2023/042: Killers of a Certain Age — Deanna Raybourn

That’s the thing about being a sixty-year-old woman -- no one notices you unless you want them to. [p. 55]

In 1979, four teenage girls are recruited by a small extra-governmental organisation known as the Museum. They become an elite squad of assassins, hunting Nazis and -- when the Nazis run out -- drug dealers, cult leaders, sex traffickers and the like. Fast-forward to late 2018, and the four (Billie, Helen, Mary Alice and Natalie) are being treated to a luxury cruise to celebrate their retirement. Except it's a ruse: the assassins are now targets, and they have to evade and outwit the Museum and find out what's made them suddenly expendable.

It's so nice to read about authentic older women! Billie has to do some serious yoga stretches after, er, garrotting an attacker. (The garrotte she used was a rather nice amber necklace belonging to Helen: "It was made for the Helsinki job, and I liked how it looked with this dress, so I kept it...Piano wire. I used it on the head of the Finnish national bank.") Helen herself is coping badly with the death of her husband; Natalie is a cancer survivor; Mary Alice has managed to keep her wife Akiko in the dark about her career. And all are aware that, as older women, they're effectively invisible. Shout-out, too, to the delightful Minka, a Ukrainian app developer who provides the four with a foolproof method of communication -- an app called Menopaws, complete with an animated kitten and, crucially, direct messaging. (“Why a menopause app?” “Because security people are men.”) There is female friendship in all its sometimes prickly, sometimes bawdy glory. And I applaud the inclusion of a painting by Renaissance artist Sofonisba Anguissola as a plot point.

It's also, I think, worth noting that despite their rather unpleasant profession, the four women don't really seem to have any regrets. They felt they were doing the right thing and, at least in Billie's case, living the lives they wanted. And (perhaps because of the lack of regrets?) there are second chances. Great fun, violent without (much) nastiness, would make a great film.