How did I go this long without reading a Tess Gerritsen novel? I absolutely loved this book! The setting, the characters, the multiple POVs and dual timelines - it was all a total success for me.

Maggie Bird is a retired CIA spy living in Maine. She raises chickens, trades goods with her neighbor and his 14 year old granddaughter, and enjoys her quiet and isolated life. When her past comes back to find her and tie up some loose ends, she has to figure out who is looking for her and why.

This was a fast paced, action-packed spy thriller and I enjoyed every minute! It had so many different elements that came together for a great read. The book was well organized which made it easy to switch between different character perspectives and move between Maggie's past and the present day. As Maggie tries to figure out who is coming for her in the present, the flashbacks that are incorporated set up an excellent resolution. The cast of characters are led by several strong females, including Maggie and local police chief Jo, and the supporting characters are a charming and witty bunch whose dinner parties I would love to attend.

This is the first book in a new series from Gerritsen and I will be anxiously waiting for book two!

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

What happens when your former CIA life finds you in retirement? I am so happy that Tess Gerritsen has started a (hopefully) new series with The Martini Club! Four retired CIA agents have decided to settle down in Purity, Maine. It's a quiet, simple little town with a new Chief of Police, Jo. But when a body is found in Maggie's driveway, she knows the past is coming back for revenge. This is the tale of old friendships, old enemies, and hopefully a new beginning. Highly recommended!

I want to start off by saying that Tess Gerritsen is one of my all-time favorite authors. I discovered her late in my reading lifetime and I’ve been working my way through her catalog ever since. The Rizzoli and Isles series is still one of my all-time favorite series (so much better than the TV show IMO) and her standalones are also phenomenal. Gerritsen obtained her MD before switching to a writing career which lends authenticity and credibility to her writing.

We all know that I am a sucker for a great police procedural thriller and The Spy Coast certainly does not disappoint.

This is yet another book with dual timelines (they seem to keep popping up in my TBR) as we meet Maggie Bird, who has gone by a number of different aliases throughout her life, but who now resides in Purity, Maine, as a chicken farmer. Her life as a CIA operative is long behind her, or so she thought.

Our story opens 10 days prior, with Diana, one of Maggie’s old CIA colleagues escaping with her life after an attack, but failing to find out who is trying to take her down. Then we meet Maggie, hunting down a fox that has gotten into her henhouse.


This turns out to be the least of her problems when a woman who visited her earlier in the day ends up dead in her driveway. It appears that one of her old and still-classified cases has been compromised, and her name, along with others, has been leaked. The Spy Coast takes us around the globe and flashes back to 16 years ago to events in Malta right before Maggie left the CIA firmly in her past. But as we all know, the past does not always stay in the past, and Maggie’s past seems to be out to get her.

I enjoyed this book very much and I’m really hoping that based on the ending of this book there will be another, and that this will turn into a series. The side characters are phenomenal. They consist of a group of other, retired CIA agents who all reside in Purity, Maine. And the poor police chief Jo, who seems competent and smart, just to be outwitted by The Martini Club. The twist in this book is something I certainly did not see coming. The end leaves more questions unanswered than answered, which usually bugs me, but in this case, I don’t mind.

P.S. – In taking a look at the author’s website it looks like The Martini Club will indeed be a new series! I’m very excited and cannot wait for more adventures.

A huge thank you to the author Tess Gerritsen, NetGalley, and Thomas and Mercer for the ARC copy of this book.

One sale now, you can grab your copy here. This awesome book is available on KU for both reading and listening!

Keep reading for some more thoughts that I need to say out loud but SPOILERS!

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🛑 ✋ POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD ✋ 🛑

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I love that we meet Maggie while she’s after a fox in the henhouse. And she explains to Callie that even though she kills the fox, another predator will move in to take its place. Much like Bella, who has now assumed her father’s place.

So now let’s talk about this planet crash. There were supposed to be 8 people on board. But we know two didn’t board the plane. Maggie and Bella. Our girl Maggie seems poised to enter into a romantic relationship with Declan, who I’m sure has lots of his own secrets. BUT is Danny really dead?


Here’s my theory- Maggie did indeed fall victim to the honey trap, and Dr. Danny was indeed a double agent, or working for the Russians. But who knows. Only time and Tess will tell..

I really enjoyed this book, I hope that this book becomes a series of books, Tess will keep you guessing , I was wrong in what I thought the book would end with. The ending was one I never seen coming. I did wonder if Danny was really on that plane. and I really thought it was Danny wanting her to find Diane.

I always love Tess Gerritsen! In this book, she makes a departure from her norm as she delves into the ever popular, what I call Senior crime solvers. The ex-CIA Martini Club is working on this one! Great characters, including the real detective who tries to keep up. I assume this is headed to a series???

Tess Gerritsen's latest is the first in her new series, set in remote small town Purity, in Maine. Retired 60 year old Maggie Bird is a woman unlikely to attract a second glance, a former spy, who brought Blackberry farm, after carefully vetting those living around her, finding a measure of peace as she settled down as a chicken farmer. She was drawn to the location by other retired colleagues and friends, Lloyd and Ingrid Slocum, Ben Diamond, and Declan Rose, forming a book group, the close knit friends are The Martini Club. However, Maggie's past comes to haunt her after a dead woman is dumped at her home, and soon after she is being shot at. In a narrative that goes back and forth in time, we learn of her professional and personal life, in Bangkok, Istanbul, London, and in Malta.

In the present, 5 old spies, with 5 lifetimes worth of experience come together, bringing their specific tricks and expertise, more than ready to jump back into the fray to look after their own, running up against the tenacious but frustrated acting Police Chief, 32 year old Jo Thibodeau, who begins to wonder who exactly these people are. Spies are by the nature secretive beasts, but Maggie is going to have to disclose the details of her previous life if they are to work out who is after her now, including Operation Cyrano and its tragic consequences. An urgency is led to the proceedings which has Maggie hoping to find answers in Milan.

On finishing the novel, Gerritson reveals what inspired this compulsive new espionage series, featuring a wonderful character in Bird, and the supporting cast of former spies with their still razor sharp skills that they utilise, a reminder that they may getting older, but it would not do to underestimate any of them. This is a entertaining, enjoyable and engaging beginning to what promises to be a great series, a tense and suspenseful read that will likely appeal to fans of author and those who love the mystery genre. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen is one of my fav thrillers I've read this year! I was reading it at a very busy time and found myself thinking about it when I couldn't read it! That's the mark of a very good book! Maggie Bird is a retired CIA operative living in a small town in rural Maine. She and several other CIA friends have retired here. Maggie left the CIA and retired after a mission went very wrong. She hasn't told anyone what happened and she doesn't want to. The CIA group get together for dinners and book club talks weekly. They call themselves the Martini Club.

Maggie is happy and likes having lots of land with chickens to take care of. Her neighbor is an elderly man who takes care of his teenaged granddaughter. He has lots of animals to tend to and treats Maggie very well. Maggie has gotten close to him and his granddaughter. One evening when Maggie is at the book club meeting, her neighbor calls to see if she's alright? There are several police cars with lights flashing at Maggie's house. Maggie and the others head to her house to see what's going on. A dead body was dumped on Maggie's driveway. It's the same woman who Maggie found inside her house the day before. Her name was Bianca and she wanted information on Diana, one of Maggie's former associates. Maggie and Diana left on bad terms and Maggie has no idea where she is, nor does she care. Now Bianca is dead and her fingers have been twisted to horrific angles. She's not only dead, she was tortured for information.

Jo Thibodeau is the acting police chief of Purity, Maine and is investigating the body in the driveway. She's curious why a woman in her 60's would have this happen to her.? When Maggie doesn't seem that upset at a dead woman in her driveway she starts wondering who this woman really is? Maggie's only lived here 2 years. Where did she come from and what did she do before moving here? The Martini Club never tell anyone what their real former jobs were. They all have their go to fake jobs that they used their entire career. When a sniper shows up shooting at Maggie things take a turn. Maggie finds out there was a data breach and bad people have her name in relation to her last case. This is not good.

I absolutely loved Maggie and the other members of the Martini Club. I was hoping that there might be another book with these characters and I found out there will be! You will be sucked in the minute you start reading this book and it will be very hard to put it down! I rate The Spy Coast 5 stars with my highest recommendation. The book is available now, so what are you waiting for? I'd like to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advanced copy of The Spy Coast in exchange for a fair review. #TheSpyCoast

Readers who enjoy spy novels will love this new series. Tucked away in small town Maine, no one would ever think it might be the perfect place for retired spies. The retirees are quite resourceful as they set to help Maggie find our who is trying to kill her. I felt sorry to Police Chief Jo Thibodeau who was always late in the game and knew things were not what they seemed. Looking forward to the next in the series. Highly recommended!

This took me a little bit to get into but I ended up really liking it. The character development was great and you really feel connected to each character and their story. Some of the situations with the secret mission were a little bit hard to understand but I got the overall picture. Looking forward to the next Martini Club!

Since the subtitle says this is book 1 of the Martini Club, I assume there will be more to come.
This book had a great plot and was told in the typical fabulous Tess Gerrtisen style: attention to details, many diverse characters, and subplots galore.
It was a bit wordy at times, though, and I felt myself wanting to skip over all the exposition and explaining, but I didn't.
The major plot revolves around a former CIA operative named Maggie and the other CIA retirees in the tiny town of Purity Maine. Apparently, Maine is a great place to be a retired spy.
A case from 16 years ago comes back to haunt Maggie and before she knows it a dead body is found in her driveway and she's the victim of an assassination.
I figured out the whodunnit part of this long before the end of the book, but the resolution was still excellent.
Thanks to NetGalley for a sneak peek.
4 stars from me.

After finishing the entire Rizzoli and Isles series (so far) I started on a couple of stand alone novels by Tess Gerritsen and apart from apart from "in their footsteps", which was really too much cloak and dagger for me, I loved them all.
So I was very pleased when I noticed a new book on Netgalley and immediately asked for a review copy.
With the spy coast Gerritsen is is embarking on a new genre, a spy thriller and I am really impressed by her first attempt.

Maggie Bird has finally settled in the small community of Prurity on the coast of main when a woman turns up at her door, asking her to return to active service (with the CIA) and help find Diana, a woman she has done a mission with in the past. She refuses, and later on the woman (Bianca) turns up dead on her driveway. Maggie, who has been in hiding for sixteen years is freaked by the fact that she is now in the spotlights. When there is an attempt on her life she starts looking for answers together with her former spy colleagues who have all settled in the same small town. Slowly we discover Maggies life, why she retired and what the current developments are about. I found the ending surprising though if you think about it, it's the most logical explanation.

When I started reading at first I didn't have a clue which direction the story was going and I must say this is one of the features that makes this such an interesting book. At first you "meet" a couple of people, starting with Diana and than in the next chapters Maggie. As it turns out Maggie is the real protagonist of this book. What I found interesting is that there are a couple of story lines, in the present as wel in the past, that slowly come together and only when you are about half way in the book it becomes clear how the multiple story lines fit together.
I also found Maggies friends very interesting and I hope to see more of them, including the young police inspector Jo Thibodeau, in the next episodes because I understand this is going to be a new series .
Looking forward to the next book.
As an encouragement I'll give this one 5 stars.

Espionage, mystery, and action make this a fun thrill ride!

Maggie Bird, former CIA operative, has retired to the seaside Maine village of Purity. Along with some old colleagues from her past who've also made the small town their home, she's living there quietly on her farm, raising chickens and getting together occasionally for martinis and gossip. Still haunted from her last mission, Maggie hopes that she will finally settle in anonymity -- until the body is dumped in her driveway.

This was such an enjoyable read as the ex-spooks come out of retirement, dusting off their old skills, to find out who is trying to kill Maggie. I loved the way the author shifted the narrative from past to present, slowly revealing the details of Maggie's final assignment. Maggie's travels take her on a trip through her past via Bangkok, Malta, Istanbul, and London. As she confronts the tragedy that ended her career, danger is at every turn, but she has her friends who aren't quite ready for rocking chairs yet. Very fast-paced and I could not put it down.

Thank you to the publisher for an e-book ARC of this novel that I eventually purchased and highly recommend. I think this is the first in a proposed new series and I eagerly await the next installment.

A group of retired spies are living the quiet life until their old life comes back to haunt them. I have not read this author for a while but thoroughly enjoyed this adventure. It kept me interested all the way through and I am looking forward to the next in this new series!

Former CIA spy Maggie Bird settled in the village of Purity, Maine, after 4 other former colleagues had already moved there. The Martini Club is born after events start to happen and the chase is on to discover who's behind
them.
Great character development and a twisting plot with mystery/intrigue. Really enjoyed the book, which reminded me of an old book by David Baldacci; The Camel Club.
Thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for the ARC.

Maggie Bird feels like she has finally left her past as a CIA agent behind when she retires to the quiet, small town of Purity, Maine. Some of her former CIA colleagues have already moved there and encouraged her to join them. She raises chickens and lives next door to a retired professor and his precocious granddaughter.
All the peace and quiet evaporate when a young woman comes to her house to ask Maggie's help in finding Diana, an agent Maggie hasn't seen in sixteen years. Maggie doesn't want to help because she believes Diana is responsible for so many bad things that happened then and caused Maggie to be on the run for many years. She thinks that Bianca, the young woman, will be on her way. Unfortunately, Maggie's neighbor calls her when she is at her friends' monthly book club dinner and tells her there are police at her house. Maggie arrives home to find Bianca dead in her driveway in what appears to be an execution style murder. The young, acting sheriff, Jo Thibodeau, has plenty of questions for Maggie and her friends. Of course, they are cagey and not very forthcoming.
I loved the suspense, the twists and even the poignancy of this novel. It's a change of pace for author Tess Gerritsen. I think it's one of her best and look forward to the next novel since THE SPY COAST is the first in The Martini Club series.
All the characters were fully fleshed out. It was interesting that the author brought that about as the story moved back and forth in time. This was delineated and easy to follow. I enjoyed most of the characters except those who were obvious villains or came to be ones. Besides Maggie, my favorite character was Jo. She's young, but smarter than she's given credit for. The guy from the state got on my last nerve, as I'm sure was intended.
Thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer and its staff for giving me the chance to read and review this fabulous book.

Tess Gerritsen's new series about a group of retired spies whose past comes back to haunt them started off a bit rocky for me, but overall I enjoyed it and look forward to the gang's next adventure.

There are multiple POVs, the main charakter's being told in present first tense (which for me took some getting used to), the others (in my opinion a bit redundant sometimes) in 3rd person past tense. That sometimes felt a bit off to me, but at some point it felt like she had found her footing and then the story flowed a bit better. There's a fair bit of exposition, but after a while I got into the story and really enjoyed it.

Perfect for Richard Osman readers looking for a new group of meddling retirees.

First, I want to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read an arc in exchange for my honest review.

Maggie, a retired CIA spy, becomes the center of an investigation when a woman shows up dead on her property. Maggie’s friends (who are also retired CIA operatives and an adorable group of personalities) come together to form “The Martini Club” to help Maggie get some answers and solve the case.
Overall, this was such a fun and fast-paced read once I was 70-90 pages in! I loved the the alternating timelines which kept my interest throughout my read. The ending was set up perfectly for a series/sequel, I’m excited to read the next one in the series!
3.75 ⭐️

WOW! I loved this book. A high-tension thriller with a character I instantly was fascinated by and fell in love with. Maggie is a retired CIA agent who's escaped to a lovely small town in Maine, but her past is catching up with her. It's told in dual timeline, which was awesome (loved seeing her in her 60s but also when she was in her 30s). I adored the interwoven love story. I also love that so many questions were raised but we have to wait for book 2 to get the answers! It's been a long time since I've fallen in love with a new series, but this is it!

More than just (just!) a page-turner, The Spy Coast checked all the boxes that I care about: strong female characters, swift action, clever plot, smart commentary on life beyond the millennium. And witty understanding of the value of our, um, elders. Can't wait for Maggie's next adventure--with the entire group.

What a complete and utter surprise!
First, let me thank NetGalley for this ARC.
Sometimes when you pick up a book, you have an idea or preconception of what you may read. Good or bad. How incredibly disappointing to find that I had a very biased idea of what Tess Gerritsen’s prose would look like to me. I really expected something so easy to read it would be superficial, I would glide through it without much thought, something to smooth me over to the next “real” read. Was it due to the ease of the television series “Rizzoli and Isles”, something that basic? I’m not sure. Here is what I can tell you.
I read an interview with this author for this book and new series, and it intrigued me. Retired spies, all settled in their retired ways in sleepy Maine towns, which she confirms is actually real. I thought I would give it a go.
The story starts with the mundane of the retired, habitual patterns of behavior to everyday tasks. An interesting group, but again, skills not needed, not known, just retired. Invisible. Or so they thought. A mission from over a decade ago suddenly comes front and center to the woman known as Maggie Bird, with a body thrown into her yard, and soon an attempt on her life follows. Some of their past lives they can share, but as former spies, they know less is more, especially for friends and former colleagues. Despite her insistence to the contrary, her friends help her.
Tgebook then takes you back and forth to prior lives and the present, trying to determine who or what may be initiating the body toll.
I found her writing to expressive, round and forthright, so that I could actually see and appreciate the lives these people now have. I actually found the mission story less intriguing. Is it because of the challenges faced as we age, and the description of them so compelling? I’m not sure, but I can say that I truly enjoyed this book, really looking forward to this series, in hopes that it continues to be true to the characters as they live their “retired” lives.
I would recommend this book!!!