Kills Well with Others

December 1, 2024

Bestselling Raybourn, known for the "Veronica Speedwell" and "Lady Julia Grey" series, offers a follow-up to Killers of a Certain Age. After an extended period of laying low, retired assassins Billie, Helen, Mary Alice, and Natalie are back in action--and are also on the hit list. Prepub Alert.

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February 1, 2025
The Golden Girls of murder are back--bickering Natalie and Mary Alice, classy Helen, and, of course, ruthless Billie. After the events of Killers of a Certain Age (2022), these sexagenarian assassins are eager to retire yet are thwarted when a colleague dies, an obsidian carving of a wolf clutched in her fist. The symbol harks back to their first job, suggesting that someone is pursuing overdue revenge. Never ones to shy away from danger, they face this threat, and their off-the-books mission takes them to an ocean liner, Italy, Switzerland, and more. As they use wigs and face tape to age themselves down or drawn-on wrinkles and incontinence pants to age themselves up, they gather evidence and hatch plans. In between the action scenes, they also snipe at each other in a way only lifelong friends can while also admitting their fears, such as pursuing relationships as a widow or the looming guilt of a mission gone wrong. Fans of the first book will be eager to return to this gang of kick-butt ladies.

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March 1, 2025
Four talented assassins combine their skills in order to survive what they'd expected to be a peaceful retirement. Billie, Mary Alice, Natalie, and Helen--60-something women who long worked for the clandestine organization known as the Museum--are already underappreciated because of ageism. After having spent years working alone and together, they're supposed to be retired. When they receive postcards summoning them to Williamsburg, Virginia, they hope it has something to do with their pensions, which were canceled when the Museum decided to kill them--a plan that luckily failed inKillers of a Certain Age (2022). Emerging from their accommodations, which are far from high-end, to meet their former boss, Naomi, they learn that another retired member of the Museum has just been murdered. A black wolf carving found in her hand suggests that the motive may be connected to a 40-year-old case. The four are assigned an off-the-books job killing Pasha Lazarov, the son of one of their earlier targets, before he kills them. Pasha is traveling to England aboard theQueen Mary 2. Not until after they come up with a clever plan to knock him off do they learn that it's his sister, Galina, long thought dead, who's actually pursuing them. Delighted to be back at their old job despite their bickering and squabbling, they relive past cases as they travel to several unsavory European and Egyptian spots in search of Pasha's murderous sister and end up involved in an art theft case that dates back to the Third Reich. A nonstop-action thriller that's often disconcertingly funny in posing moral questions about the murder of horrible people.

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