Where do spies go to retire? What happens when old foes and a mission gone wrong come back to haunt you and force you out into the open when you are no longer protected by the agency? These are the questions that Gerritsen seeks to answer in this wonderful revamp of the standard spy thriller! 

Maggie Bird, formerly with the CIA, retired to the small seaside village of Purity, Maine after a mission went terribly wrong. Here she has filled her days by caring for her chickens, befriending the young girl who lives on the next farm and periodically getting together with a local circle of former spies called the Martini Club.  

But Maggie’s tranquility is shattered when a body turns up in her driveway. She knows it’s a message and a warning but who is sending it and why are they coming after her now? To further complicate things, Purity’s acting police chief Jo Thibodeau, who usually deals with drunk tourists and not dead bodies, suspects Maggie is hiding pertinent information. Faced with a warning and afraid that old foes are going to try and settle old scores, Maggie turns to her former colleagues in the Martini Club to help her track the killers and free her from the ghosts of her past.

This was so much fun! I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but what really made it extra special was what I read in the Author’s’ Note at the end of the book! 

‘The Spy Coast was inspired by an odd little secret I discovered years ago about my small Maine town. Soon after we moved here, my physician husband opened a medical practice, and when he asked his new patients about their prior occupations, this was how the conversation sometimes went:

Doctor: “What did you do for a living?”

Patient: “I used to work for the government.”

Doctor: “And what did you do for the government?”

Patient: “I can’t talk about it.”

After about the third or fourth time this happened, my husband realized there was something very peculiar about the retirees who live here. A local Realtor finally revealed the secret: “Oh, they were all CIA.” We discovered that, just on our short street, we had two retired spies as neighbors. Why have so many of them congregated in this town of only five thousand inhabitants? Is it because they feel safely anonymous here in the woodsy north, far from any nuclear targets? Is it because our town was featured prominently (or so our Realtor told us) in a retirement magazine for spies? Or because Maine has been used so often as a location for safe houses in the past?

These are among the theories I’ve heard, but I’ve never managed to get a straight answer because the people who actually know that answer can’t—or won’t—talk about it.

Because of their age and their silver hair, we may not give these retirees a second glance. They are simply our neighbors who rub shoulders with us in the local coffee shop, push their carts down the grocery store aisles as we do, and wish us good morning at the post office. They blend in so well that we never stop to wonder about who they used to be, or what secrets they’ll guard till the grave.

Unassuming retirees with secret past lives make fascinating characters to explore, and that’s how The Spy Coast was born. I wanted to write about spies who don’t look like James Bond but instead are like my neighbors, quietly living as utterly ordinary retirees . . . until the past comes back to haunt them, and they’re forced to call on old skills they thought they’d never have to use again.”

Gerritsen has done what she intended and more, creating fascinating characters who are full of life and all the thrills and suspense you could ever want! A second book in this series will be released in March of 2025!

Brenda’s Rating: **** (4 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Martin, Lauren and Keith

Book Study worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.