Six Great Mysteries Featuring Characters of a Certain Age
Sleuths of a Certain Age
I'm a fan of reading mysteries in the fall--I guess this is my version of spooky seasonal reads? Recently I've been enjoying mysteries featuring complex, delightfully seasoned characters. (We could also refer to these as the Black, White, Red, and Navy Blue Covers.) Many of these protagonists are underestimated and overlooked, and they're therefore able to dig into mysteries without attracting as much notice as in their younger years.
I took the liberty of including two Deanna Raybourn titles from the same series here; if you haven't read these yet, trust me, you should, and if you have read them, you understand why I had to list both.
The Thursday Murder Club and The Martini Club are two other series that fit the bill here, and I listed the first installment in each although I also enjoyed reading the second in each series. And Vera Wong is a series, but I have only read the first book in it--which is included here.
You might also like these other Greedy Reading Lists of Bossy mystery favorites.
I'd love to hear about your favorite mystery reads!
01 Killers of a Certain Age #1 by Deanna Raybourn
This fun, darkly funny, feminist story about a retiring female team of elite assassins was the right book at the right time for me: entertainment in the perfect combination of action and suspense, loyal friendship, clever plotting, and the promise of love.
The Museum is an organization that operates outside of governmental control, relying on various trained elite killing forces. Originally formed in order to hunt down and rid the world of lingering Nazis, the Museum's mission has evolved to focus on taking out carefully chosen bad guys of all stripes--drug dealers, human traffickers, arms dealers, and the like.
But when four aging Museum friends are sent on an all-expenses-paid vacation to mark their retirement, a Museum associate attempts to do them in. The women realize they may know too much about where the bodies are buried--literally--to be allowed to drift away into the world without a fight.
In Killers of a Certain Age, Raybourn has crafted an irresistibly fun, clever, feminist caper that had me hooked the whole way through. I loved the women's complicated bonds, their crafty planning, their fights for justice, and their ability to remain flexible and reinvent themselves.
I love a spy/assassin book and a book that treats dark subjects playfully without being silly. For my full review, check out Killers of a Certain Age. Check out the final book in this list to learn more about the second title in this series.
02 Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
I loved the octogenarian main protagonist of Elsie and the darkly funny start to the book. Her heartbreaking history surprised me, as did the revelations at the end of the novel. This was my first Sally Hepworth read but won't be my last.
Elsie is an 81-year-old living in a Melbourne suburb, grumbling and mainly keeping to herself, aside from her best friend since childhood, a persistent 7-year-old girl who's determined to befriend her, and Peter, a kind young man across the street who she doesn't mind running into.
Delving into Elsie's childhood is heartbreaking. She experienced staggering loss, disappointment, glimmers of hope, and a few key loved ones who anchored her. Her coping mechanisms, which we come to understand, are wrapped in shocking truths. My heart ached for the child she was and all that she endured.
Some of the modern-day denouements were surprising, and those, along with the friends-like-family elements, made for an ending I didn't wholly expect.
Sally Hepworth is also the author of The Good Sister, Darling Girls, The Mother-in-Law, The Family Next Door, and other books.
For more Bossy reads featuring elderly protagonists, check out this link. And for more mysteries, please check out these Bossy titles.
For my full review, please see Mad Mabel.
03 Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Sutanto's Vera Wong is playful, brusque, bossy, and connects an unlikely cast of characters, all murder suspects, into a heartwarming friendship that feels like family.
Vera Wong is running a largely unvisited tea house, lamenting her grown son's lack of time for her, and grumbling about the new "French" bakery that's just opened down the street in Chinatown.
When a dead body shows up in her tea house, Vera takes charge of the investigation of what only she is certain is a murder.
Marshall, the deceased, was a petty, obnoxious, verbally abusive, selfish, belittling jackass. As the truth comes out about Marshall's activities and his final evening, it becomes clear that each character has a possible motivation for having offed Marshall, so to Vera, each is a potential killer. She throws dinner parties and facilitates get-together to study her subjects.
And along the way, Vera's brusque truth-telling inspires an unlikely group of friends to form a special bond that's more like that of a family. This was absolutely my favorite part of the book.
This was a fast read (listen), and while the denouement didn't completely hold together for me and the loose ends were tied up with extreeeeeemely tidy bows, the story was really about the relationships and Vera's coming into her own, and I adored these aspects.
Click here for my full review of Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.
04 The Spy Coast (The Martini Club #1) by Tess Gerritsen
A former CIA operative retires to small-town Maine--along with other former agents--to live out a quiet existence, until figures from the past roar in to turn everything on its head.
Maggie Bird is a retired CIA operative who has made a simple home for herself in rural Maine. She's tried not to make emotional connections and she keeps to herself--old habits from her former life.
Then Maggie is visited by someone with knowledge of her past--just before a dead body shows up in her driveway and someone tries to kill Maggie.
Unbeknownst to the other citizens in Purity, Maine, the town has drawn multiple former intelligence agents (they make up the "martini club" in the series title). They didn't all work together in their former lives, but they are friends--despite habitual emotional distance--with commonalities in their backgrounds. Now they operate as a team to try to determine who is after Maggie and why.
The dogged local acting sheriff, Jo Thibodeau (a great and legit Maine last name), is complicating things, pushing for answers and determined to figure out what's going on.
For my full review of this book, please see The Spy Coast. The second book in the series is The Summer Guests.
05 The Thursday Murder Club #1 by Richard Osman
I was delighted by the poignancy, humor, and layers in the first installment of this series of stories about sharp, disparate septuagenarians who meet to resolve cold cases--then aim to solve the mysteries of murders occurring in their own community.
In this first installment in Osman's mystery series (the second one also appears on this list), the story begins in medias res, as the reader witnesses our key characters--four septuagenarian--coming together for a weekly discussion of unsolved murders. Joyce is their newest member, and the four put their wits to the test to try to resolve cold cases. (They reserve their room as "Jigsaw Club" to discourage others' interest and interruption.)
But when a slick local developer associated with their own retirement community is murdered, and other deaths follow, this sharp, funny, grumpy, big-hearted, underestimated group of friends becomes determined to solve the case. Then an event from decades earlier grows in importance and shapes the Club's search for answers.
Justice isn't black and white, and motivations matter; the Club isn't set on following the letter of the law, as they appreciate how complicated life can be.
I was surprised by how charming, intriguing, layered, and lovely this story was.
For my full review, please check out this link. Book two in the series is The Man Who Died Twice.
06 Kills Well with Others (Killers of a Certain Age #2) by Deanna Raybourn
Killers of a Certain Age was darkly funny, action-packed, feminist, and friend-focused. I love the second installment's return to my favorite aging assassins and their quick-thinking, spry, deadly answers to those who have broken moral codes--and who have our protagonists in their sights.
Kills Well with Others picks up when our main characters, having laid low and lived their own lives for a year, are contacted by the Museum, the elite assassin organization they used to work for. An Eastern European gangster has obtained the names of agents who have stood in his way over the years, and our aging assassins seem likely to be next on his hit list. They must figure out who's turned traitor on the Museum and shared this information--and stay alive long enough to bring them to justice.
Kills Well with Others sometimes feels a little bit as though Raybourn is gamely giving her readers what they want (more Billie, Helen, Mary Alice, Natalie--and Tanner!) rather than writing a book she felt compelled to put out into the world. But I'm one of those who are eager for more time with these clever, sometimes grumpy, often spontaneous, satisfyingly quick-thinking assassins who are loyal to each other above all.
For my full review, please see Kills Well with Others.
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