Review - I. Spy

This new book (and series, I believe) is getting plenty of buzz before its May release.

"A gripping blend of suspenseful spy thriller with heartfelt women’s fiction, I, Spy is the first in a propulsive debut series about the masks we all wear, whether as a spy or as a parent."

I knew nothing about this going in, so read on to see what I thought of it.

Author: L.M. Kemp

Copyright: May 2026 (Minotaur Books) 246 pgs

Series: 1st in Kendal Carter Books

Sensuality: Swearing

Mystery Sub-genre: Espionage, Intrigue, 

Main Character: Kendal Carter, former spy for hire

Setting: Modern era, London

Obtained Through: Publisher for honest review

Book Blurb: "Kendal Carter is out in the cold and she wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s been four years since her daughter Rosie was born and Kendal has kept her miles away from the danger of her former life as a spy. But when their hiding place is discovered, Kendal is forced to turn to old contacts for help. Her longtime friend and ex-handler Rico doesn’t miss his chance to pull his best spy back in. Whisking them to London, Rico offers them a luxury safe house in an area with good schools. How can Kendal resist?

     But there’s a catch, of course. Rico wants Kendal to come back to work for his espionage agency Bon Temps. He’s offering an assignment with no apparent downside, investigating one of the dads at Rosie’s new school who works at one of London’s biggest, murkiest tech firms and suspected of being up to no good. It should be easy enough for someone with her experience, and luckily, mother is the perfect cover.

     However, it doesn’t take long for Kendal to realize that Rico’s got an agenda of his own. The tech firm may be dealing in darker and more deadly secrets than they all realize, plus the world of coffee mornings and playdates comes with its own web of allegiances and betrayals. Kendal soon finds herself in way too deep . . ."

My Thoughts:

     Kendal Carter (code name 96) was a spy, until she became a mom. That's when she left that life behind to raise her child in obscurity. Khalil Masoumi is the father and even though he is dead, Kendal still misses him deeply. Unfortunately, spying didn't forget her... she grabs her child and races away from a goon squad breaking into her apartment. Just like that, she is sucked back into the game. She takes a job with the promise she will be safe in exchange for housing. Kendal is good, but a touch rusty after four years off the job grieving. She has to get up to speed lickety-split, but perhaps even more of a challenge is being social with other moms at Rosie's new school.

     Former boss, Rico, seems sketchy throughout and I was never sure about him until the end. He seems morally grey. Plus there is Joel that is new to the spy-for-hire biz and Rico wants Kendal, as a pro with lots of experience, to show him "the ropes" of the company. Oh yeah, he lives in the basement of the wonderful home Rico is providing Kendal. Fortunately, Joel is an easy going nerd and even helps out with Rosie.

     The author makes the mundane world of school and fellow moms seem like a web of hidden agendas and shifting alliances. You'll never look at PTA the same! 

     The story moves along at a good clip and before I knew it the resolution and final of a few twists hits.  The wrap up leaves it open for a series and I hope that's the case because this is a solid intrigue tale and Kendal is a great character to carry the series with her four-year old child.

Rating: Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now and put this author on your watch list 

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Review - Killers of a Certain Age

 Deanna Raybourn is the New York Times bestselling author of the Edgar Award–nominated Veronica Speedwell Mysteries, as well as the Lady Julia Grey series and several stand-alone works.  Her latest series features a group of women in their 60s who worked as elite assassins. But retirement can be deadly.  

“This Golden Girls meets James Bond thriller is a journey you want to be part of.” -Buzzfeed

"... pits men against women, age against youth, technology against old school know-how.” -Amazon Book Review

Naturally it has been compared to "The Thursday Murder Club" and the 2010 movie "Red."  Read this review to understand how it differs from both.

Author: Deanna Raybourn

Copyright: August 2023 (Berkley) 368 pgs

Series: 1st in Killers of a Certain Age thriller series

Sensuality: violence, mature themes, language

Mystery Sub-genre: Thriller, intrigue

Main Character: Billie Webster, recently retired from forty years in an elite female assassination squad.

Setting: Modern day, global locations

Obtained Through: Library

Book Blurb: "Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that’s their secret weapon. They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire—it’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller by New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Deanna Raybourn.

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.

When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death.

Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They’re about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman—and a killer—of a certain age."

My Thoughts:  

I like the four diverse women who make up the squad.  Billie is the main point-of-view character through the book. She is particularly good at fighting and is a tad impulsive. The others are: Helen, a widow who's a smooth pickpocket and handy with a gun while also taking detailed notes on everyone she meets;  Natalie (Nat), and Mary Alice. I like these gals and how they work so well together.

Many scenes are told via flashbacks.  Those scenes actually provide some clues, but a few times it felt disorienting to jump to the past. This book has multiple global settings, but initially starts on a luxury cruise. The settings have just enough description to place you in each local. You really feel like your seeing each place through the eyes of a trained killer.  

The plot leads you through some twists and turns and the pacing speeds along.  The climax reveals more than I expected, making it very satisfying. The writing and plot are enjoyable and well done.

It isn't like "The Thursday Murder Club" (see review of book 2 here) since Richard Osman's series has ordinary people, except one character, making it a bit of a rag-tag amateur sleuth group.  The 2010 movie "Red" (short for Retired Extremely Dangerous) is closer since I can see Helen Mirren's character as inspiration for Billie in the book, and both the movie and this books series are about retired deadly agents.  But I think that is where the similarities end. 

I absolutely love the "technology against old school know-how" theme. Their ability to use low-tech or no-tech actually keeps them alive while giving them an upper hand.  So well done. Plus the age and experience beats younger and less experienced theme was golden as well. In an age where over fifty makes it harder to find a job, this had me routing for them.

There is a paradox at work through the book where the four women are shown to maintain their humanity and feelings while being efficient killers, which makes the characters more interesting.  I like how they learned to rely on each other for each one's skill set and not be competitive.  They have become like sisters in some ways.

I do have some caveats with my praise. The "Museum" organization, and thus the four women, operate on a vigilante assassination philosophy that the ends justify the means.  They don't just skirt the law, they toss the law out the window to be judge (the Museum), jury (the Museum), and executioner (the assassins).  It is stated this way in the book: "I'm interested in justice, not law."  But justice is subjective and often handed out based on grudges or emotions like revenge when the law isn't the bedrock.  

I know it took me awhile to get to this book so many of you may have read it already.  I would love to hear your thoughts on the book.

Rating: Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now and put this author on your watch list.

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Musings - Police Procedural, Thriller, and Intrigue

I did a prior post on the differences between Cozy, Traditional, and Amateur Sleuth novels (click here).

Now we will tackle the difference between the detective fiction, police procedurals, thrillers, and intrigue sub-categories of the mystery genre.

Some believe that all mysteries started with detective fiction in mid 1800s and everything from police procedural and thrillers to cozy mysteries has evolved from it.  Whether that is true or not, these categories have developed a lot, particularly in the last few decades.  

This isn't an exhaustive breakdown and analysis but it provides a fair guideline.  These categories are defined differently depending upon who you read/talk to.  I have tried to provide plenty of examples to help illustrate these categories only to aid in understanding what you like and how to find similar novels.  

Detective Fiction to include the Private Detective and CSI,
 

Detective Fiction: For our purposes to define a slice of the bigger mystery genre: The detective (private detective or other professional that is adjacent) investigates a crime, often murder.  Includes the hard-boiled and noir fiction as well as historical detectives.  These range from not much graphic details to gore, depending upon the author.

Many of the historic detective fiction may have a titled or influential/wealthy person investigating even though they don't get paid.  That is a detail of the time period because the titled nobility weren't to "work" for a living, but they still classify as detectives sought out to investigate and use their influence. These can vary from cozy to very gritty. Examples follow:

CS Harris's Sebastion St Cyr

Charles Finch's Charles Lennox series

Andrea Penrose's Wrexford and Sloane series

Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series

Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series

Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot series

Dorothy Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey series

Dashiel Hammet's Sam Spade series

Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe

Jeffrey Dever's Colter Shaw series

CJ Box's Joe Picket (Game Warden) series

Police Procedural

The police procedural is focused on the official law enforcement and its procedures, including police-related topics such as forensic science, autopsies, gathering evidence, search warrants, interrogation, and adherence to legal restrictions and procedures.  They may have more graphic descriptions, swearing, and the harsher side of life shown.

While many police procedurals conceal the criminal's identity until the crime is solved in the climatic killer reveal or confrontation (the so-called whodunit), others reveal the perpetrator's identity to the audience early in the narrative for a twist and more suspense.  Examples follow:

J.D. Robb's In Death series

James Patterson's Detective Alex Cross series

Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn and Chee series

James D Doss's Charlie Moon series (early books)

Ian Rankin's Detective Inspector John Rebus series

Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series

Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series

Robert Galbraith Cormoran Strike series

Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series

P.D. James' Adam Dalgliesh series

Jeffrey Dever's Lincoln Rhymes series

Thriller: Suspense, Political, Action, Psychological, Women-
in-jeopardy, Legal etc.

The thriller genre has taken off and contains many subcategories including Suspense thriller, political thriller, legal thriller, medical thriller, psychological thriller, conspiracy thriller, military thriller, and even the serial killer thriller.  Thus, it makes it difficult to provide general description that adequately includes each of these sub-genres.

The thriller umbrella often includes a race against a ticking clock--a sense of urgency, bigger stakes, and higher tension and suspense.  A "thriller" doesn't have to be non-stop action and thrills, although they can.  Thrillers are more about stopping something from happening with little time rather than finding out who already committed a murder or crime.  They can range anywhere from cozy to gritty to violent with sex.  Examples follow:

Dan Brown's novels including Robert Langdon series

Mary Higgins Clark's (Queen of Suspense) body of work. 

David Baldacci's The Camel Club series

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series (some could be intrigue as well)

Steve Berry's Cotton Malone series

James Patterson's Shadow Thrillers

Andrew Mayne's Jessica Blackwood Thrillers

Catherine Coulter's FBI Thrillers

John Grisham Legal Thrillers: The Firm etc.

Lisa Scottoline's Mistaken Identity etc.

C.G. Abbot's The Society (click here)

David Baldacci's First Family (Maxwell and King series)

Espionage and Intrigue

This is spy fiction: as in spy vs spy, discovering a spy in your midst, the world of assasins for national security, or domestic terrorist threats.  Typically this involves nations but with real world corporate espionage occuring, that has become furtile ground for novelists, too.  They can vary on violence, language and sex depending upon the author.  Examples follow:

Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne series

Stella Rimington's (real life former Director General of MI5) Liz Carlyle series

Gayle Lynds' The Assassins and The Last Spymaster

Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series

David Baldacci's Will Robie series

John le Carré books

Mark Greaney's Gray Man series

Mick Herron's Slough House series

Ian Fleming's James Bond series

There you have the differences between these sub-categories of the Mystery genre.  I hope these give you clarity and aid you in finding what you enjoy so you can find more of that type.  Or, perhaps you have some new books to look into and widen your reading horizons.  That to-be-read pile is getting bigger :-)