Happy Monday! After a quick trip to Ohio for the funeral of my brother-in-love Mark, I’m back home and back to work. And it’s Book Review Monday! here at my window.

Continuing with my Grand’s desire to read books that cross cultures and ethnicities, and step into the margins of society, last month’s book targeted a sect I’m familiar with–senior citizens!

In Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn, think Charlie’s Angels grow up and become the Golden Girls (with all the feistiness and sass), and are still working, though they’d hoped to retire. In fact, it’s on their retirement cruise that Billie, Natalie, Mary Alice, and Helen are called back into service as highly trained assassins. Unfortunately, they don’t know who their mark is, or why. because they are the targets of an assassination attempt.

The four were an elite assassination team working together to take down drug lords, Nazis who thought they’d gotten away, and any others the Museum–a network of assassins–deemed worthy of a clandestine visit from one of the field agents. For over forty years they lived double lives that allowed them to change identities, appearances, and locations at a moment’s notice. Each one had their own unique talents–sniper, herbs and poisons, attention to detail and planning, body-to-body combat, etc. that made them a lethal team. Now in their sixties they’re ready to call it quits but then a ship steward–who wasn’t really a ship steward–showed up.

After surviving the original attempt on their lives and recognizing the would-be assassin as one of their fellow field agents, they have an idea who’s behind the attempt but no idea why. Only the Board of the Museum can order a hit on one of their own. Just getting off the ship, knowing the Museum is aware of their movements, plunges them immediately into what comes naturally–stealth, ingenuity, and ultimately the hit.

The four women had always used old-school techniques, not high-tech methods, and that’s what got them into trouble, sort of … and eventually could save them. Billie is the leader with the cool head and steely inner strength; Natalie is a looser cannon so also the risk-taker and counterbalance to Billie; Mary Alice likes to think outside the box and rein ideas in; and Helen is the homebody no one suspects can hit a mark with such precision from so far away.

There’s a bit of salty language peppered throughout the book, but it only serves to make the team more real, relatable, and actually funny. Killers of a Certain Age is not a dark thriller suspense novel, but one with humor, twists, and a lightness and touches of tenderness that make the novel a quick read. The methods the women use to track down the Board and do away with them–yes, there’s more than one assassination–are unusual, in some cases delightful, and always effective. There are enough surprises throughout to keep the reader questioning what will happen next and the ending packs a good one.

K and I usually read about 100 pages at a time for our weekly Nana Book Club, but we started midweek with this one so had only read the first 50 pages or so the first time we zoomed. I was a bit concerned about her reaction because the salty language happens right away. But her opening comment was, ‘I love these women! They sound like they’d be a lot of fun to hang out with!’ Maybe that’s why she and I get along so well, she doesn’t mind hanging out with a woman of a certain age.

Killers of a Certain Age was Raybourn’s debut novel, coming out in 2022. Her second, Kills Well with Others was released earlier this year in February. K and I are reading it next.

As difficult as funerals can be, I often find them celebratory as well and Mark’s was. Like weddings, family members come together who haven’t seen each other in years so there’s the joy of reconnecting. There are babies that weren’t at the last funeral or wedding to remind us how precious life is. There are moments of serendipity–the funeral and release took place on what would’ve been Mark’s mother’s 101^st birthday. There are moments of humor that everyone will remember, like the misspelling of the presiding priest’s last name … who is Mark’s oldest brother, so the name was the same. Mark’s oldest and his youngest brother brought us to tears and laughter as they reminded us of the person Mark was.

One of his many talents was as an avid photographer, mostly of nature, capturing stunning skies, birds, flowers … He’d had hundreds of prints made and laminated and as we left the sanctuary his photos were scattered all throughout the gathering space. It felt like we were walking through his world, seeing the beauty he saw. The photographs were gifts from the family to everyone present–literally. We were encouraged to take home as many as we wanted.

I hope to keep alive in my heart the generous spirit Mark lived, and his wife Annie, and their children have in theirs. I hope you encounter generosity this week–either in the giving or the receiving, but I hope both. I hope to see you again Monday back at my window.