67 pages • 2 hours read
Deanna RaybournKillers of a Certain Age
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaChapters 12-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
The narrative returns to the Sphinxes during their training period. Natalie has developed a talent for munitions and weaponry, Mary Alice has become a poison expert, and Helen is the best shot of the four. Billie is skilled in all areas but exceptional in none, frustrating Constance with her lack of effort. She summons Billie to a private meeting, where she suggests secretarial school might be a better fit. Billie becomes enraged when Constance suggests she lacks industry and heart and should not have been recruited. Constance returns to her love of classical allusions, showing Billie a painting of the Greek goddess of dawn, Astraea, who was so devoted to justice she left humanity when they disappointed her. Constance informs Billie that Astraea has frequently been depicted by poets and artists. She asks Billie if she will follow the task the goddess has set, epitomized by the sword she left on earth.
The next day, Billie admits she struggles with weapons that can be “taken away from me,” so Constance arranges for hand-to-hand combat training (129). At first, the combat instructor leaves her covered in bruises from repeated throws, but she finally bests him after a month of work. Constance tells her that this passion will fuel her success.
The narrator recounts what made Constance select the four women. Helen’s father was a member of the OSS, the precursor to the CIA, while Natalie’s grandmother was the child of Russian anarchists. She joined the Dutch resistance and left her son with her parents in the US. Halliday knew her mother and saved the records of her work. Mary Alice had a happy childhood but was angered when her brother and her sister’s fiancé died in Vietnam. She became an assassin in the hopes of saving future generations from war.
Constance hopes her Sphinxes will have more skill with subterfuge and live longer than the Furies. The women are given makeovers and taught how to stage plausible cover stories in feminine-coded careers like nursing and waitressing. Billie refuses to have the scar on her face corrected as it is her last connection to her old life.
Chapter 13 Summary
The next day, Billie awakens to find someone at the gate to the safe house. Akiko has arrived with the family cat, Kevin. Mary Alice explains, without apology, that she called her wife. When Akiko arrives, the women explain that contrary to what Akiko thinks, they are hired killers, not spies, and Helen even specifies, “we are most definitely not shitting you” (139). Akiko asks Helen to show her where to sleep and storms off. To Billie’s surprise, Mary Alice is calm, realizing that if her wife has brought the cat and agreed to stay there it means Akiko remains committed to her.
Chapter 14 Summary
The four professionals prepare for their meeting with Sweeney, posing as part of Jackson Square’s background. Helen will occupy a table at a popular restaurant, Muriel’s, so that she can shoot Sweeney or any other threats from a distance. Mary Alice dresses as a busker and plays the cello, Natalie sets up as a street artist, and Billie, now sporting a red wig, will read tarot cards.
Sweeney arrives, and Billie calls out to him, offering to read his cards. His first card shows a past addiction, which he says is smoking. He explains the agency has discovered that the women are taking jobs for money without agency sanction. Billie denies this, then shows him cards that indicate an uncertain future or that he is untrustworthy. Billie watches Sweeney and realizes he is there to kill her. Helen doesn’t respond to Billie’s hidden signal, so Billie distracts Sweeney with a palm reading. After he confirms that there are “bonuses for everyone one of us that get killed,” she shoots him herself (149).
Chapter 15 Summary
Billie flees, discarding her disguise and trusting that the others will meet her. She realizes an agent is following her and rushes into a hotel to hide, eventually making her way to the rooftop bar. She nurses a drink, seeing her pursuer below. Billie rushes downstairs when she hears a parade passing by outside. She dresses as a tourist and joins the throng, successfully avoiding her pursuer.
Chapter 16 Summary
Billie returns home to find the others overjoyed to see her. She explains to Akiko that killing Sweeney was a form of self-defense. Billie recounts the events, concealing Helen’s loss of nerve. Akiko expresses hope that his death ends matters, but the others try to explain that there will be more assassins. Akiko is horrified and outraged, telling Mary Alice that she expects to be able to return to her life, and that Mary Alice owes her that much after years of deception.
The four friends decide they must contact the Museum through the curators, the lower-level managers, and Billie dials Martin in Acquisitions. He tells her the evidence on them arrived via a secret dossier, not the Provenance department, and insists that it is useless to resist. Billie leaves Martin a way to contact her and hangs up. The women note that their situation is unusual because while the Museum always acts on valid intelligence, it rarely does so this quickly.
They decide Billie should call Naomi from the Provenance department to find out more about the intelligence that implicated them. Billie tries to banter about their shared love of British crime procedurals since she can hear Midsomer Murders in the background, but Naomi does not laugh. She changes the subject to the incriminating dossier, and Naomi tells her she can ask one question. Billie asks if there is a way to “rescind the order,” and Naomi rejects the idea, saying the women are being made an example of: “[Y]ou’re expendable to the board. Whoever is arranging the freelance hits isn’t, so the board has decided to protect them” (168). Naomi hangs up when Billie suggests the guilty party could be in her department. Naomi’s choice to provide cryptic hints that indicate all is not well at the Museum underlines that she may emerge as a later ally, as she does at the end of the text.
Billie describes the call to the others, who quickly realize that any of the jobs they thought were sanctioned could have been illicit. Billie insists they must focus on a new plan of action. Billie points out that they could run and live under aliases indefinitely, but the others are skeptical, especially as their pensions from the Museum will not be paid as long as they are at large. Natalie hates this idea, and Billie agrees but expresses reluctance at deciding too hastily to choose the other alternative: murdering the board members to save their own lives. To Billie’s surprise, everyone commits to this plan immediately, even Akiko. She declares, “Then it’s unanimous. The Board of Directors is going to die” (171).
Chapters 12-16 Analysis
Before the reader is given more insight into Billie’s quest for information, the narrative returns to the past. Constance tells Billie one story about herself: a woman who lacks purpose and motivation and may not have the talent to succeed at her new occupation. She uses another story, the myth of Astraea, to remind her that the work is much more ancient than either of them. The younger Billie finally admits her greatest fear—the loss of a weapon— so Constance offers her the chance to shape herself into a living tool. The others have their own personal stories, less ancient than the myth of Astraea but no less potent: Helen and Natalie have family legacies while Mary Alice sees a chance to prevent tragedies like those her family experienced. Even when the women are much younger, their personal and familial pasts shape who they become.
The action sequences at this stage of the narrative highlight the women’s organizational skills and talents while reinforcing the theme of The Importance of Loyalty. Billie’s tarot cards foreshadow Sweeney’s treachery and his choice to betray her. They serve a dual narrative function as they conceal Billie’s identity but also reveal truth. Symbolic talismans and tokens underline key themes. Sweeney believes the women are disloyal, so he no longer merits their trust. Their assessment of Martin will also turn out to be incorrect as he is the agent who implicated them. This underlines that none of the women can trust men to have their best interests at heart.
The next stage of the women’s quest for survival and validation intensifies the moral dilemmas they face. Mary Alice decides love is worth telling the truth for but finds that Akiko no longer trusts her. Billie decides to protect Helen rather than be honest about Helen’s failure to assassinate Sweeney. And all four women must decide on their futures, knowing that the only escape is more killing to save their own lives. This introduces a morally gray element into their formerly binary world: they can no longer trust that all their past missions were truly in the name of world peace, and now their own murders will be carried out in the name of survival more than a higher purpose.
While Martin urges caution and appears to underestimate the women’s ability to defend themselves, Naomi points them to deeper truths of agency politics that explain their predicament. They are only part of a larger plan to disguise corruption, not targeted because they are important in themselves. Naomi, like Billie, is a woman drawn to mystery narratives, suggesting she will remain an important character. By the close of this section, the women have committed to action over passivity. They are taking control of their lives in the same way Constance taught them. They have no doubt that they will succeed: Men may underestimate them, but they know their own value.
