I listened to the audiobook of this one but I can’t say it really drew me in. I found myself listening but not really focusing on it fully. It wasn’t bad by any means just didn’t suck me in. ( )

I love the concept of this book, and that’s definitely what pulled me in. I’ve spent a lot of time with women above sixty and was looking forward to seeing them pull off some badass maneuvers in self-defense. I can’t say I didn't get that, and overall I found this book very readable, but I did have some issues with it that hold me back.

The characters mostly felt flat to me. I kept waiting for depth, but by the end of the book each of our squad really still fit into their archetype (the widow, the lesbian, the sex nut, and our slightly misanthropic main character). The side characters too! I wanted more, but it never came.

The plot itself was pretty formulaic, which is tricky since this is very much a plot-driven story as opposed to a character-driven one. It just felt to me that things were too convenient – the women hardly had to work to get information about which steps to take next. Often their clues would come from at best circumstance, often other people’s mistakes, and at worst other people’s manipulation. I didn’t find the ending very satisfying, either.

My real biggest problem with this book was its morality: our protagonists have spent the past forty years killing in the shadows for an organization founded on the principle of killing “bad guys”, and this is explicitly how they rationalize the murderers they’ve become. Okay! I get that. I mean, I personally would have my doubts about an extra-governmental agency (funded by who knows who, because clearly everyone’s getting paid well for their services here) being completely autonomous and beyond reproach. And the book flirts with the idea of maybe they’ve been asked to kill people they shouldn’t have – but they don’t deal with that! They are totally willing to view themselves as tools of this machine. And when push comes to shove, they seem perfectly willing to take down grunts and bodyguards – without any examination of whether or not those people are worthy of death. I don’t know. It’s not that I can’t handle a bit of pulpy violence, it just seemed out of tone, and that the work was more invested in keeping our heroines just that instead of working out a more complicated but interesting issue.

I would totally watch if they turned this into a campy miniseries/movie, however! I think that could be really fun. Each mini mission we were introduced to felt like a heist caper, albeit ones that usually ended with a lot of blood, gore, and convenient explosions to cover our assassins’ tracks. I still really like the concept, even if I had some issues with the execution, and I definitely think there’s still room for adventure yet. ( )

This is much less Golden Girls turned assassins and more where are they now Charlie’s Angels. For the record I preferred Charlie’s Angels better.
I liked each of the characters. A few pieces were a little predictable but that’s a mystery novel for you. There are very very few perfectly crafted that don’t foreshadow the ending or drops too many clues that takes all the suspense out of the genre. This one has a nice balance most likely due to the characters crafted. I can see this becoming a movie and enjoyed mentally casting the characters. ( )

Fun book ( )

Reason read: favorable reviews, fit TIOLI challenge August

I decided to read this and while it may not be great literature. I liked it. I found it entertaining. 4 women assassins decide to retire only to find they're the target. Yes there are killings in this book. ( )