Killers of a Certain Age (#1) by Deanna Raybourn

Amy    

thriller, women’s fiction

Killers of a Certain Age follows four retired assassins who find out that they are now the targets of their former employer for whom they worked together for forty years. They must now employ all the skills they acquired during their storied careers in an effort to save themselves.

This novel was especially enjoyable for me because I, myself, am of a certain age. Readers often admire stories about people close to their own age and I am no different…especially when the characters are smart, brave, and strong beyond expectations.

I’ve enjoyed many of the books in Deanna Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell series and was excited to try something different from her. The main commonality between this novel and the Speedwell series is vigilante justice. That is, Raybourn’s characters don’t hesitate to take measures that would/should normally be taken by the authorities. They find themselves in the position of performing investigations and assassinations without regrets. Their orders do not come from the official authorities yet these characters mete out justice as they deem appropriate. In real life, the idea bothers me. But in escape novels, and when the characters do seem to be “in the right”, it’s exciting and fun. I cheered for them at every turn.

I do feel that Raybourn sometimes gave too many details that were not pertinent to the story which slowed down the pacing. But other than those sections, I loved “watching” their story unfold and was hooked.

There were two audiobook narrators—Christina Delaine voiced the women’s early story when they were new recruits. Jane Oppenheimer voiced retired Billie’s first-person point of view. Personally, I didn’t like the choice to use two narrators for this novel. While both narrators are fabulous with large vocal repertoires and perfect voice-acting, having the two essentially performing as the same character caused me to compare them. To me, Delaine outshined Oppenheimer because Delaine’s voice is grittier, tougher, and more no-nonsense than Oppenheimer and seemed more appropriate as Billie’s voice. In contrast, Oppenheimer has a sweet, smooth voice which often risked putting me to sleep during those slow sections I mentioned. I think I would have been fine with either of them narrating this novel. It’s just the two in a side by side comparison that didn’t seem right. Therefore, I have to give the narration of this novel a B+ which isn’t really either of the narrators’ fault. I’ll just hope that future Killers novels (and I was sure it was going to be a series even before I just verified that Goodreads calls this novel “#1”) use one narrator. Let it be known.  :)