Fans of irrepressible, effective assassins Billie, Mary Alice, Natalie and Helen, rejoice! Deanna Raybourn’s elite hit squad—introduced in 2022’s bestselling Killers of a Certain Age—are back to business in Kills Well With Others.
Since the events of Killers of a Certain Age, the women have been enjoying a hiatus from their 40-plus-year careers at the Museum (an elite and secret assassin organization), spending time with loved ones and engaging in hobbies and other non-assassin-y activities. But unsurprisingly, they’re getting antsy too: Going from globe-trotting to staying put hasn’t been an easy adjustment. So all four women are raring to go when Museum director Naomi contacts them with an off-the-books job. Not only is there a mole in the Museum, but the group’s names are on a revenge list created by the relative of a target they dispatched decades ago. Highly dangerous? Yes. And highly desirable? As Billie muses, “It had been two years since I’d been on a job, and . . . I realized there was nowhere else I’d rather be.”
The foursome once again take excellent advantage of the veritable invisibility conferred on women of a certain age. They employ elaborate costumes, detailed schemes, carefully selected weapons, masterful travel planning and top-notch fighting skills to home in on their prey. (The cheekily named “Menopaws” app, a secret messaging system disguised as a cat-themed menopause symptom tracker, also makes a reappearance.) After all, “good training never dies”—and ideally, neither will they.
There are missteps and clashes along the way, which are described in often gruesome detail even as the women’s inner lives are explored with frankness and empathy. For example, how can they reconcile their own happy personal lives with their pride in causing the death of someone else’s partner or family? Thanks to lines like “The world needs us . . . to remove what stands between decent people and chaos. We are necessary monsters” and suspenseful scenarios on land and sea, past and present, Raybourn will keep readers’ minds working and hearts pounding as they root for the fabulous, fearsome foursome to prevail yet again.
