KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE by Deanna Raybourn is an action-packed and humorous thriller featuring four female assassins ready to retire and enjoy their pensions, but the organization they have worked for their entire careers now has them on the termination list. This is a standalone book that I could not put down.
Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked as an elite assassination team for the clandestine Museum. They were brought together and trained initially to kill former Nazis in hiding, but the Museum also chose dictators, arms dealers, and the like who were a threat to democracy and society. They survived it all for forty years and are now ready to retire.
The four are sent packages for an all-expense paid cruise for their retirement. On board, Billie recognizes a crew member as an explosives expert for the Museum. As they investigate, they discover they have an extermination order placed on their heads from the Board of the Museum. They realize to enjoy their retirement years; they are going to have to work together and show the Board the true abilities of killers of a certain age.
While there are graphic depictions of assassination and murder in this thriller, there are also at other times snarky and hilarious scenes and dialogue. The story is mainly told by Billie, who leads the group of friends more times than not, but the reader does get to know all the women and their personal stories. As much as the story focuses on the women fighting back to survive, it also covers age related issues and mature relationships. The plot is well written with a fast pace and some unexpected twists. This book is just so much fun to read and a unique thriller which usually focus on male assassins.
I highly recommend this thriller!
***
About the Author
New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist Deanna Raybourn is a 6th-generation native Texan. She graduated with a double major in English and history from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Married to her college sweetheart and the mother of one, Raybourn makes her home in Virginia. Her novels have been nominated for numerous awards including the Edgar, two RT Reviewers’ Choice awards, the Agatha, two Dilys Winns, and a Last Laugh. She launched a new Victorian mystery series with the 2015 release of A CURIOUS BEGINNING, featuring intrepid butterfly-hunter and amateur sleuth, Veronica Speedwell. Veronica’s second adventure is A PERILOUS UNDERTAKING (January 2017), and book three, A TREACHEROUS CURSE, was published in 2018 and nominated for the Edgar Award. A DANGEROUS COLLABORATION was released in 2019, and A MURDEROUS RELATION appeared in 2020 and AN UNEXPECTED PERIL published in March 2021. The latest Veronica Speedwell adventure, AN IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSTOR, will be published in February, 2022. Deanna’s first contemporary novel featuring four female assassins who must band together to take out their nemesis as they prepare for retirement, KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE, will be published in September of 2022.
Mitch Rapp confronts a very different kind of killer in the explosive new thriller in Vince Flynn’s number one New York Times best-selling series, written by Kyle Mills.
With President Anthony Cook convinced that Mitch Rapp poses a mortal threat to him, CIA Director Irene Kennedy is forced to construct a truce between the two men. The terms are simple: Rapp agrees to leave the country and stay in plain sight for as long as Cook controls the White House. In exchange, the administration agrees not to make any moves against him.
This fragile détente holds until Cook’s power-hungry security adviser convinces him that Rapp has no intention of honoring their agreement. In an effort to put him on the defensive, they leak the true identity of his partner, Claudia Gould. As Rapp races to neutralize the enemies organizing against her, he discovers that a new generation of assassins is on her trail. A killer known to intelligence agencies only as Legion.
The shadowy group has created a business model based on double-blind secrecy. Neither the killer nor the client knows the other’s identity. Because of this, Legion can’t be called off nor can they afford to fail. No matter how long it takes – weeks, months, years – they won’t stand down until their target is dead. Faced with the seemingly impossible task of finding and stopping Legion, Rapp and his people must close ranks against a world that has turned on them.
***
Elise’s Thoughts
Vince Flynn’s Oath of Loyalty by Kyle Mills explores the political world of today. Unlike books in the past with Mitch Rapp and Irene Kennedy, this book highlights a President that is at odds with Rapp and Kennedy and strives to eliminate them.
This plot has the whole team working together to save American democracy as well as each other. President Cook has forced Irene to resign, and the new CIA Director has convinced him that Mitch Rapp is a lethal threat. To get to Mitch they are seeking someone who will assassinate Claudia Gould, the person with whom Mitch has settled down. He along with Irene and Scott Coleman must neutralize this enemy. But Irene also must navigate a fine line, trying to convince Mitch not to go after an elected President and work somewhat within the system.
Between the riveting plotline and the team working together, fans of the series will be exuberant. They will not want to put the book down because this is a page-turner.
***
Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Is the arc finished with this book?
Kyle Mills: I wrapped up this plot line and will move to something else. The timing of it did not work out. It is based on the fall of American democracy, which can come from either side. I wish the American people would take their job seriously. If there are bad politicians, we voted for them so are they a reflection of who we are? These politicians make rules that they never intend to follow. The point of the book is that the American people need to pay more attention to what is happening instead of being increasingly apathetic. Probably because they are so comfortable.
EC: It was great to have the team in the plot?
KM: It is always fun to have the whole team involved and working together. It is tough going up against the President of the US. Certainly, Mitch could not go it alone with a frontal assault. Everyone used their skill set to resolve the issue.
EC: Is President Cook based on anyone such as Trump, Biden, or Gavin Newsom?
KM: Not Newsom because I do not follow California politics at all. I never gave him a second thought. I honestly had to look something up about him because a lot of people asked me. I did not know what his politics are. After all, I live in Wyoming. I never want to write a character that resembles a real person and am not interested in partisan politics. I try not to mention Republican versus Democrat. The character I wrote might have Trump supporters thinking I am beating up on Biden, and Biden supporters think I am beating up on Trump. He is not intended to be either person.
EC: How would you describe President Cook?
KM: Arrogant, paranoid, charismatic, autocratic, ruthless, exploits weakness, and thrives on division. This is a guy who seeks power. He will do anything for power. I put this book quote in by Irene, “They (the Cooks) are not concerned with outside powers, because they aren’t a threat to them. They’re much more concerned with internal enemies-political opponents, critics, and eventually the American people.”
EC: Irene was against this President?
KM: She told him to his face with this book quote, “You’ve never done anything to earn my admiration or loyalty, while Mitch has done nothing but. I violently oppose where you and your constituents want to take this country.” The Cooks after she resigned, did underestimate her. She is in a very difficult position. It was interesting to write because she was torn in what to do. She knew that there is always a push and pull because he was elected as the President. Irene and Mitch are patriots who believe in the American ideal.
EC: How would you describe the First Lady?
KM: Analytical, calculating, sometimes dispassionate, married for convenience, and enjoyed power. She is not Hillary Clinton. She keeps the President grounded. She is Irene’s equal. Irene recognizes her as being extremely formidable. I liked writing the interplay between those two. They understand each other because both have goals where they take logical paths to achieve them.
EC: How would you describe the new CIA Director Darren Hargrave?
KM: Arrogant, manipulative, and enjoys destroying people. He is sucked into the cult of Cook and that is all he cares about.
EC: Does Claudia represent the unsavory part of the intelligence work?
KM: She, Mitch, and Irene have two personalities. The normal person and the killer. Mitch and Irene have had to make horrible decisions throughout the series to protect Americans. But there are also friendships and family. Some actual friends of my family, operators, were warm and wonderful people. But their profession was to kill people. When undercover they must fit in. I try to keep the story realistic.
EC: The next book?
KM: I want to go back in the new book to where the characters do not fundamentally change. There will not be a big heavy arc. It will be more action oriented. Ward, the trillionaire, is not a big player in the next book. Mitch is the problem solver with the gun. Regarding Irene and Mitch, readers will have to wait and see where they go from here. In the first half, the book will be more about Mitch and then the last half he will be joined by the team.
THANK YOU!!
***
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Hiding her own dark past in plain sight, a TV reporter is determined to uncover the truth behind a gruesome murder decades after the investigation was abandoned. But TWENTY YEARS LATER, to understand the present, you need to listen to the past…
Avery Mason, host of American Events, knows the subjects that grab a TV audience’s attention. Her latest story—a murder mystery laced with kinky sex, tragedy, and betrayal—is guaranteed to be ratings gold. New DNA technology has allowed the New York medical examiner’s office to make its first successful identification of a 9/11 victim in years. The twist: the victim, Victoria Ford, had been accused of the gruesome murder of her married lover. In a chilling last phone call to her sister, Victoria begged her to prove her innocence.
Emma Kind has waited twenty years to put her sister to rest, but closure won’t be complete until she can clear Victoria’s name. Alone she’s had no luck, but she’s convinced that Avery’s connections and fame will help. Avery, hoping to negotiate a more lucrative network contract, goes into investigative overdrive. Victoria had been having an affair with a successful novelist, found hanging from the balcony of his Catskills mansion. The rope, the bedroom, and the entire crime scene was covered in Victoria’s DNA.
But the twisted puzzle of Victoria’s private life just the beginning. And what Avery doesn’t realize is that there are other players in the game who are interested in Avery’s own secret past—one she has kept hidden from both the network executives and her television audience. A secret she thought was dead and buried . . .
Accused of a brutal murder, Victoria Ford made a final chilling call from the North Tower on the morning of 9/11. Twenty years ago, no one listened. Today, you will.
TWENTY YEARS LATER by Charlie Donlea is an exciting and intricately plotted mystery/thriller. A top-rated television news show host is on the hunt for her next big story in NYC, even as she has her own secret reasons for being there.
Avery Mason is looking for a story to grab her TV audience’s attention and keep her top rating as host of American Events. She looks into the first discovery of an individual’s identity from a new DNA bone technique from the Twin Towers disaster in many years. The woman Victoria Ford was accused of the murder of her famous married lover and has all the mystery, kinky sex, and betrayal to bring in top ratings.
Avery talks to the woman’s sister and listens to phone calls from Victoria from the North Tower. Victoria claims she is innocent and begs her sister to clear her name, but there is too much evidence against her so no one will help and with her death the case is dropped. Avery is introduced to the retired FBI agent, Walt Jenkins who investigated the murder twenty years ago, but he has his own agenda involving Avery’s life before her fame and in regard to her infamous father.
I love reading Charlie Donlea’s books. Everyone has secrets and there are always plot twists that throw everything you believe completely upside down. The beginning was a slightly confusing until the separate characters and motives began to come together and the varying plot threads and motives begin to take shape and when they do, the story took off and I could not put it down. I was surprised many times during the investigations and especially by both plot twist endings. I loved them!
I highly recommend this mystery/thriller and this author!
***
About the Author
Charlie Donlea is the #1 internationally bestselling author of Summit Lake, The Girl Who Was Taken, Don’t Believe It, Some Choose Darkness, The Suicide House and Twenty Years Later. Praised for his “soaring pace, teasing plot twists” (BookPage) and talent for writing an ending that “makes your jaw drop” (The New York Times Book Review), Donlea has been called a “bold new writer…on his way to becoming a major figure in the world of suspense” (Publishers Weekly). A late bloomer, he was twenty years old when he read his first novel––THE FIRM by John Grisham––and knew he would someday write thrillers. His books have now been translated into more than a dozen languages across thirty countries.
He was born and raised in Chicago, where he continues to live with his wife and two children.
OATH OF LOYALTY (A Mitch Rapp Novel Book #21) by Kyle Mills is another edge-of-your-seat thriller featuring Mitch Rapp. This series never disappoints, and I wait anxiously every year for a new story where democracy is on the line and Mitch and his team come to the country’s defense, but this time his family is on the line too.
When the current President of the United States is scared and backed into a corner, it leads to paranoia that a power-hungry CIA director is more than happy to exploit.
Mitch Rapp and Irene Kennedy has brokered a deal with the President which allows Mitch to live out his life as long as he remains out of the country and in plain view of surveillance. The new CIA director can use the truce as a means to get closer to the President and to increase his control he convinces him that Rapp has no intention of honoring their truce. They release the true identity of Mitch’s wife, Claudia, to her enemies from her past to keep him too busy protecting her to attack the President.
A shadow assassin known as Legion accepts the contract. No one knows who Legion is and no one can call Legion off. Mitch, his team and some old contacts and friends from his past must work together to stop Legion, protect Claudia, and take care of the threat the present administration poses to his family and friends.
Once again, Kyle Mills hit it out of the park! Mitch is feeling his age and wants to find some peace with his family and friends and leave the saving of the world to others, but it is not to be. The story takes readers all over the world and the tension level is high. I love how Mr. Mills not only writes an action thriller that always delivers but is able to also intertwine current affairs and even extrapolate on the current affairs to introduce nightmare scenarios that are believable as well as terrifying. I am looking forward to Mitch’s next adventure.
I highly recommend this political thriller and all the books in the Mitch Rapp series!
***
About the Author
Kyle Mills is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty books, including the latest in Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series, Total Power.
Growing up in Oregon, Washington, DC, and London as a the son of an FBI agent, Kyle absorbed an enormous amount about the intelligence community, giving his novels their unique authenticity. He and his wife live in Wyoming where they spend their off hours mountain biking and backcountry skiing.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Nelson DeMille returns with a blistering thriller featuring his most popular series character, former NYPD homicide detective John Corey, called out of retirement to investigate a string of grisly murders much too close to home.
In his dazzling #1 bestseller, Plum Island, Nelson DeMille introduced readers to NYPD Homicide Detective John Corey, who we first meet sitting on the back porch of his uncle’s waterfront estate on Long Island, convalescing from wounds incurred in the line of duty. A visit from the local Chief of Police results in the legendary Detective Corey becoming involved in the investigation of the murders of a married couple who were scientists at the top-secret biological research facility on Plum Island.
Fast forward through six more bestselling John Corey novels and The Maze opens with Corey on the same porch, but now in forced retirement from his last job as a Federal Agent with the Diplomatic Surveillance Group. Corey is restless and looking for action, so when his former lover, Detective Beth Penrose, appears with a job offer, Corey has to once again make some decisions about his career—and about reuniting with Beth Penrose.
Inspired by, and based on the actual and still unsolved Gilgo Beach murders, The Maze takes the reader on a dangerous hunt for an apparent serial killer who has murdered nine—and maybe more—prostitutes and hidden their bodies in the thick undergrowth on a lonely stretch of beach.
As Corey digs deeper into this case, which has made national news, he comes to suspect that the failure of the local police to solve this sensational case may not be a result of their inexperience and incompetence—it may be something else. Something more sinister.
The Maze features John Corey’s politically incorrect humor, matched by his brilliant and unorthodox investigative skills along with the surprising and shocking plot twists that are the trademark of the #1 New York Times bestselling author, Nelson DeMille.
***
Elise’s Thoughts
The Maze by Nelson DeMille brings back the wonderful hero John Corey. It’s been too long between DeMille books. But the good news is that this story is typical John Corey with plenty of action and non-political correctness. It also has John hooking up with Detective Beth Penrose both figuratively and literally as a partner. It was a pleasure interviewing Nelson DeMille.
Now once again, Corey is in Long Island, since his forced retirement from his last job as a Federal Agent with the Diplomatic Surveillance Group. Corey is restless and looking for action, so when his former girlfriend, Detective Beth Penrose, appears with a job offer, Corey decides to become a confidential informant for her, by investigating a private investigation firm, Security Solutions. They are suspicious that corruptness at the highest levels has been covering up the murders of nine prostitutes, a reporter, and a former police detective. With Beth’s help John goes undercover to unravel the maze of crimes from corruptness to bribery to murder.
As with all Nelson DeMille books readers get a fantastic murder plot filled with action. But they also get the bonus of great banter between the characters that is not politically correct. When not laughing at John’s jokes readers will be spell-bound with all the twists and turns.
***
Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Did you get any push back on writing John’s humor and statements?
Nelson DeMille:The Maze is my last John Corey book because of the politically correct crowd at the publishing house. There was some pushback on the John Corey character. They wanted me to make changes, which I would not make except for a few. Even though I moved publishers and had another editor who seems to be better with the John Corey character, there was still push back. I am not going to go through this again, a lot of nonsense. In fact, a book club of sixteen ladies, read the book and had no problem with John Corey. They are not easily offended. This is my audience and what they wanted to read.
EC: You always play on words?
ND: You are referring to these examples, Is Amy Lang a “receptionist in distress? Or a deceptionist out to entrap me?” And the other, “E and E meant escape and evasion, not encounter and engage.” The latter is from my Army days. Some guys in training tried to take down the guys who were after them. The former quote is having Amy as a wild card.
EC: Has Beth changed over the years since the first book, Plum Island, came out in 1997?
ND: Yes, Beth has changed. In the first book she was a goody-two-shoes, doing everything by the book. Now she is more like John, breaking and bending some rules. She, like John, wants to get at the truth and wants justice. Beth is pushing the envelope to get that, something she would not have done in Plum Island. She is more ruthless, goes rogue, and has lost faith in the system because the higher-ups are corrupt and somehow involved.
EC: Has John changed since Plum Island?
ND: Ninety percent of what I wrote about him is there. He is still a bullshit artist, a smart aleck, who likes to buck the system and authority. He does really follow rules and regulations. He has good instincts and is a danger junkie. He is not ready to go out to pasture. He seeks to become relevant again. If I ever wrote another John Corey, he would end up working for a private security firm to keep an American diplomat or businessperson in another country safe.
EC: What about the relationship between Beth and John?
ND: Emotionally they are lovers who are realizing they were made for each other. In many of my books, I enjoy superimposing a romance with the action. Maybe in my next life I will be a romance writer. Beth is more comfortable in her own skin in this book, more willing to stand up to John. I had her in a more powerful position than John, a Detective Sergeant, second in command at the Suffolk Homicide Police. The roles have reversed since the first book.
EC: The plot is based on the real Gilgo Beach murders?
ND: About ten bodies were dumped on the beach in Long Island., not far from the Hamptons. This happened eleven years ago. The grisly murders, all sex workers, believed to be the work of a serial killer or killers. It has captivated the public, stumped local police, and frustrated victims’ family members still waiting for an arrest. The Suffolk County Police have not even come up with a person of interest. They are stymied. It is a very active case with the Police Chief refusing to cooperate with the FBI. There have been a couple of documentaries about it. I fictionalized it and made it the Fire Island murders with a lot of the elements of the Gilgo Beach murders. I wanted to show how throughout America there is corruption at the highest level, and illuminate the society that it originated in. What I tried to do in the book is highlight how there is something wrong with the culture and society through the investigation of the murder.
EC: The real-life police chief is somehow involved?
ND: Then-Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke was busted for the 2012 assault of a handcuffed suspect who swiped a bag of sex toys and porn from Burke’s trunk. The sordid incident was covered up by then District Attorney, but the chief eventually went to jail. The murders have not been resolved, and there are questions if the DA and Burke are involved personally.
EC: What about your bad guy, Steve Landowski?
ND: He is a control freak, a liar, cunning, and arrogant. He volunteered to be working for the Vice-Squad while working as a cop. Steve is a rough guy who lives by his wit. He enjoys the power to corrupt the people around him. He sexually harassed women, which shows how he does not think much of women.
EC: The role of the Maze?
ND: It was a figurative way to explain the case with multilayers of interlocking crimes and suspects. I put in this book quote, “a maze of twists and turns…crimes that ranged from simple prostitution to the corruption of public officials and law enforcement people to murder.” I also physically had a maze of hedges for the final scene of a shoot-out. All Corey books have one. It reminded me of the scene in the movie “The Shining.” The maze can be a creepy place. I know because I have been in one.
EC: What about your next books?
ND: The next book, Blood Lines, I am writing with my son. It will be out October of next year. It has the same main characters as the first book, The Deserter. Two members of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) will be back: Scott Brodie, a former infantry soldier in Iraq, now a top CID investigator is teamed with Maggie Taylor a former Civil Affairs E-5 in Afghanistan, who is working for CID. While Brodie is wise-cracking, arrogant, and someone who has trouble following orders, Taylor is a by the books person who tries to rein in Brodie. The plot has the murder of a CID in Berlin. My third book in this contract might be my last book, October 2024, titled The Explorer’s Club. It is a combination of “Indiana Jones,” “James Bond,” and “Around the World In Eighty Days” where the hero is trying to find an American woman possibly kidnapped.
THANK YOU!!
***
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
RED FLAGS (Locard Forensic Institute Thriller Book #1) by Lisa Black is an intense and intricately plotted first book in a new forensic thriller series featuring two female forensic experts and the Locard Forensic Institute.
FBI analyst Dr. Ellie Carr from the D.C. Evidence Response Team is called to the scene of a kidnapping. When she arrives, it is to find the missing baby belongs to her cousin, Becca who Ellie has been estranged from for many years. What Ellie discovers is her cousin is now a part of a D.C. power couple of lobbyists on the verge of making millions when their friend’s kid focused on-line gaming company goes public. Ellie has been all over the house and can find no evidence of a break-in.
Becca’s husband, Hunter hires the Locard Forensic Institute and Dr, Rachel Davies. Ellie is reluctant at first to work with Rachel, but in working the kidnapping, they begin to trust each other. As more children are kidnapped, Ellie and Rachel are in a race to discover who the kidnappers are and why they are focusing on the children of the gaming company involved in a Senate hearing on children’s’ on-line gaming regulations.
I always enjoy Ms. Black’s intelligent main characters and her detailed explanations of different types of forensic science. There is a lot going on in this book and while some is extremely interesting, especially the chat and ad regulations in children’s on-line gaming, there are times when the information, especially about IPOs slowed down the pace a bit. The plot is a web of several interconnecting yet different motives and crimes that all come together in an ending that surprised me. Ellie and Rachel’s professional relationship is realistically portrayed and paced throughout from standoffish and suspicious to understanding and the start of a friendship and partnership.
I am looking forward to following both Ellie and Rachel in their personal lives and on their future investigations in this new series.
***
About the Author
Lisa Black’s books have reached the NYT bestsellers list, been translated into six languages and have been optioned for film. Perish was shortlisted for the inaugural Sue Grafton Memorial Award by Putnam and Mystery Writers of America. Lisa will be a Guest of Honor at 2021 Killer Nashville.
She is a certified crime scene analyst in Florida and a former forensic scientist for the Cleveland coroner’s office. She is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the International Association for Identification, and the International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts, and has testified in more than fifty homicide trials.
She still aspires to drive Nancy Drew’s convertible and marry Ellery Queen.
