The retired assassins from Killers of a Certain Age are back and just as good in this follow up! This is wildly entertaining and the high stakes, whirlwind travel and chase across continents means this is fast paced. The scenes from their past lives connect to their current situation, but are so good on their own as well.

4.0

“Killers of a Certain Age” was hundreds of books ago and even though I don’t remember many of the details, I do remember finding it creative and enjoyable. This second book is also just that. It is also dealing with a threat from within, but this book seems to be a little more gritty and requires some stick-to-itiveness at a certain point (thus some of the deductions), but the ride is wild enough that you’ll hold on tight. You’ll learn facts about parts of Europe you may not know exist and will often forget that these women are of “advanced” years, until their bravery goes a bit beyond their physical abilities. There are a few “overwhelming” or triggering scenes, so you may need to skip over some things if it’s too much.

Thank you to Deanna Raybourn, NetGalley, and Berkeley Publishing Group for providing me with a free advanced copy of this book for my unbiased review.

*Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review and to PRH Audio for the gifted ALC*

These books just bring me so much JOY! We're back with our favorite team of trained killers, this time on a jetsetting adventure across Europe. I love how much the characters grow even though they're constantly on the run or planning the death of a high-profile mark, which is truly a testament to Deanna Raybourn's writing. As always, there are no throwaway details - everything circles back by the end. Jane Oppenheimer's narration was so dynamic and punchy and paired really well with the action of the book.

I really like how this series could go for ages, but each book so far has also been a satisfactory ending. Could there be more though? I certainly hope so.

After being semi-retired for a little over a year, elite assassins Billie, Helen, Mary Alice and Natalie are summoned for another mission. These ladies have been working for the elite agency known as the Museum, not real name, for over forty years. The new mission is actually off the books as there is a mole in their agency and that mole has provided all their information from one of their first missions together to someone who wants them all dead. This person already has killed all the other people involved in that mission and know wants these ladies dead. Can they find the mole, stop the person or persons who want to kill them and all come out alive...and they also want their pensions re-instated!!! Travel with them thru Europe on their mission...

You can see all my reviews here: Books Are The New Black

I had no idea we were getting this book because I thought book one was a standalone. I am beyond excited that Raybourn gave us another book with these women assassins!

I flew through this book so fast. I could not put it down because there was so much action. We pick up about a year after book one. Billie is restless, and so it was perfect timing! I loved seeing where everyone is in life after the events of book one. There is a lot of travel with them being chased and doing the chasing. I didn’t mind it at all because it was so fast-paced. There is so much action that it does keep you on the end of your seat. One of my favorite things about this story was the look into the past. We get some chapters throughout this book that are of a deal from the past. It was nice seeing how these women never really changed their ways. Haha.

Do I think that many 60-something-year-olds could do a lot of the things they do and live? I’m doubtful, but it does not take anything from the story. I would love to think they are out there kicking butt and taking names! It’s so entertaining along the way because the mixture of these four women is such perfection! There’s so much humor and many laugh-out-loud moments. There are several moments of sadness and reflection. Raybourn has added so much depth to these women that it’s hard not to love them.

If you loved the first book then you will love this one too! It’s such a great thriller with a lot of heart too. I don’t know if this is the last book with these women, but I hope not. I have enjoyed their banter, friendships, and found family they have created.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for an e-arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

I couldn’t resist an action/cat and mouse thriller featuring four kick butt assassins in great shape, coming out of retirement with aching joints and sore backs. Their dialogue and bickering is so entertaining as is the engaging plot with them needing to root out a traitor within their own organization, the Museum, before they end up dead. Having not read the first book, the dual timeline in the past was helpful in getting to know Billie, the narrating character better. Fans of strong female leads and fast-paced thrillers will love this one.

I was obsessed with the first book in this series, Killers of a Certain Age, and was so excited to receive an advanced copy of the second book. And it did not disappoint! It’s full of strong, sassy female characters, scenes packed with action and suspense, and sweet moments of sisterly love. There’s also hackers, other assassins, Nazi art thieves, Russian gangsters, professional nannies, two cats, and a chicken!!
I love Raybourn’s writing style, and her character development. The story bounces back and forth between the womens’ jobs in the 80s and 90s and their current job. The storylines are interconnected, and it’s fascinating to experience their teamwork and skills as the group completes each mission. I also really like that the main mission for their organization is tracking down art stolen by Nazis in WWII, which adds a different nuance to the story that most spy thrillers don’t have.
This is the best version of a spy story for me. James Bond is annoying because he just stoically kills bad guys and seduces women. These four women spend the whole job bickering, shopping, commenting, disguising, arguing, and teasing, and it makes me so happy. Their vivid personalities and lifelong friendship comes alive on the page, and I have so much fun spending time with them!
Thanks to Berkley for the free book and Netgalley for the free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

After reading the first book I knew I needed more of these elder assassins. Who would believe these four women, in their 60s, were killers of bad guys. They’ve been together about four decades and succeed as a well oiled team. Just when they think they’ve retired someone or something from a past job surfaces again. They bicker like sisters and fight like warriors. If they were real I’d be in awe of their strength and intelligence. It’s an amazing book with historical facts and art history knowledge. I’m hoping they come back for another job. Thanks to the publisher, through NetGalley, for an advanced copy. I wrote this review voluntarily.

Thank you @berkleypub & @prhaudio for the free finished copy & ALC! ♡⊹

❥ One liner: Spunky team of elderly assassins comes out of retirement to take down bad guys and recover stolen artifacts.

Read Killers of a Certain Age first - this is the sequel. Do you love female assassins? This is how I imagine a Charlie’s Angels reunion looking like, if they got back together today, Golden Girls style.

Somehow these 60-something year old ladies are more spry than I am at 40-something, but they do have the occasional stiff lower back and plenty of attitude to boot.

This is a page turner, fast action scenes, some lovable furry friends, overnight trains through Europe, boat chases in Venice, Bulgarian body guards and enough mystery to keep you guessing.

In my opinion a perfect beach read, for when you need something entertaining, light-hearted, with some humor, where you don’t have to think too hard and you know you’re going to feel good at the end.

·˚ ༘₊·꒰➳: ̗̀➛ Final verdict: An enjoyable followup to Killers of a Certain Age, but read that one first.

What a great continuation to the story of these retired assassins. I love these ladies so much and have so much reading about their various misadventures. I really appreciate how Deanna is able to use two timelines to tell the story and provide bits and pieces about these ladies past and things they did prior to their retirement. I really enjoyed how this book had some call backs to the first book with their first assassination. Also Deanna almost had me with the train scene (if you know you know) but I just could not believe that actually happened and thank goodness it did not. I cannot wait to see where these ladies next story takes them!

This novel was a perfect follow-up to Killers of a Certain Age.

Synopsis:

After more than a year of laying low, Billie, Helen, Mary Alice, and Natalie are called back into action. They have enjoyed their rest, but the lack of excitement is starting to a professional killer can only take so many watercolor classes and yoga sessions before she gets the itch to get back in the game. When they receive a call from Naomi Ndiaye, the head of the elite assassin organization known as the Museum, they are ready tackle the greatest challenge of their careers.

Someone on the inside has compiled a list of important kills committed by Museum agents, all of them connected to a single, shadowy figure, an Eastern European gangster who rules her business empire with an iron fist and plays puppet master in international affairs. Naomi is convinced this criminal queen is bent upon revenge, killing off the agents who attempted to thwart her, and the aging quartet of killers is next.

Together the foursome embark on a wild ride across the globe on the double mission of rooting out the Museum’s mole and hunting down the gangster and her assassin. But their nemesis is unlike any they’ve faced before, and it will take all their experience and a whole lot of luck to get out of this mission alive.

I absolutely love a story with older adults and the hijinks in this novel are off the chart. It is a very fast paced read and the characters are fabulous! It's a cross between Charlie's Angels and The Golden Girls.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkeley for the advanced digital copy of the book for opinion.

I thoroughly enjoyed this latest adventure with (semi) retired assassins Billie, Natalie, Mary Alice, and Helen. Their skills and repartee are still as sharp as ever, even if their 60+ year old knees need a bit of coddling. While on the trail of a small time oligarch who ordered the death of another retired "Museum" employee, the women stumble onto the rapidly warming trail of a case they closed unsatisfactorily back in the 90s. The narrative alternates between first person present-day and third person past exposition, which works well to keep the story moving and the reader well-informed. Deanna Raybourn is at the top of her game here, constructing a mystery that spans decades and continents with characters that are clearly drawn and memorable. An excellent follow-up to Killers of a Certain Age, I look forward to the next installment. Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for the preview.

This is the second in Raybourn’s delicious, breakout series following a group of sixty something lady assassins. They work for an organization called “The Museum” and their mission is to take out those who are doing serious wrong (originally Nazis) and take them out in a way where the deaths can’t be traced and don’t appear to be murder. The first book was a smorgasbord of beautifully executed little death scenes, each one a sharp and precise how-dunnit. It also introduced the main characters, Billie, Natalie, Helen and Mary Alice. In the first novel they were on an enforced “retirement cruise” but when it became clear they were actually the targets, they took action.

The women are now technically retired but they are called back to work by an old colleague who thinks that the child of one of their past kills is now after them as revenge. So, again targets, they get back to work, this time on board the Queen Mary II. Their target is aboard in the swankiest possible suite. The assassination that follows is as clever and entertaining as anything in the first book.

This novel has a few different timelines, as the first one did, but as the origin story of the women is out of the way, this is a more focused novel. The book does take some trips back in time and those subplots eventually tie into the main story. While this can be a tedious story telling method, in Raybourn’s expert hands, it’s absolutely delightful and serves to illuminate rather than slow the action.

When their first kill is complete they return to Helen’s home in the UK only to find it in the process of burning to the ground. It becomes clear that their target has company and the resulting going to ground and figuring out who is after them is a beautiful chase sequence. As the women undergo extreme travel and a series of attempts on their lives, I was thinking to myself of Mrs. Pollifax, a hardy late in life adventurer who undergoes some traumas, extreme travel and many adventures through her work as an unlikely CIA agent.

While this book centers on four women, not one woman, the books have a similar feel and spirit to the Mrs. Pollifax books, though Raybourn’s are updated and a lot more lethal. This book takes the women back in time and takes a closer look at the organization they have worked for. The slow fleshing out of their various personal lives is also well done, with Billie being front and center here.

Pro reader tip: I would not miss one scene where the women don their disguises – often travel pants from Chico’s. Raybourn has a funny pen but also an affectionate one. This book is as relentlessly entertaining and as appealing and well told as the first book, and I hope there will be more of them. I already miss these well-meaning assassins. Long may Raybourn wield her witty and inventive voice.

This was definitely a fun cozy mystery! I did feel like there was lots going on, and a lot of characters that I was trying to keep track of, but overall, it was a fun follow up!

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley, and Ms. Raybourn for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title. An honest review was requested but not required.

March has truly come in like a lion, with 3 4-star books in a row. Kills Well With Others started off a little slowly but by 15% was back in business, repeating the blistering pace and cracking humor of Killers of a Certain Age. Mary Alice, Helen, Natalie and Billie are BACK and after a brief hiatus following book #1 have started a new assignment. Interspersed with the current-day narrative are flashbacks to past jobs, which seem completely unrelated but eventually circle back to the present day. It is truly impressive the way these four women work together, even when they have personal differences or an off day or whatever. I really enjoyed Minka, too, who is a great foil to the old-school boss ladies. The only drawback for me was Taverner and Billie's relationship with him. I understood the issue, but it was difficult to watch.

Anyways. The gang is after a Bulgarian oligarch-wannabe until it turns out that perhaps he wasn't the true target after all; his supposedly dead sister was the real brains behind the operation and she is out to take down the ladies. There were plenty of funny parts - Billie quoting the Pink Ladies (tell me more, tell me more, like does he have a car?) when Helen shares about her new gentleman friend, Billie's entire interaction with the creepy, perverted Swiss geezer while visiting Evgenia, Natalie's live chicken (Nula!) on the train to Podgorica, and more. This book definitely influenced me to add several destinations to my list of places to see. I wonder if Ms. Raybourn has visited all these locations? Anyways. This book was a DELIGHT and an absolute wild ride; it would make a fantastic movie. Definitely looking forward to another outing with the ladies, hopefully sooner than later!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Kills Well With Others is the follow-up novel to Killers of a Certain Age, in which we meet Billie, Natalie, Mary Alice, and Helen, four soon-to-be-retired assassins. I thoroughly enjoyed Killers of a Certain Age, which was a blend of mystery and action and intrigue, with humor generously sprinkled throughout, and while I didn’t know if we’d get another book about these lady killers, I certainly hoped we would. I’m so happy to say that the sequel did not disappoint.

Kills Well With Others opens about a year after the events of the first book, with our four heroines being gathered by a cryptic summons. They soon learn that someone is targeting members of their organization, and as luck would have it, they’re on that same hit list. So our four favorite ladies leave retirement for another mission, this time trailing a Bulgarian mob man embarking on a cruise liner. What fun!

There’s so much I enjoy about these books, but by far my favorite is how effectively these women use societal expectations of them to their advantage. They often remark on how invisible women of a certain age are in society, and they use this to go where they need and do what needs doing. If they get caught? Blame it on the infirmities of the mind that sometimes accompanies age. It’s brilliant. I silently cheer every time one of the ladies faces off against a male opponent who has already discounted her because she’s a woman in her sixties. Is he bigger than her? Yes. But she has the element of surprise and a talent for combat that he and his chemically enhanced biceps just can’t beat. It’s immensely satisfying.

I also greatly appreciate the mix of humor and sincerity in the book. Retirement is a difficult adjustment for many, but for these women, who led lives of action and secrecy and self-reliance, it’s a daunting task. How does one let one’s guard down after years of needing to always be on alert? I loved that much of that solution comes from within this small girl gang. Billie, Natalie, Mary Alice, and Helen trained together, carried out missions together, and relied on one another with their lives; it feels natural that they would help one another navigate this next step too. And of course they’ll do it with their characteristic bickering and teasing – isn’t that what sisters do?

This was such a satisfying sequel, giving us more of what we loved from the first novel but bringing in excellent new elements to keep it fresh and enjoyable. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read and one that I definitely recommend.

🎉🎉Happy Publication Day!🎉🎉

The ladies have been laying low for a year awaiting the pensions they were promised. When they are summoned by Naomi to uncover the identity of a mole who has put many agents including this awesome foursome in the crosshairs of a crime lord with revenge on her mind.

I found this installment stronger than the last one. There's some character growth which I love because so often older characters are written set in their ways. I liked seeing a few of the ladies rolling with the inevitable changes life brings. Don't assume this is a cozy based on the fact that these killers have a few extra years on them or the cute cover. There is blood and gore galore on this globe-trotting outing. The story is told in the same format as the first with flashbacks to earlier in the timeline. It helps give a more complete picture as the current mission has ties to the past. The action unfolds fast, and the plot moves at a clip with few lulls.

I read the first and second novels back-to-back and it felt like one big action-packed adventure.


A big shoutout to Berkley for sending me an ARC of this to review via NetGalley. These are my unbiased opinions.

Five huge stars for the sequel I had no idea was coming! This was one of my most-anticipated reads of the year, and it didn’t disappoint!

I picked up “Killers of a Certain Age” as a Book of the Month selection in 2022. It wasn’t on my radar, but I was intrigued by the premise of women assassins who were about to retire. It is so rare to see older women in this context. I absolutely loved that book. It was wonderful!

Last year, I was stunned to find out that Billie, Natalie, Helen, and Mary Alice were returning. It immediately went to the top of my TBR list for 2025. This one truly exceeded my expectations.

Let’s just say for this one, the ladies are called back to tie up some loose ends. I never like to give the plot away, but this author weaves a tale that is easy to follow, but realistic enough that it plays like a movie in your head. I loved seeing them in their early days too. All of the side characters from the first one are back, and I loved the flashbacks throughout the story. It all comes together in the end, and this one was a wild ride that didn’t disappoint!

Deanna Raybourn’s attention to detail, storytelling, and character development is unparalleled. These ladies have extensive backgrounds that you really get to know over both books. Also, quite frankly, these women are true badasses.

The ending is fantastic - and very fitting - too!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the opportunity to read this one. It is out now, and I highly recommend it!

Thank you @PRHAudio for the complimentary audiobook and to Netgalley, Berkley Publishing, and the author for the ARC.

“Sometimes pain just gets in the way of what you have to do. So you put it down until you can stand to carry it again.”

After more than a year of laying low, our killers of a certain age are back in action! They have enjoyed their time off, but the lack of excitement is starting to get to them. When they receive a call from the head of their former employer, elite assassin organization the Museum, they are more than ready to tackle the greatest challenge of their careers.

While not quite up to the amazingness that was Killers Of A Certain Age, I was so happy to be back with these bad ass ladies! I read the first book in September of 2022 and still vividly remember the plot..if that tells you anything. So to follow along with them again on another adventure was so enjoyable! Plus I love a story focused on aging women that still shows them to be tough, whip smart, and lethal despite stroke like symptoms, joint pain, and greying hair. Such a good read!

The audiobook, with two narrators, is so so good! The accents…the, ahem, 𝘢𝘨𝘦 of the characters…it is all captured perfectly. Ahhhh just fantastic!

This one was so dang good that I stayed up all night reading, and it’s been a while since a book hooked me like that. I loved Killers of a Certain Age and this follow up hit just the right spot.

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen & Natalie have such a fun dynamic and the flashbacks between past and present and the way that previous cases of theirs intertwined with the one bringing them out of retirement again was just *chefs kiss*.

The way they assumed different identities and cover stories seamlessly working together and alone to tackle their assignments just fascinated me. I could read a dozen more stories about them without getting bored.

Thank you so much to Berkley Publishing Group, Netgalley & Deanna Raybourn for the chance to read this one early in exchange for an honest review.