Review: The Spy Coast

My sickness of letting books by favorite authors languish in my TBR continues with The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen, the first book in her new Martini Club series for Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint. This came out in November 2023. I recall this off the top of my head because Gerritsen made a few booksigning stops in my part of the world around early December that year and I picked up autographed copies as Christmas presents for my two sisters, one of whom I know for a fact read it and liked it. I kept skipping over it to read other things (many of which were not, quite frankly, near as good) and when book two in the series came out in March I knew I was being ridiculous and moved it up to the top of the pile, and then proceeded to not read a single word of anything for several weeks. Seriously, this slump is killing me. But once I did start this? I inhaled it.

Maggie Bird is former CIA, a spy who walked away after a job went wrong. At the suggestion of former work colleagues who also settled there, she purchases a farmhouse in tiny Purity, Maine, raises chickens, and mostly keeps to herself - other than those former work colleagues and her closest neighbors (a grandfather raising his teenage granddaughter). Being in the middle of nowhere, and the fact that very few people pay attention to 60-year-old women, Maggie's life is quiet and unpredictable - that is until her past comes calling.

A woman shows up, wanting Maggie's help in locating a former work colleague who fled Paris leaving behind the dead bodies of a couple of assassins. They think Diana is now in Bangkok and are hoping Maggie can narrow down their search. Maggie and Diana did not part on good terms, plus Maggie is retired. She tells this woman to take a hike - only to find her dead body, with signs of torture, dumped in her driveway a day later.

Jo Thibodeau is Purity's interim police chief, having assumed the job after the former chief died from a heart attack. Jo grew up in Purity and her job is mostly dealing with domestic cases, rowdy drunks, and various shenanigans when the tourists blow into town during the summer months. A murdered woman who was tortured before her death is just not something they see...um, ever. And what's the story on Maggie Bird? This woman is way too calm and cool for someone who came home from a dinner party to find a dead body in her driveway. And her security system? Way to fancy-schmancy for a mere chicken farmer. Suddenly Jo finds herself running into Maggie's "friends" all over town asking nosy questions and tracing the very same steps in the investigation she is.

Gerritsen employs my well-documented, least favorite, suspense writing tic in this book, that of the non-linear timeline. That said, it works here. The story is mostly told from Maggie's perspective, although we also get Jo's and Diana's points of view which help to flesh out the plot. The plot travels between Bangkok, London, Malta and Maine as Maggie tries to puzzle out why now, after 16 years of quiet retirement, someone wants her dead - and how is Diana connected to it all? One thing is for sure, she needs to find out what's going on before Purity's police chief does, because that young woman is too observant by half. 

There's been a string of mystery and suspense novels lately featuring "old people" although it pains me to call 60 old. This book succeeds where some of those others have failed (for me) because Maggie and her friends feel like retired spies. They're jaded and suspicious. They keep to themselves and really only trust each other (and just barely at that), having all been through the fire together at the agency. They also have kept up with their various skills but they also aren't superheroes. Maggie is still a crack shot but nobody in the Martini Club is out here kung fu fighting or rappelling down mountains. They face and escape danger like the smart ex-spies that they are - by being sneaky and covert.

I'll admit I had this one solved before the finish, but it's a great time getting there as the author slowly unfolds Maggie's past and what happened on that job gone wrong 16-years ago. It's also got a humdinger of a finish with Maggie, and her friendships, growing stronger over the course of the story. The one benefit of me waiting so long to read this?  Book two is already out and waiting for me.

Final Grade = B+