five of them senior citizens with deep secrets. Maggie Bird, Declan Rose, Ben Diamond, and married couple Ingrid and Lloyd Slocum are retired CIA agents, laying low to evade detection by old enemies.

The former agents have periodic 'book club' evenings, which are more about the food, drinks, and gossip than the reading. Martinis might be followed by moussaka and goulash, after which the friends settle down to gab.

The retirees have been living quietly for years until Maggie - who lives in a farmhouse and raises chickens - comes home to find a trespasser in her kitchen. The intruder, a young, lithe, Slavic-looking woman, introduces herself as Bianca, and says, "I'm here because we have a problem. Diana Ward has dropped off the radar."

Bianca explains that a hacker accessed CIA files for a mission called Operation Cyrano, and admits, "I'm afraid your names may have been leaked, and that's why we're tracking you all down, to check on your welfare. Diana might be in trouble." Bianca then urges, "Help us find her, Maggie. You must know where she's gone. You worked together."

The words Operation Cyrano send shock waves through Maggie, and thinking of Diana, Maggie responds, "I don't give a f**k what happens to her." Maggie then sends Bianca on her way and thinks that's that. But she's very wrong.

That night, while Maggie is at a book club meeting, Bianca's body is dumped in Maggie's driveway. Bianca's hands are bruised and black, and her fingers are bent and twisted at grotesque angles.

Purity Police Chief Jo Thibodeau, who's called to the crime scene, checks Maggie's alibi for the time of the homicide. Declan, Ben, Ingrid, and Lloyd confirm that Maggie was at a meeting of their reading group, which they call the Martini Club. Afterwards, when someone takes a shot at Maggie, the club members insist they'll help look for the shooter. Jo realizes there's something very odd about these oldsters, all of whom are expert investigators.

Meanwhile, Maggie knows she has to leave town and find the enemies who are out for blood.

The current police investigation and Martini Club inquiries alternate with flashbacks to the past. Twenty-four years ago, when Maggie was posing as an import analyst in Bangkok, she met a young British doctor named Danny Gallagher. Danny was doing charity work in Thailand, and he and Maggie bonded over bowls of spicy beef noodle soup. The twosome then embarked on a long-term, long-distance relationship, though Maggie kept mum about her real work.

After Maggie had been involved with Danny for six years, she got embroiled in Operation Cyrano, a very dangerous mission that had unexpected consequences. Now it seems someone wants revenge.

In the present, Maggie travels to Bangkok, where she gets information about who's targeting her. A kidnapping and additional killings lead to an exciting and unexpected showdown.

This is a clever, well-crafted thriller that combines a police procedural with an espionage novel. I got a kick out of the CIA retirees, who know their way around Walthers and rifles as well as curry and Persian rice and lamb. I look forward to additional books in the Martini Club series.

Thanks to Netgalley, Tess Gerritsen, and Thomas & Mercer for a copy of the book.

I've never read a Tess Gerritsen novel before, so her style was new to me. I loved the old spies forced out of retirement plot and the location of a fictionalized Camden, Maine. The plot was like Red (old spies forced back into the game) but with the serious tone of a Jason Bourne book.

I enjoyed this book so much that I've already recommended it to friends and got my dad started on other Tess Gerritsen titles.