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 37-39Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 37 Summary
Everyone has a last meal together before Billie leaves for the auction in London. During dinner, Billie remarks on the presence of potatoes, which foreshadows their future use as bombs stuffed with Taverner’s firecrackers. When the women find themselves alone, they toast Constance and their history together. The next day, Billie sends a text message before leaving her phone behind—clearly a signal that is somehow part of her plan. Vance will later reveal that she sent a text to Martin without turning off her phone’s location, leading her adversaries directly to Benscombe.
Taverner drives Billie to the train station for her trip to London and informs her that Minka is practicing her throwing skills with Akiko—another hint that the two will be instrumental to the trap for Vance. She reminisces about their relationship, which was passionate and happy until he began to propose marriage to her because he wanted children. True to her nature, Billie chose her career instead. She asks Taverner if he has regrets, and he says his marriage was happy and he could not have been fulfilled in life without children. Billie says she has had “[E]xactly the life I wanted for myself” (309). Taverner tells Billie he never felt compelled to chase her down, knowing it would not have worked. He brings her almost to tears with his admission that “I always figured we’d find our way back to each other in the end” (310).
Chapter 38 Summary
Billie arrives at the auction house, which has been sumptuously decorated to resemble the Globe Theater, the location where Shakespeare’s plays premiered. Billie takes in The Queen of Sheba Arising, recalling other twists on the biblical narrative that suggest Solomon had to convince the queen to join him in bed by giving her spicy food and suggesting she owed him sex if she took anything he owned, including water (314). Billie reflects that in the painting, the queen looks like someone who has chosen to conquer through sex. Billie realizes a famous Black woman is also taking in the art: Mona Rae is a young director, a possible reference to the writer and director Issa Rae, the creator and star of HBO’s series Insecure.
Billie hides from the crowd, noticing at least one Museum member as the auction begins. After Mona Rae wins the painting at auction, Billie slips into place next to Vance. She admits to the assassinations, and he pretends to be impressed she is confronting him openly. He gets a text on his Smartwatch and tells her that he has taken the others captive. He tells her they are leaving for Benscombe, so that everyone will die as a group. Billie points out the absurd dedication to villainy the pronouncement requires, and says, “[S]houldn’t you be twirling a mustache when you say shit like that?” She tells Vance she can spot his entire team of backup assassins. She enters an SUV and bumps into another passenger—Martin, from Acquisitions, who she is clearly not surprised to see.
Chapter 39 Summary
On the ride to Benscombe, Billie asks Martin about his role, and learns that he invented the dossier on his own and brought it to the Museum board. He chose a time when Naomi would not be present to object. Martin had hoped the four would eliminate the entire board for him, allowing him to become the sole Director. Vance approves of this general plan but decided to take out Martin and take over the agency himself. Martin and Vance mock Billie for leaving her location services on as she thanked Martin for the tip about the auction, as this enabled them to find her and the others.
They arrive at Benscombe, and Billie joins the others in the kitchen, noting they are all around the table with a pitcher of nondairy creamer. Martin explains further that the deaths of senior Directors, according to the Museum charter, mean their subordinates take over, which would have positioned him perfectly in the event of Paar’s death.
Vance wants not only control of the agency, but revenge on Billie for killing the baroness in Zanzibar before he could. Ultimately, Vance intends to take over the agency as its sole head. Before Vance can leave, Billie tells him he has assumed incorrectly that her choice to leave location services on was accidental. The menopause app on all the phones begins to meow, and the kitchen window explodes. Minka, Akiko, and Taverner are throwing potatoes stuffed with firecrackers. Akiko is clearly relying on her softball skills, having passed them on to Minka. Mary Alice and Natalie throw nondairy creamer and a candle at one assassin, and Billie notes “most people don’t realize exactly how flammable nondairy creamer is. Consider this a PSA” (330).
Billie and Mary Alice take out the remaining assassins with Mary Alice using a cast iron skillet as her weapon. Billie tries to get Helen out of the kitchen, but Vance finds them first. Helen escapes, and Billie and Vance end up in hand-to-hand combat. Billie is struck by Vance’s obvious condescension, which she remembers from every misogynist she has ever met. Her rage is soon replaced by a memory of Constance telling her to focus on what she loves most (332). Bringing the fight to a close, Billie stabs him with her hair barrette, which Natalie made into a weapon.
Before Billie can celebrate, Martin takes her captive, hoping that this will secure his escape. Billie realizes he plans to kill her so he can run through an opening in the house’s rose garden. Before he can do so, a shot rings out: Helen has taken out Martin, her case of the yips now resolved.
Chapters 37-39 Analysis
Billie’s conversation with Taverner reveals why Billie has chosen a solitary life despite having known great love. She never wavered from her commitment to a life free of family entanglements while he opted for domesticity. This is something of a reversal of traditional gender roles while underlining that it is impossible for women to truly have everything they want without sacrifices. This also echoes Natalie’s earlier sentiments that women are always left with guilt and regrets in a patriarchal world. Billie and Taverner, however, understand and respect each other’s autonomy, leaving readers with some hope that the two may in fact find each other again.
The final action sequences are Raybourn’s testimony to women’s ingenuity and self-determination, regardless of their age. Billie lets Vance believe she is a despairing wreck, both to lead him into a trap and for the sake of learning the full extent of Martin’s treachery and Vance’s decision to take advantage of it. Even while imperiled, Billie stops to appreciate the art and the fact that a Black woman wins the painting, a gesture toward justice and equity.
The denouement at Benscombe is a way of bringing past and present together without a flashback. The location is symbolic as the four women demonstrate their expertise in the place where they were once novices. There, they reconnect with what matters most. Billie assumes the role of shepherdess, pretending to be a sacrifice for the others and putting herself at risk to stop Vance. As has often been the case, the women weaponize everyday objects for their survival: Potatoes become bombs, nondairy creamer is an incendiary device, and hair barrettes, seemingly delicate and frivolous, become lethal weapons. Vance assumes Billie is too elderly to understand technology, realizing too late that she lured him to Benscombe on purpose. It is the memory of Constance Billie carries with her into her fight, the love of her work, her friends, and herself that helps her become victorious.
While Billie thinks of Helen’s struggle with killing as merely a case of the “yips”—nerves that can strike any expert— it is also possible to read it as an increasing discomfort with causing death now that Helen is a widow. Martin and Vance have no qualms about killing for selfish reasons, unlike Billie and her comrades, who largely act out of principle and self-defense. The fact that Helen is able to recover her skills when Billie’s life is at stake reinforces the theme of friendship: Billie always remains dependent on her strong ties to a larger ensemble.
