We all read different kinds of books depending on mood, school, time of day, etc. Sometimes something light is required. This series fits the bill.Virginia (all the family members are named after cities or geographic locations) is a member of the Bombay family whose tradition and business is they are assassins. All independently wealthy thanks to the family trust fund, each receives assignments from the "Council" made up of senior family members. Part of the family reunions, normally held every five years is to eliminate someone in the family who has failed some assignment and to initiate children just turning five into their new responsibilities. Each member develops a specialty: " Poison was my specialty. Everyone in the family had a favorite way of killing people, even though we were required to cross-train. With my brother, it was asphyxiation and/or strangulation. And while I should probably worry about that, it made us a good team because we both liked to make each job resemble death by natural cause. Of course, occasionally we ran out of time and had to leave the scene of the crime with a plastic bag still on the victim’s head, but that happened only once when I’d been running late from picking up Romi from preschool." Held on their own private island, they have to go inside buildings every day at 4 p.m. to avoid passing satellite surveillance. This invitation is unusual in that it comes just one year after the last. Refusing is not an option.
"As I stroked the creamy vellum paper, for a brief moment I thought about sending my regrets. But only for a moment. After all, it wasn’t an option on the R.S.V.P. card. Unlike most family reunions with sack races, bad weather and crappy T-shirts, where to refuse to go only meant you weren’t in the ridiculous all-family photo, to turn down this invitation was death. That’s right. Death. Any blooded member of the family who didn’t show was terminated. Now, where had I put that goddamned pen?"
It appears a mole has wormed his way into the family, it's a male member of the family is all that's known and Virginia has been assigned the task of eliminating the threat. Things get complicated when she falls in love with a bodyguard for a man she has been assigned to take out. But enough plot. Just plain fun.
