It was delightful reading about the antics of women in their sixties who are very much still energetic and smart… and, as it turns out, haven’t lost their skillsets as assassins!
When they attempt to retire from their lucrative—if murderous—jobs, they find the agency for which they worked is only willing to let them go… if they’re dead. Don’t anger women of a certain age, especially if they’ve spent the last four decades killing people on your behalf, as the invisibility that happens to all women beyond a certain age may well prove to be their most valuable weapon.
It’s a quick read, but that doesn’t mean you won’t love the adventures as much as these four delightful and very funny people. Absolutely top-notch.
Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that's their secret weapon.
Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. But now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates their real-world resourcefulness in an age of technology.
When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses-paid trip to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realise they've been marked for death.
This is a very different take on a police procedural, with more character development than usual and a real sense of place—one of the things that’s important to me as both a reader and a writer.
The plot is complex and engaging (I didn’t figure out the solution) and I found myself thinking of it even when I wasn’t actually reading the book. The descriptions are crystal-clear—you’ll feel that you are in the area yourself—and the author’s scattering of Scottish slang throughout contributes to a deeper sense of locale.
First in a series (the others so far haven’t disappointed either).
DI Shona Oliver agreed to move to Dumfries with her ex-banker husband when their teenage daughter got in with a bad crowd in London. As a Glasgow native, she's back on home turf.
Living on the shores of the Solway Firth allows Shona to continue as an RNLI volunteer, and a call out to recover a woman's body indicates foul play. Police in Cumbria take the case but links back to Scotland keep Shona's team involved. As they investigate, reports of people trafficking and a spate of thefts from local shops compete for attention…
Based on the real-life story of Melita Norwood—a woman who in her eighties was unmasked as the KGB's longest-serving British spy—this novel really has it all: it’s a mystery, historical fiction, and a spy thriller.
It takes on complex and difficult questions around living out one’s values and the unintended consequences of doing so, and challenges a lot of the assumptions we tend to make about other people’s motives. Or even our own.
'If you loved William Boyd's Restless, you'll enjoy this' Viv Groskop, Red
Cambridge University in 1937 is awash with ideas and idealists - to unworldly Joan it is dazzling.
After a chance meeting with Russian-born Sonya and Leo, Joan is swept up in the glamour and energy of the duo, and finds herself growing closer and closer to them both.
But allegiance is a slippery thing. Out of university and working in a government ministry with access to top-secret information, Joan finds her loyalty tested as she is faced with the most difficult question of all: what price would you…
Number eight in the Sydney Riley Provincetown mystery series, Dead in the Water starts with Sydney's parents, ensconced at the Race Point Inn, expecting her to play tour guide. Wealthy adventurer Guy Husband has reappeared, seeking help regaining the affections of her best friend, Mirela. And the body of a kidnapped businessman has washed up under MacMillan Wharf.
Sydney is literally at sea (not her favorite place), juggling friends and family to indulge her supersized curiosity. Is the murder the work of a regional gang led by the infamous "Codfather" or the result of a feud within an influential Provincetown family? What's Guy Husband's connection? And why does Sydney's boyfriend Ali suddenly insist on visiting—especially while her mother is in town?
