Remember that line from Monty Python? "And now for something completely different."? I never watched a lot of those, but I did like that line, and it seems to fit this book: Killers of a Certain Age, by Deanna Raybourn. There are four of them, now retired and on a cruise, a retirement gift, a 'thank you' for all their years of hard work. Until they see someone they shouldn't, who hasn't, er, followed the proper protocol, leading them to realize they are the target. Backtracking a bit here, these women were assassins with a secret organization. They took out bad guys, quietly and efficiently, so why would said organization want to take them out? That, my friends, is the story here! It switches between their recruitment and training, various jobs, and the retirement cruise and beyond as they track down the who and the why of the order to take them out. Funnier than you'd think, and hard to put down.

A Poisoning in Piccadilly is the first in the Lady Eleanor Mystery series by Lynda Wilcox. It's New Year's Eve. There is a party, of course, but things go bad when the rich American gentleman Lady Eleanor is dancing with dies in her arms. At first she is a suspect, but there is no connection, she'd never met him before. So, it moves on to his children, staff, business contacts ... and just where are the missing papers he was supposed to deliver? Not a bad start!

Reading Hermit With Dog