The Spy Coast, by Tess Gerritsen.
Where do old spies go when it’s time to retire? (always assuming they last that long.) In Tess Gerritsen’s first novel in her new
series, five of them have moved to a small seaside town in Maine, on the
North-Eastern Canadian border. It’s a
very tame life now for these ex-CIA veterans but they meet regularly and try to
be content with their safe but boring new circumstances – until a strange woman
– obviously from the agency – confronts one of their number at her home, full
of questions that she has no intention of answering. Maggie Bird is happy with her new life; she has had a career of great danger and
enormous rewards which led to the most tragic event in her life; now she is content to live in peace on the chicken farm she purchased, and has no
intention of getting dragged into any ructions caused by the last (and worst)
job she was on. She sends the woman away
with instructions not to come back.
But she does: as a
corpse, laid out crucifixion-style with two bullets in her skull, all done
while Maggie was meeting with the other exes for Martinis. Her neighbour appraises her of this when he
sees the police-car lights in Maggie’s driveway. It would seem that Maggie and her friends are
going to be dragged back into the old job with its old mysteries and those
seeking revenge whether she wants it or not.
To make matters worse, the local (acting) Police Chief, Jo Thibodeau, is
not satisfied with the friends’ version of what they were doing at the time of
the murder: drinking Martinis and
calling themselves the Martini Club was not befitting the seriousness of
the crime committed in Maggie’s driveway, and how come Maggie has the best
security cameras that money can buy – for a chicken farm? And Jo would appreciate it if she could show
them the footage NOW, please, which only reveals an SUV with tinted windows and
a heavily-disguised shape delivering the body.
Which satisfies no-one. And sends Jo Thibodeau away with the knowledge
that somehow, some way, Maggie Bird and her friends know a lot more than they
are saying and that makes her determined to find out what, and who they really
are. She may never have left Purity,
Maine, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be good at her job, so there! She’ll keep on digging whether they like it
or not.
Ms Gerritsen has written a perfect airport thriller,
strong, believable protagonists, (read the Author’s Note),
mile-a-minute action, and a plot that takes us all over the world without
losing its credibility. FIVE STARS
( And Book Two is available at your library: ‘The Summer Guests.’ Can’t wait!)
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