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ggcd1981's review
adventurous
funny
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Killers of a Certain Age de Deanna Raybourn me entreteve, pois, a história foi interessante. O livro é sobre quatro assassinas idosas, a protagonista Billie e suas companheiras Helen, Natalie e Mary Alice, se aposentando quando de repente a própria instituição, O “Museu”, que as mantinha envia um agente para mata-las no cruzeiro que marcaria o início de sua aposentadoria. A autora intercalou capítulos que mostravam as assassinas como jovem mulheres em 1979, iniciando seu treinamento e serviço com o museu e o projeto Sphinx, e capítulos no presente quando as quatro mulheres estão sendo perseguidas após sua aposentadoria. O museu é uma agência de assassinos que iniciou caçando nazistas e passou a caçar outros malfeitores que a justiça comum não alcança como, por exemplo, criminosos de guerra. Billie, Helen, Natalie e Mary Alice são Sphinxes, o primeiro grupo de assassinas mulheres do Museu. A narrativa segue Billie e suas companheiras tentando se manter vivas enquanto investigam as razões que levaram os diretores do museu a quererem suas mortes. Elas descobrem ao contatar Martin, um agente da inteligência do museu, que alguém submeteu um dossiê as acusando de corrupção, e que na verdade os diretores do museu estavam protegendo um membro verdadeiramente corrupto que estava encaminhando assassinatos por dinheiro para ser aprovados pela diretoria. As sphinxes então passam a assassinar os diretores do museu. O livro culmina com Billie sendo capturada intencionalmente, fazia parte do plano que as sphinxes arquitetaram, e é revelado ao leitor, que Vance, o último diretor descobriu o plano de Martin. Martin, segundo em comando do setor responsável por montar dossiês de vítimas a serem aprovadas para assassinato, estava montando dossiês por dinheiro e ao revelar as sphinxes informações sobre a diretoria ele planejava que as assassinas matassem a diretoria e ele, assim, assumisse a diretoria do Museu sozinho. Vance então decidiu levar Martin e Billie ao esconderijo das sphinxes e matar as assassinas e o traidor lá. Contudo as assassinas tinham um plano, após uma sequência de ação, Billie mata Vance e Helen, que até então no livro estava passando por uma crise em que congelava e não conseguia matar ninguém, atira na cabeça de Martin o matando enquanto este tentava usar Billie como refém para fugir. O livro termina com a reputação de Billie, Helen, Natalie e Mary Alice sendo restauradas no museu e os membros corruptos, pelo menos ao que se sabe, mortos. O livro fez um bom trabalho de diferenciar as quatro mulheres, elas realmente tinham personalidades e características únicas a cada uma: Billie que não sabia o que fazer da vida sem ser assassina e seu relacionamento amor e ódio com o sua antiga chama e único aliado real das sphinxes,Christopher Taverner; Helen, uma viúva depressiva com comportamentos beirando TOCs que perdeu a confiança como assassina; Natalie, uma mulher ainda com forte libido não adepta a monogamia; Mary Alice, casada e feliz, ansiosa por deixar a vida de assassina para traz e parar de mentir a sua esposa Akiko. A obra teve um passo rápido e boas cenas de ação. As revelações não foram realmente surpreendentes, mas isso não impediu o entretenimento. Acredito que ponto baixo foi que os personagens secundários foram um pouco superficiais, por exemplo Minka, amiga de Billie, Akiko, esposa de Mary Alice. Essas duas são aliadas das Sphinxes e as ajudam no plano final, mas pouco realmente sabemos sobre elas. O único personagem secundário mais aprofundado é Taverner a quem vemos nos flashbacks e descobrimos mais sobre sua vida pós-relacionamento com Billie. O livro é relevante por ter protagonistas idosas inteligentes e capazes que muitas vezes superam os preconceitos que seus antagonistas têm contra elas pela sua idade. Killers of a Certain Age não foi exatamente excelente, mas foi um bom entretenimento, interessante e relevante. Descobri que vai ser uma série e não sei se vou continuar, gostei do primeiro livro mas acho que ele funciona bem como standalone. Dou 4.5 estrelas.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Cancer, Gun violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Confinement and Fire/Fire injury
chelbelle122's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
isabelle_mary's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I had really high expectations for this book. I mean old ladies that use to be assassins had so much potential! I feel like the writer did not write the characters well for the age that they were. I often forgot they were 60 and thought they were 25-30. I feel like I would have enjoyed the book better if their age was reflected better. The overall storyline was good, but I felt could've been better. This book had sooo much potential, but personally feel like it was not executed well.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
abundance_of_fiction's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Charlie’s Angels meets the Golden Girls in this fast paced thriller. The concept was super fun, and -I don’t say this lightly- I would love to see this turned into a movie!
While it does have elements of a thriller, I felt that the humor of the characters and situation gave the story a lighthearted feel.
Honestly, I wasn’t too thrilled with the execution of the ending but between the concept and quirky moments, I really enjoyed this one.
While it does have elements of a thriller, I felt that the humor of the characters and situation gave the story a lighthearted feel.
Honestly, I wasn’t too thrilled with the execution of the ending but between the concept and quirky moments, I really enjoyed this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Blood, Grief, and Gaslighting
spikehype's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Cancer and Pregnancy
beepbeep101's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Stalking
faduma's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
kristinj1's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This book was a recommendation from Nick. It was really enjoyable! Definitely a different type of read to read about lady assassins in their 60s. I actually found myself curious about the characters and would probably read a second installment in this series. It almost felt like this should have been the middle book of a trinity, that we could have learned a lot about their training and their background and the Museum from a first book. Not to say that this book was lacking, just that there was a lot of rich material there to provide context and history.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Murder
Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, and Injury/Injury detail
spineofthesaurus's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Misogyny, Self harm, Blood, Medical content, Stalking, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gore, Racism, Sexual assault, Vomit, Antisemitism, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Classism
Minor: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, and Trafficking
jhbandcats's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
A clever and witty tale of retiree assassins who are targeted by their own agency for removal. People generally don’t pay much attention to old women so they can slip past unnoticed - a good skill for a killer. They’re always underestimated by ageist misogynists and that’s definitely to the detriment of the person making the wrong assumption.
This book is a really violent cozy mystery - not very cozy at all but with cozy main characters, four women who’ve studied and killed together for forty years. We learn about their training and how it molded these women into such dangerous assassins. They’re comfortable together, playing off each other’s talents and covering for each other’s weaknesses.
It’s very funny - instead of a James Bond sort of suave killer, these women are coping with osteoporosis and bad backs. I love their strength and resilience, but even more I love that they didn’t take any $hit from anyone. Definitely a hit book for older women readers!
This book is a really violent cozy mystery - not very cozy at all but with cozy main characters, four women who’ve studied and killed together for forty years. We learn about their training and how it molded these women into such dangerous assassins. They’re comfortable together, playing off each other’s talents and covering for each other’s weaknesses.
It’s very funny - instead of a James Bond sort of suave killer, these women are coping with osteoporosis and bad backs. I love their strength and resilience, but even more I love that they didn’t take any $hit from anyone. Definitely a hit book for older women readers!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail