Halloween Bingo 2022
Chipper and happily amoral, this was fun! Perhaps because the women in the starring roles are my age, maybe because I am charmed by stories of strong female friendship, but definitely because these women are competent, professional, and effective. They accept the choices and the lives they've made for themselves.
I get a kick out of Raybourn's sense of humour and this book is no exception. Billie is our narrator and she has just the right amount of snark to endear her to me. Billie has stayed unattached, unlike her sister assassins. Helen is newly widowed, Mary Alice has a wife, and Natalie has made sex her primary hobby. We get to learn about their misspent youth through flashbacks that help us understand each woman just a little better, without it overwhelming the action-packed plot. Raybourn doesn't overdue it with context.
They are used to being underestimated by their male colleagues and bosses, to the casual sexism, and the general sleaze they have to put up with. Billie gives us her unvarnished thoughts on all these subjects and more. Any woman in our age bracket will recognize a lot of overlap, despite having different work lives. No wonder one of Raybourn's dedications is to “Every person who identifies female and has rage.”
Another one of my birthday books and definitely a permanent part of my collection, as well as being admirably suited to the Spies and Assassins square of my Halloween Bingo card.
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