When a dead body interrupts her quiet retirement on the Maine coast, Maggie Bird is dragged back into a life she thought she left behind decades ago. Alternating between past & present, this book jumps right in and keeps your attention the whole time!

I was hesitant to read this one because I absolutely hate spy novels.....but I LOVE Tess Gerritsen. I've read all of her books and they're always amazing. I started this book and immediately the writing was enthralling. I read a lot of crime fiction but something about the voice Tess Gerritsen with is distinctive and I love it. I blew right through the book. My favorite thing about this book was how she managed to ground all the characters so well that even though it's a book with a lot of spy elements and crazy things going down, it doesn't feel like an out-of-control James Bond situation.

Highly recommended for anyone who loves a good spy story, but also to anyone who enjoys a well written quick read, even if spies aren't their thing!

Loved this as I love anything by Tess Gerritsen. Love the camaraderie/ found family of her book club drinking club of CIA retirees and the romance subplot. Have been looking for a spy thriller like this with a tough female lead

This is my first Tess Gerritsen novel and I was very impressed. When I added it to good reads to review and saw it was Martini Club #1 and I just knew with all the character development this had to be turned into a series. The author gives us a fun and exciting story of a crew of ex-spies (now in their 60s and 70s) all of whom have retired to a town called Purity, in Maine.

This book follows a woman named Maggie Bird as she is forced to relive her last case.. one we learn that was very personal and painful.

The Spy Coast opens when she’s visited by a stranger asking after someone from her past. She’s worried her identity and location have been discovered though things get worse when the stranger is murdered and dumped in her driveway.

Gerritsen sets this in two timeframes and both are really engaging. I loved the story of Maggie’s younger years. She falls in love but then forced to combine work and pleasure and things go badly. She feels very betrayed and happily walks away from it all, but of course now sixteen years later, someone from that time seems to have re-emerged.

In the present we meet her former colleagues of course, as well as a neighbour and his delightful (slightly wayward) 14 year old daughter. And then there’s Jo, the Acting Chief of Police who’s investigating the body dumped in Maggie’s driveway, and later an attempt on Maggie’s life.

I loved the strong backstory and offers a really good foundation for the events in the present and Gerritsen times the telling of the past beautifully with the perfect amount of foreshadowing.

This was my first Tess Gerritsen book and I really enjoyed it. Maggie Bird retires from the CIA after a failed operation with disastrous consequences. She settles in Purity, Maine to start her new life on Blackberry Farm raising chickens. A few of her ex- colleagues retired there. When a body is left in her driveway, she knows she hasn’t been successful in escaping her past. The “Martini Club” forms to try to figure out who is sending Maggie this message and why. They still have great spy skills and are invigorated by this challenge. Their efforts are not really appreciated by Jo Thibodeau, the acting police chief. She doesn’t know what to make of this group who constantly seem to be ahead of her at every point in her investigation. Maggie’s quest for answers takes her back to stops in her career that included Bangkok, Istanbul, London, and Malta. It will take the best efforts of the Martini Club and the acting police chief to protect Maggie from her past. This is the first book in the Martini Club series and I look forward to the next one. Thanks to #netgalley #thomas&mercer and #tessgerritsen for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Spy Coast (The Martini Club #1) by Tess Gerritsen


Thank you to NetGalley for the ebook.


This is an espionage thriller that I enjoyed immensely. This is my first book by Tess Gerritsen, and I am looking forward to #2 of The Martini Club series. I found myself after each chapter thinking, I’ll just read one more chapter; this is when I know it’s a good book.

The cast in the book are Ex CIA agents that have retired to the small town of, Purity, Maine. Someone is trying to kill Maggie, one of the former CIA agents and ghosts from her past start to return. There is lots of mystery and action in, The Spy Coast. I was immersed in this story right from the start.

The Spy Coast is a very well written suspense. I throughly enjoyed the plot and character dynamics. Tess Gerritsen has written another winner. My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance ebook. This is my unbiased review.

Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement. But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends—all retirees from the CIA—to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why. This “Martini Club” of former spies may be retired, but they still have a few useful skills that they’re eager to use again, if only to spice up their rather sedate new lives. This story is such a fun read. I have already cast it in my mind. Believable characters, engaging dialog and what an ending! can't wait for the next in what I hope will be a long series.

Once again, Tess Gerritsen sucked me into one of her books from the very beginning. This book was twisty and kept me guessing. Maggie was a force to be reckoned with and I loved reading her story. I enjoyed how the story went from past to future and had different POVs. Another great book from Tess Gerritsen! Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for a digital arc of this title.

I'm enjoying the new genre of novels that feature retired spies returning to their old haunts and cases. Although they are viewed by the youngsters in their field as out of touch and passé, the retirees bring experience and wisdom if not exactly agility to case-solving.

The Spy Coast has Maggie Bird, a retired spy peacefully farming in a small community in Maine, catapulted back into a case from her past. Along with her neighbors, also former CIA agents and analysts, she is unwillingly pulled back into her former life to save her own life and protect her civilian neighbors.

This is a super fun novel from accomplished writer Tess Gerritsen. It's surprising ending leaves the door open for "Martini Club" follow ons.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is the first book of the new The Martini Club series and since it is written by Tess Gerritsen, naturally I had to grab it as soon as I spotted it. Her books have all been such good reads there was no passing it up.

Description:
A retired CIA operative in small-town Maine tackles the ghosts of her past in this fresh take on the spy thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen.

Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement.

But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends—all retirees from the CIA—to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why. This “Martini Club” of former spies may be retired, but they still have a few useful skills that they’re eager to use again, if only to spice up their rather sedate new lives.

Complicating their efforts is Purity’s acting police chief, Jo Thibodeau. More accustomed to dealing with rowdy tourists than homicide, Jo is puzzled by Maggie’s reluctance to share information—and by her odd circle of friends, who seem to be a step ahead of her at every turn.

As Jo’s investigation collides with the Martini Club’s maneuvers, Maggie’s hunt for answers will force her to revisit a clandestine career that spanned the globe, from Bangkok to Istanbul, from London to Malta. The ghosts of her past have returned, but with the help of her friends—and the reluctant Jo Thibodeau—Maggie might just be able to save the life she’s built.

My Thoughts:
Tess Gerritsen has another winning series! I loved the main character, Maggie Bird, and her new life of chicken farming after retiring from her career as a CIA operative. The plot is full of suspense and had me biting my nails in anticipation of danger. I enjoyed the community and friendship of the former spies in the "Martini Club" and the way they stuck together to support each other. Each member seemed to have important strengths that allowed them to help as the past rose up from Maggie's life to threaten her. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer through Netgalley for a review copy.

Former CIA spy , Maggie Bird has settled in Purity , Maine living a quiet life on her chicken farm ........ that is until the day she discovers a body on her driveway . She turns to her 'Martini Club' , a group of fellow retirees , for help in uncovering the circumstances around the body- is it a message from her past ?
Events are complicated by the acting Police Chief , Jo Thibodeau's insistence on investigating not just the dead body but also Maggie and her friends ........ just how is Maggie able to stay one step ahead at all times .
Can the Maggie and the Club stay one step ahead of not just the Police Chief but also the murderer , without their secrets being discovered ? Will Maggie's past be her downfall ?

This is a fast paced , character driven thriller , full of twists and turns - an enjoyable read . I would be open to reading more books set on the other Martini Club characters in the future

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

A workmanlike mystery-thriller, but with two major flaws that bothered me a lot. As reluctant as I am to criticize a book that has otherwise drawn such overwhelming support and which was written by an author much beloved by many, these were the two issues that made THE SPY COAST less enjoyable for me than I would have liked.

First, the constant shifts among so many different points of view gave me whiplash, and the problem of keeping the narrative straight was made even more difficult by the jumps back and forth in time and the rendering of part of the narrative in the first person and the rest in the third person. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I found the narrative required far more effort to keep track of than I thought it merited.

Second, the author's ability to convey the tone and flavor of life in rural Maine just made her complete inability to convey the tone and flavor of life in Bangkok, a city I know well. Honestly, I'm not even sure why Bangkok appeared in the narrative at all. Those sections could just as easily have been set in Cleveland since Bangkok had nothing to do with the development of the narrative and they contained no flavor of that extraordinary city. Quite on the contrary, everything about Bangkok that appeared in this novel was either fabricated or completely wrong. As a setting for a mystery-thriller, the city deserves a lot better.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I always look forward to Tess Gerristen's latest and this was worth waiting for. There were some interesting characters.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys murder, mystery.

Thanks NetGalley. I enjoyed this book so much. What happens to old spooks when they retire? They find a nice quiet place to go with a few friends and try to live a quiet life. Sometimes that just can't happen though. You would think a case from sixteen years ago would be gone and forgotten. But the 'bad guys' come up with some information that they didn't have until recently. Now people are dying and Maggie has to ind out what is going on. Her friends want to help her and are not happy when she has to go it alone. The case didn't go the way they had planned and then Maggie's husband is dead and he is the innocent person in all of this. There's a surprise for Maggie but not the one she would have liked it to be.

Tess Gerritsen is one of my old standby authors. I love everything she writes - it's smooth, satisfying, and exciting. Always. I haven't read anything of hers in awhile, but I settled right into Spy Coast like rediscovering an old friend. And I was reminded why I like her books so much! Definitely a fun read.

This was intense! I had no idea where the story was going and it really hooked me in!
Former spy Maggie Bird I has retired and is living a quiet life with her chickens and neighbours, until someone comes looking for her, and someone else tries to kill her.
I really enjoyed how this book jumped from one timeline to another, so you could understand a bit more of what was going on and what had happened in the past. A really captivating story. Highly recommend

I wasn't sure what to expect with this novel but it grabbed my attention and kept me engaged throughout. It is written with lots of jumping forward and backwards on the timeline and keeps you guessing as to what will happen, what will be exposed or learnt next and is very enjoyable.
You learn to like the characters with their flaws and back stories and want to learn more. I actually enjoyed this a little more after I read the back story by the author of how this book came to be. Basically in some small towns in Maine, including hers, there are a number of retired CIA employees that can't say anything about their history. You see how that experience comes out in this book.
Highly recommend for an easy, enjoyable read

”The Spy Coast” was my first Tess Gerritsen book; I was attracted to the Maine seaside setting and the idea of retired spies getting back in the game—it felt very “Thursday Murder Club.” And while I would never characterize “The Spy Coast” as a cozy mystery—the body count is fairly high and some of the deaths are fairly gruesome—the book delivered on my expectations of a character-driven spy caper. Told in chapters narrated in the first person by Maggie, a retired CIA agent dragged back into the game when a body is dumped in her driveway, and from the third person perspective of Jo, the town’s newly-appointed interim chief of police (as well as a few other people whose identities I won’t reveal here), the book moves between past and present and plays out in exotic locations all around the world, as Gerrittsen keeps the tension high and the reader guessing. I had to suspend disbelief more than a few times, but I was entertained enough that I felt more than willing to be swept along. Maggie’s fellow retired spies are great company throughout, and I’m looking forward to reading more of their adventures in future installments.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Thomas and Mercer for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

Thanks ton NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.

Tess Gerritsen is one of my favourite authors. I have loved the Rizzoli and Isles series. And yet I had no idea what to expect with this one.

Maggie is a retired spy. She lives in Maine near her friends, also ex spies. When an agent turns up asking for Maggie’s and is then subsequently found dead in Maggie’s garden, she is sucked back in to events from the past.

Oh wow this was good. Devoured it as quickly as I possibly could. Told from the point of view of Maggie, both past and present and also police chief Jo. Just as we are close to finding out something important, the prospective changes in the next chapter. This was such a fabulous way to reveal things and kept me hook throughout. Genuinely had no clue what was going to happen the whole way through. A true thriller and one I highly recommend.

Tess Gerritsen is on of my favorite authors and I was so excited to hear she had written a new book about spies in retirement.

Maggie Bird has put down roots in Purity Maine, living a quiet contented life on a chicken farm. Unexpectedly her past comes knocking on her door. Soon a body is dumped on her driveway and an attempt to kill her is made. Maggie has to search her past to find out what might be the reason for targeting her. She has the help of four other retiree spies who live in the same town, the Martini Club. The second POV in the story is the Acting Chief of Police Jo Thibodeau, who investigates the death and the shooting of Maggie and finds the meddlesome group of pensioners a little too pushy and competent for their own good.

This was a surprisingly atmospheric read. The story goes back and forth in time and slowly we find out what happend to Maggie and why she quit her job sixteen years earlier. I enjoyed the writing style and the pacing was just right and kept the mystery alive until the very end. I've read all the Rizzoli and Isles books and enjoyed them all. In this book there are less gory details and it's just a little bit more on the cozy side of mystery.