Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

This review was delayed in posting, because it really is a great end of year/start of year book. The action in the book takes place between Christmas and mid-January. The author writes the Veronica Speedwell series, and this book was read solely based on how great that series is. While nothing like Veronica Speedwell, this book is amazing! It is funny, witty, emotional, and just outstanding. There are not enough adjectives that could describe how great this book is (and kind of sad this is not a series, because this 4 ladies have stories). Billie is the narrator, and leader of the 4, Mary Alice is dealing with marriage issues and the expert with poising, Helen is grieving the loss of her husband of 30 years and the expert marksman of the group, Natalie rounds out the quartet. Having spent 40 years as assassins for “The Museum” they are given a retirement gift which turns out to be their kill order. The 4 ladies would rather live so they take matters into their own hands and thwart the first attempt on their lives – yes first. The the four ladies that started as a special group, under the Shepherdess use all the skills they have finely honed over the last 40 years to plot their way out of the kill order (and maybe plot a few terminations of their own along the way). With the help of Akiko, Mary Alice’s wife, and Minka, someone Billie treats kind of like a daughter, the four assassins find out who was making up stories about them, who gave the kill order and why, then come up with a plan on how to handle it.  No Character list this time, because really all you need to know is that these four ladies handle it all and make you smile for most of the book.