Maggie Bird feels like she has finally left her past as a CIA agent behind when she retires to the quiet, small town of Purity, Maine. Some of her former CIA colleagues have already moved there and encouraged her to join them. She raises chickens and lives next door to a retired professor and his precocious granddaughter.
All the peace and quiet evaporate when a young woman comes to her house to ask Maggie's help in finding Diana, an agent Maggie hasn't seen in sixteen years. Maggie doesn't want to help because she believes Diana is responsible for so many bad things that happened then and caused Maggie to be on the run for many years. She thinks that Bianca, the young woman, will be on her way. Unfortunately, Maggie's neighbor calls her when she is at her friends' monthly book club dinner and tells her there are police at her house. Maggie arrives home to find Bianca dead in her driveway in what appears to be an execution style murder. The young, acting sheriff, Jo Thibodeau, has plenty of questions for Maggie and her friends. Of course, they are cagey and not very forthcoming.
I loved the suspense, the twists and even the poignancy of this novel. It's a change of pace for author Tess Gerritsen. I think it's one of her best and look forward to the next novel since THE SPY COAST is the first in The Martini Club series.
All the characters were fully fleshed out. It was interesting that the author brought that about as the story moved back and forth in time. This was delineated and easy to follow. I enjoyed most of the characters except those who were obvious villains or came to be ones. Besides Maggie, my favorite character was Jo. She's young, but smarter than she's given credit for. The guy from the state got on my last nerve, as I'm sure was intended.
Thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer and its staff for giving me the chance to read and review this fabulous book.

Tess Gerritsen's new series about a group of retired spies whose past comes back to haunt them started off a bit rocky for me, but overall I enjoyed it and look forward to the gang's next adventure.

There are multiple POVs, the main charakter's being told in present first tense (which for me took some getting used to), the others (in my opinion a bit redundant sometimes) in 3rd person past tense. That sometimes felt a bit off to me, but at some point it felt like she had found her footing and then the story flowed a bit better. There's a fair bit of exposition, but after a while I got into the story and really enjoyed it.

Perfect for Richard Osman readers looking for a new group of meddling retirees.

First, I want to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read an arc in exchange for my honest review.

Maggie, a retired CIA spy, becomes the center of an investigation when a woman shows up dead on her property. Maggie’s friends (who are also retired CIA operatives and an adorable group of personalities) come together to form “The Martini Club” to help Maggie get some answers and solve the case.
Overall, this was such a fun and fast-paced read once I was 70-90 pages in! I loved the the alternating timelines which kept my interest throughout my read. The ending was set up perfectly for a series/sequel, I’m excited to read the next one in the series!
3.75 ⭐️

WOW! I loved this book. A high-tension thriller with a character I instantly was fascinated by and fell in love with. Maggie is a retired CIA agent who's escaped to a lovely small town in Maine, but her past is catching up with her. It's told in dual timeline, which was awesome (loved seeing her in her 60s but also when she was in her 30s). I adored the interwoven love story. I also love that so many questions were raised but we have to wait for book 2 to get the answers! It's been a long time since I've fallen in love with a new series, but this is it!

More than just (just!) a page-turner, The Spy Coast checked all the boxes that I care about: strong female characters, swift action, clever plot, smart commentary on life beyond the millennium. And witty understanding of the value of our, um, elders. Can't wait for Maggie's next adventure--with the entire group.

What a complete and utter surprise!
First, let me thank NetGalley for this ARC.
Sometimes when you pick up a book, you have an idea or preconception of what you may read. Good or bad. How incredibly disappointing to find that I had a very biased idea of what Tess Gerritsen’s prose would look like to me. I really expected something so easy to read it would be superficial, I would glide through it without much thought, something to smooth me over to the next “real” read. Was it due to the ease of the television series “Rizzoli and Isles”, something that basic? I’m not sure. Here is what I can tell you.
I read an interview with this author for this book and new series, and it intrigued me. Retired spies, all settled in their retired ways in sleepy Maine towns, which she confirms is actually real. I thought I would give it a go.
The story starts with the mundane of the retired, habitual patterns of behavior to everyday tasks. An interesting group, but again, skills not needed, not known, just retired. Invisible. Or so they thought. A mission from over a decade ago suddenly comes front and center to the woman known as Maggie Bird, with a body thrown into her yard, and soon an attempt on her life follows. Some of their past lives they can share, but as former spies, they know less is more, especially for friends and former colleagues. Despite her insistence to the contrary, her friends help her.
Tgebook then takes you back and forth to prior lives and the present, trying to determine who or what may be initiating the body toll.
I found her writing to expressive, round and forthright, so that I could actually see and appreciate the lives these people now have. I actually found the mission story less intriguing. Is it because of the challenges faced as we age, and the description of them so compelling? I’m not sure, but I can say that I truly enjoyed this book, really looking forward to this series, in hopes that it continues to be true to the characters as they live their “retired” lives.
I would recommend this book!!!

Maggie Bird is sixty and now a chicken farmer. She did a lot of research until she found Blackberry Farm—it’s perfect. Even better, she has some retired acquaintances close by with whom she gets together on a regular basis. They call themselves The Martini Club, ostensibly a book club. But is it really?

Purity, Maine is a small village on the coast that has attracted its share of persons who would prefer not to be found. So when a body is dumped on her driveway, Maggie has a strong feeling she’s been discovered.

Maggie is magnificent. Don’t discount her because of her age. She’s smart, cool under fire, and capable. And she can easily handle Jo Thibodeau, the acting police chief.

The plot storyline goes back and forth with a switch of POVs and timeline that gradually adds colorful backstory of the main characters.

It is a complex storyline with exotic location descriptions, despotic or empathetic characters, the business of the CIA and intelligence wrapped in a gripping, thoughtfully developed and fast-paced novel.

The action tumbles page by page—you have to know more! I ripped through this one and found the conclusion satisfying—loved how it was resolved.

I loved this one, start to finish, and wholeheartedly recommend it.

Love Tess! This is a bit of a departure for her and is in the same category as a few ever popular tales of older/retired crime fighters. Quick read with quirky characters.

The Spy Coast
(The Martini Club #1)
By: Tess Gerritsen

This was my first book by this author and I really enjoyed this one. Full of action, intrigue and based in Maine which is my happy place.

Maggie Bird is 60 and she is a retired CIA agent now living in a seaside village. She is the owner of Blackberry farm and has chickens. Sounds like a slow-paced life now! Just when she thinks life is laid back and idyllic a body shows up in her driveway. She has made enemies in her former job, so who is haunting her now. Can she be pulled into this world again? Her neighbors don’t know about her past. Nothing like her two worlds colliding.
Thank you Thomas & Mercer, Netgalley and MB Beattie for this advanced copy. I look forward to the next in the series.

This was such a fascinating book. I love a good spy book, but this one featuring retired spies over the age of 60 was brilliant. I love the trend of older people as the main characters. Certain parts are really sad. Maggie sacrificed a lot for her country. She’s suffered years of guilt. I didn’t like Diana at all. I was very engrossed in the storyline.

I have been a big fan of Tess Gerritsen for a long time and her new book “The Spy Coast” has reinforced my enthusiasm for every book she writes. This story is different from her other books as we are following a group of retired CIA operatives living in rural Maine come out of retirement to protect one of their own from an “old mission” gone wrong. The new cast of characters are charming, intelligent and exciting, and I found myself rooting for all of them as this fascinating intense mystery sweeps us across the globe. I believe this is the first of a new series and I cannot wait to read what follows! I especially appreciated how Ms. Gerritsen makes us aware that these agents may be in their golden years but they are still a formidable group who can outwit their much younger adversaries. I highly recommend this to all who enjoy this genre.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was drawn to this new series by Gerritsen as I have read !most of her other books including her early romantic suspense. The Martini club did not disappoint. A bit predictable vin some elements, the story evolves filled with strong characters who make up for the right guesses. I loved the travelogue of exotic places and food descriptions. I want to see more sleuthing from this cosy mystery with an edge.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

Thank you to Net Galley and to Thomas & Mercer for an early copy of The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen

"And that's what we must learn to deal with: our place in a world that sees us as used up and irrelevant. This new generation looks only to the future, with little regard for the past and what it could teach them. What we could teach them."

Maggie Bird, a former spy who never really retired, and Jo Thibodeau, acting police chief of Purity, Maine, will match wits when a dead woman is found on Maggie's driveway. The victim had visited Maggie that same day, but Maggie must unravel the terrifying message the woman brought: something in Maggie's spy past has come to light and she is needed in order to find someone she used to know.

With the help of Maggie's small but very effective band of former spies who now live in Purity, Maggie will put the pieces together, begin her globe-trotting journey and ultimately confront her past. And what a past! Her backstory is revealed in a harrowing series of chapters where Maggie falls in love, faces danger and must constantly weigh what to reveal and what to hide.

This is the first book in what will be The Martini Club series as this small group of very sharp "retired" spies make use of their varied and crucial skills to solve crimes.

As a longtime fan of the Rizzoli & Isles books, I can often take or leave Tess Gerritsen's standalone books. This one is a keeper! Mysterious characters, well-developed relationships, riveting plot. The heroine is an older woman who is not held back by societal thoughts on anyone older than 40. This one kept me guessing until the end, and I was lefting wanting to know what's next for Maggie, her friends – and her foes.

Thank you Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the chance to read an advance copy of The spy coast by Tess Gerritsen. The author is a long time favourite of mine, and I was excited to see a new series by her. The spy coast is a total departure from her Rizzoli & Isles thriller series as she ventures into the espionage world. One of my favourite thing about this book was the characters. Maggie retired from the CIA after a devastating loss and ends up settling down in a small town in Maine, where other CIA retirees have settled. I am used to reading thrillers whose main characters are under 50 and I am thrilled that Maggie and the rest of The Martini Club are older! If you enjoyed the movie Red (with Helen Mirren, and Bruce Willis) you will definitely enjoy The spy coast!

Good but not great.
Dwelled too much on the past…I thought yhe present day story was more interesting
Ending was a little far-fetched
Well written

Sixty year old Maggie thought she left her spy days behind when she retired to quiet, small town coastal Purity, Maine, the home of some old friends of hers from her early CIA career. When a woman comes knocking at her door to find out if Maggie knows where Diana Ward, a name from her past escapades, is, she realizes her cover has been blown. Shortly thereafter, Maggie discovers the woman making the inquiry dead in her driveway, having been tortured. Maggie knows she is in trouble.

Told in two timelines, the history behind Diana Ward and a mission gone horribly wrong sixteen years ago is revealed while in the present, Maggie and her friends try to keep her safe. Local police chief, Jo Thibodeau, is suspicious of Maggie and before she knows it, this retired spy is back on the road trying to put an end to that chapter of her life.

I am a fan of Gerritsen’s Rizzoli and Isles series and this is the promising first installment of a new series, “The Martini Club” so named because it is the moniker Maggie quickly made up when Thibodeau questions why Maggie and her friends are meeting together so frequently.

I’m not a huge aficionada of spy novels because they often are a bit over the top. Gerritsen, though, has a great talent for captivating her readers and this book is no exception. The story is an entertaining, fast read; suspenseful with charming characters. There is some lightheartedness and I particularly appreciated the reflections on aging.

I am looking forward to Book 2.

This was spectacular!
From the setting of a quaint, coastal Maine town to the characters, an endearing bunch of retirees, this book was a delight from start to finish. Don't get me wrong, this is no cosy mystery, there's violence, bad language and sex involved and many twists and turns as the reader delves into the backstory of Maggie, one of the members of the 'Martini Club', a group of retired CIA operatives who have settled into the charming enclave of Purity, Maine.
Maggie's past catches up with her in spectacular fashion and whilst this elderly group may be settling into their golden years, they still possess a formidable skill set to end the ambush on one of their own.

Wow. Maggie Bird and her quiet, unassuming life in Maine.
Loved this story. A bit different from other Gerritsen books, but a great read. Had me hooked and had to keep reading. No lag in the story qt all, and it held mt attention the whole way. Maggie is the next retired 007.
Can’t wait for another Maggie Bird installment

Well over a decade ago, after a mission went disastrously wrong, ex-CIA operative Maggie Bird was forced to go into early retirement. Opting to become a chicken farmer (!) in the small town of Purity in Maine, she left the danger and excitement of a globe-trotting past well behind her, settling into her bucolic surroundings.

Or she thought. Until a most unwelcome reminder arrived dead in her driveway, making Maggie realise that whatever her aspirations for a peaceful existence, her enemies had certainly not forgotten her!

So Maggie turns to her 'book club' aka her fellow 60-something retired spies' network for assistance. Meanwhile, police investigator Jo Thibodeau wonders what on earth is going on, when she is repeatedly beaten to the punch by this den of silver-haired snoops...

Moving on from her police investigation stories, Gerritsen has done an excellent job of providing us with a whole new cast of characters to enjoy. I read it in one sitting.
The first book in the series begins things with a bang. And with plenty of action, an eventful storyline, and her trademark humour, the author has given us lots to look forward to from Maggie and her gang of formidable pensioners.