Today's Protagonists Aren't just Youngish Men
They are you and me
One of the things I love about reading in the 2020’s is the breadth of books available. Most of the books I read in high school English were written by white guys, and unshockingly, most of the protagonists written by those authors were white guys. And before everyone gets antsy, those are the books that made me fall in love reading and writing. But fast forward to now where I can read books written by all sorts of people, the stories I’m consuming today are vastly more varied. Sure I can still read about Hemingway’s European adventures, but I can also read about a gay kid growing up in Nigeria. I can find stories from all over the world told by people both like me, and totally different from me, and I love it.
And recently I realized that in the last six weeks, I’d read four thriller-esque books featuring protagonists aged 60’s to 80’s. Upon finishing the fourth book, it occurred to me, seven weeks ago, I hadn’t read a single thriller featuring a senior citizen as the protagonist. And the books were fun page turners. They did exactly what I wanted them to do, and transported me out of my usual life. So today I’m going to share them with you.
This is a thriller. Killers of Certain Age features four female protagonists. They are assassins for a shadowy entity simply known as The Museum. They were recruited right out of college for the first all female assassin class, and they killed their way to retirement. Lucky enough to have survived their decades long, highly dangerous careers, The Museum sends them into the next chapter of their lives in style. They book them on a farewell retirement cruise.
And at first it’s great. Then the Foursome realizes, The Museum sent a few of the next generation of assassins to kill them, and well, while the young bucks are both younger and stronger than them, the four women aren’t about to get killed now.
Will they figure out why The Museum has a hit on them or will the get killed before they can truly retire? Read and find out.
This is a mystery. Taking place at a posh retirement community, our four protagonists of The Thursday Murder Club don’t want to participate in the usual retirement community clubs. Knitting, movie watching, birdhouse building... all those clubs are boring. So instead, the Thursday Murder Club (Thursday because that’s when they could book the activity room) gathers to try and solve unsolved crimes. But when a murder happens in their little community, they abandon the cold cases and insert themselves in the active investigation happening on their doorstep.
It’s funny. It’s heartwarming, and while the police might have more training in crime solving than our protagonists, the police don’t hold a candle to the Thursday Murder Club’s lifetime experience. Turns out, old dogs can learn new tricks. And if the case is going to get solved, it’s going to be because of the Thursday Murder Club.
This is horror. The Haar‘s protagonist just wants to die in the town where she’s spent her whole life. She lives in a little cottage on the cliffs of Scotland, overlooking the ocean. Everything is as fine as it can be for our eighty-four year old protagonist. Yes, the humidity messes with her aches and pains. Yes, she is so weakened she can hardly carry her groceries. Yes, her husband is dead, and yes she knows her time is coming. Yet, her life isn’t bad.
But when an American billionaire decides he’s taking her land to build a luxury resort, it doesn’t look good for our protagonist. Until she finds a bizarre blob floating in the sea. The billionaire might be murdering her friends, but what the blob can do is far more horrifying.
The Haar is a great horror novella with a protagonist you haven’t seen before.
This is a thriller. The protagonist of Too Old For This is trying to settle into her golden years. She quit the serial killer game a while ago. Now she’s just hoping her adult son keeps his life on the rails and that she doesn’t get shamed too much by her Church buddies when she brings store bought snacks to Bingo.
Of course, her plans go awry when a wannabe podcaster shows up on her doorstep hoping to make a podcast of how she was wrongly framed for a series of murders. The problem is, our protagonist did commit those murders, and while she’s not looking to kill another person, this podcaster is going to have to die so no one figures out her past.
Of course, for our protagonist, turns out murdering people is like eating potato chips. She can’t stop at just one.
Will she get to live her final years on her terms? Or will her misdeeds finally catch up with her? You’ll have to read it to find out.
If you pick up any of these, I hope you enjoy them!