"I was playing at being retired because the truth is, I would be a killer until the day I died."

Our four favorite female assassins-of-a-certain-age are back! This time, the stakes and suspense are even higher, as they find themselves and the ones they care about the targets of a dangerous, unknown assassin in Kills Well with Others, Deanna Raybourn's sequel to her propulsive thriller Killers of a Certain Age.

In this follow-up, Raybourn delves more deeply into the history of the protagonists and their world. Recruited in the 1970s by the Museum, a secret organization that trains assassins, Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie became members of the agency's first all-female squad, Project Sphinx. Over the decades, the deadly team eliminated drug lords, arms smugglers, and human traffickers. As one Museum operative put it, they are the "necessary monsters" needed to "remove what stands between good and decent people and chaos." The Museum, with a mission to track down Nazis who had escaped justice, has a strict code by which they operate. That doesn't mean, however, that the women can't have a little fun while taking out the trash! 

This new installment can easily be read as a stand-alone novel, while fans of the first book will enjoy learning character backstories through flashbacks from the '60s to the '80s. These provide useful context and set the scene for the current events, with alliances and motives that have been percolating for years. Past missions and assassinations are revisited in great and gory detail but, like the first book, the banter, snark, and comedy keep things light. "Do you travel with a torture kit?" Mary Alice asked pleasantly. "No, but it would be easy enough to put one together.... The kitchen is full of useful tools."

As the story begins, it's a few years after the events of the first book, and the Sphinxes have been greatly enjoying retired life, when they are summoned by the new head of the Museum. A mole within the organization is leaking the names of operatives. Agents have already been killed and the four protagonists are on the list of targets. 

The women are as razor-sharp and deadly as ever but, realistically, need to pay more attention to their knees, backs, and other increasingly occurring aches and pains. It's rather inspiring to see how much can be achieved with some clever strategizing and dubious cocktails of potent painkillers which, together, create action scenes that are as cinematic, nail-biting, and most definitely as lethal as when the operatives were younger.

Danger and intrigue follow them around the world and Raybourn has a knack for setting the scene perfectly. Her descriptions of the many places they visit on their mission are sparkling and vivid, like an enchanting Venetian terrace garden "bordered by high brick walls, thick with creeping vines twined with tiny lights and wide planter boxes full of mandevilla."

Adding to the glamour of this jet-setting lifestyle are delectable descriptions of good food, wine, and high fashion. Billie and friends find creative ways to incorporate Hermès bags, Chanel No. 5, and Le Labo perfumes in their missions. They elaborate on what determines a good disguise, including makeup choices, hair color, and whether their suitcases are full of Ralph Lauren or knitwear from St. John. It also helps that one of their traveling companions--a retired assassin himself (and Billie's lover)--is an excellent cook, "whipping up a pitch-black squid ink risotto" and knowing how to use food as an effective interrogation tool. 

The women are joined in this perplexing game of cat and mouse by a charming cast, and some literal cats. Raybourn dreams up fun, renegade characters--romantic partners, other Museum agents, civilians, and villains are fully fleshed out, with agency, motivation, and notable personalities. A few standouts are the dour matriarch of a crime family with a penchant for gourmet pastries, an earnest and hapless opera singer, and the clever young Ukrainian hacker who inventively butchers English idioms while setting the assassins up with all the latest spyware, gadgetry, and passports. "She'd saved our asses during our last mission, her biggest contribution being the creation of an app called Menopaws. She had populated it with animated cats and features for tracking days since our last periods and hot flashes. At least that's what it looked like. In reality it had given us a way to message each other without using any of the usual apps--and no male security detail was going to look twice at a Siamese in a beret who wanted to talk about vaginal dryness."

The well-plotted mysteries, ruthless assassinations, and glamorous jet-setting are certainly a highlight of this series but so is the study of powerful and enduring friendships. These women are a found family who bicker and tease, while fighting to the death for each other. And, as everyone knows, nothing builds bonds stronger than figuring out how to surreptitiously kill your target at a kids' birthday party. --Grace Rajendran

Deanna Raybourn (Holly Virginia Photography)

Deanna Raybourn is the New York Times bestselling author of the Lady Julia Grey and Veronica Speedwell historical novels, as well as the contemporary thriller Killers of a Certain Age, featuring four female assassins. Raybourn is a sixth-generation native Texan who makes her home in Virginia. Her work has been nominated for numerous awards, including the Edgar, the Macavity, and the Agatha. Kills Well with Others, the sequel to Killers of a Certain Age, will be published by Berkley on March 11, 2025.

Did you set out to write a series when you wrote Killers of a Certain Age?

Whenever I write a new book, I always like to develop characters that readers might want to see more of. I knew the plot of Killers of a Certain Age was going to end in a particular way, but I also knew that if readers wanted a sequel, I would have to leave the characters in situations where I could easily retrieve them. (No killing off any of my four main characters, for instance.) It was always my hope I'd get to visit their world again, and I was delighted when I got the green light to go ahead.

While writing Kills Well with Others, did your characters develop in surprising ways that you hadn't considered, or planned, in the first book?

I set them up in the first book to have very specific conflicts, both within themselves and with each other. Some of those were resolved in book one, but I had to decide which needed to carry over into the second book and how to develop them in ways that would feel fresh and authentic for who they are. I couldn't suddenly make Billie a domestic homebody who is annoyed at having to leave the island paradise I'd given her. Readers know that's just not who she is, so instead I gave her a motivation that works with the Billie that readers met in book one. I think one of the things readers look for most in a sequel or a series is a sense of continuity, a familiarity with characters they've grown to love--or at least have grown interested in seeing more of. It's always a delicate tightrope walk to bring a character back for further adventures because you want readers to find something expected in them, but you also want to offer them a few new surprises to keep things interesting.

Do you prefer to write a more self-contained story or is there the temptation to add cliffhangers between books in the series?

I always want to write a book that is self-contained but that leaves the door open for more. Cliffhangers are a little unfair to the reader, I think. People pick up a book expecting a complete story, and then they're left dangling. I like to wrap things up a little more neatly than that. But I also think it's great fun to leave a hint or two that there may be things left for these characters to do. I prefer a "happily for now" to a "happily ever after," but the bad guys usually get what was coming to them and the heroes have a chance to rest and know they did what needed doing.

There are several great flashbacks in this book that provide insight into these beloved characters. Have you ever considered writing a prequel?

I think it would be great fun to write a book that is a full prequel--something set in the early days of their work together when they're still finding their way as individuals and as a team. Maybe with some flashforwards!

Are there any real-life assassins or spies who have influenced the development of your characters?

When I started working on Killers of a Certain Age, I initially tried to limit my research to female assassins, and that took about half an hour. There are just so few female assassins in history, at least the ones we know about. So, I had to open it up and start reading memoirs of women who engaged in espionage since spycraft isn't a million miles removed from what my characters do.

I read accounts of women involved in the SOE--the Special Operations Executive, an arm of British intelligence in World War II. They recruited a number of highly skilled women and some of those stories are only just now beginning to surface. I also read memoirs of more recent agents in MI-6 as well as the CIA for a bit of background, and the thing they all seemed to have in common with my characters is a matter-of-factness about what they do. We tend to think of spying as a highly glamorous occupation--all Aston Martins and dry martinis. But for the people actually doing the work, it's far more often about routine surveillance and research than rappelling down skyscrapers or going undercover at a masquerade ball. It is foremost and forever a job to them. They are, above all, pragmatic.

There are some wonderfully clever, and scientifically detailed, assassinations in your book. Where did your inspiration come from and how did you research the forensics?

I knew my characters were going to be without their usual resources--the cutting-edge laboratories and sophisticated weapons--since they were on the run. I needed them to be able to kill their targets with what they had on hand. I already knew a little about poisons from writing my Victorian mysteries, and there are literally thousands of lethal things you can buy at the drugstore or openly carry across borders without anyone raising an eyebrow. And some things, like knitting needles or cigarettes, I repurposed because I love the juxtaposition of a really mundane item with an unexpected murder.

The assassins are all exceptional, with such fun and intriguing personalities. Is there one with whom you most closely identify?

I adore all of my killers, but I have a particular soft spot for Billie, probably because she's my viewpoint character. I made her a Texan in homage to the long line of strong, stubborn women I come from, and I gave her the same name as my favorite great aunt. They don't have anything in common besides the name and the fact that they are survivors, but it seemed fitting.

Your stories are set in beautiful locales around the world. Do you use that opportunity to travel or do you seek inspiration and details from other sources?

I love to travel to a location when I'm able, but if I can't I start with the Internet. There's probably not a square inch on earth you can't find on a YouTube video. I will grab an armful of library books on a country--history, geography, botany. And I will try to find memoirs written by people who lived in the area as children. Kids have a unique perspective on their environment, and they will often have extremely detailed and unique memories of a setting. In the case of Kills Well with Others, I was lucky enough to go to Venice and I wandered around taking tons of pictures and notes, working out scenes as I explored. When I went to write those scenes, it was absolutely magical because I knew exactly how it felt, how it smelled, what it sounded like. --Grace Rajendran, freelance book reviewer