Anne's Reviews > Killers of a Certain Age

I wanted to like it more than I actually did.



It was ok.
I probably wouldn't have been interested in this one at all if the ladies hadn't been old.
Except they didn't seem old! I'm not being agist or whatever, but they acted like they were in their late 30s, not their mid-60s. I'm also really not sure how likely it would be that all 4 of these women would still be active assassins for this organization...until last week. I would think that in any physical job, most field agents would be getting aged into desk jockey seats by the time they are in their 50s - men or women. There are younger people who can move faster than you can at that point. It sucks, but it's true!
Speaking of, what are the odds that there's some super-benevolent organization out there that just wants to keep the world safe and trains assassins for this purpose?
Are they working for the Justice League or something?
I'm suspicious of anything that hokey.



Plus, the women themselves were kind of box tickers.
When it says this book is Golden Girls meets Bond, what it really means is that it's got 4 older women who are assassins, and isn't that just crrrrrazy enough to carry the whole story?
Because there really isn't much to differentiate any of them from each other besides the superficial stuff. One is the grieving widow, one is the lesbian, one is the sexpot, and the main character is the "tough" one.

I also thought there would be humor, but the zingers were things like my tits are saggy now! which just didn't make me laugh.
Admittedly, it may be because my tits are saggy now and I've already laughed about that enough.
Hah.
I was sort of expecting more assassin-y humor, like maybe one of them not being able to snipe someone from the rooftop because they forgot their glasses or something.
Fuck, I don't know. And I'm not really explaining that very well.



I think it would have made a better story if someone had come after these women thinking that they were your average AARP members and then found out they had once been ass-kickers.
Alas, no.
Apparently, their organization wants them dead (for spoilery reasons) and tries to take them out on their retirement cruise. They fight back and unravel the plot behind it all. The reader gets to see the old broads in action while learning about their past. The end.
BTW, the reason behind someone wanting them dead was lame.
LAME. I can't even...LAME.



Heads up, audiobook readers!
I thought the narration was terrible. I listened to the first 5 minutes or so and turned it off because the narrator's voice was so nasally and grating. Blech.
I went ahead and listened to a few other books before finally circling back to this one to give it another shot. Thankfully, there were two narrators - one for the flashbacks to their early careers and one for the present. The lady who read for the present was fine. However, that first narrator nearly killed me. <--pun intended.



Alright. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't terribly written or anything. And I see a lot of glowing reviews for this thing. I just maybe wanted something different than what it was?
If so, that's my fault.
I couldn't buy into the organization, the plot, or the personalities of any of the women.
I may just be getting picky in my old age, though.