Mary Alice Tuttle: Loyalty, Violence, and Survival

Overview

Mary Alice Tuttle is one of the four former assassins at the heart of Deanna Raybourn’s Killers of a Certain Age. A married woman with a sharp tongue and a deep well of loyalty, Mary Alice balances domestic life with the deadly skills she honed as a member of the Museum’s Exhibitions department. She is warm with her found family, fiercely protective of her wife Akiko, and capable of extreme violence when her teammates are threatened. Her arc demonstrates the tension between the ordinary life she has built and the extraordinary acts she must still commit.

Plot Role

Mary Alice is a core member of the four-woman team that includes Billie, Helen, and Natalie. In the present-day timeline (set in the mid-2010s), she reunites with the others at a suspiciously cheap briefing in Colonial Williamsburg. Her role in the mission is essential: she provides steady tactical thinking, participates in disguises (including posing as a wheelchair-bound private secretary during an old folks’ home infiltration), and becomes the driver of the getaway boat in Venice. Her most dramatic moment comes during the train confrontation, where she jumps from the moving car while clutching a chicken—a symbol of both absurdity and survival.

Across the retrospective missions (1982, 1994), Mary Alice is a reliable field agent. In the 1982 nanny mission, she distracts the household staff by flooding a bathroom, enabling the team to reach their target. In 1994, she recalls the exact details of the team’s first mission, showing her meticulous memory. In the present, she helps eliminate Galina, Tamara, and Marilyn Carstairs on the train, then leads the arduous night trek through the mountains after the jump.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Fierce loyalty: Mary Alice’s driving force is her devotion to her wife Akiko and to her team. When Akiko arrives in Sardinia and declares that by the transitive property she too is an assassin, Mary Alice doesn’t correct her; she simply says, “I’m just glad you’re here safe.” Later, when the team is stranded after the train jump, Mary Alice is willing to offer money or even sexual favors to the motorcyclists just to get them off the road, demonstrating that she will do anything for her friends.

Violent protectiveness: Though she often comes across as the most “normal” of the four—married, with cats, fond of Talbots—Mary Alice does not hesitate to use lethal force. During the train confrontation, she is the one who insists on smoking out Galina and Tamara on the train, and her ruthless efficiency is implied by her participation in the final kills. Her willingness to shove a chicken at Helen and jump with it shows both her pragmatism and her refusal to abandon any member of the team, even a bird Natalie has adopted.

Practical competence: Mary Alice is consistently levelheaded. She drives the getaway boat, she remembers mission details others have forgotten, and she is the one who suggests the “smoke” plan on the train. She also acknowledges her own limits: when Billie offers painkillers after the jump, Mary Alice notes they’ll wear off in six hours, showing she is grounded in reality.

Humor with an edge: Mary Alice banters constantly with Natalie, calling her outfit “Chico’s permanent press collection” and referring to a crocheted dick warmer as the “most disturbing thing” she has ever seen—next to an ice pick murder. This mix of domesticity and brutality defines her character.

Chronological Arc

1979 (first mission): Mary Alice recalls the team’s first mission—posing as stewardesses to take out Bulgarian assassin Boris Lazarov. She remembers the Provenance agent Lilian Flanders because she had a crush on a boy named Flanders. The mission establishes her long tenure.
1982 (nanny mission): Mary Alice floods the maid’s bathroom to create a diversion, allowing Billie and Constance to proceed with the kill. This shows her willingness to get her hands dirty behind the scenes.
1994 (Bosque mission): The team receives a briefing in New York to kill Fermín Bosque, a Nazi art heir. Mary Alice is present, and the mission succeeds with no recorded missteps from her.
Present day: Mary Alice reunites with the team in Williamsburg. They trace the Leda painting to Switzerland, infiltrate an assisted living facility (Mary Alice polishes her role as a private secretary), and later fight in Venice and on the train. Her key moment is jumping from the train while holding the chicken, then hiking through the night. She ends the book at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, toasting with the others as “necessary monsters.”
Epilogue and final chapters: Mary Alice returns to Akiko and her cats, showing she has preserved the domestic life she fought to protect.

Relationships

Akiko: Mary Alice’s wife is a sharp, supportive partner who knows her occupation and embraces it without fear. Akiko arrives in Sardinia with the cats and declares herself an assassin by proxy. Mary Alice softens visibly around her, mooning over her and picking the best pastries. The relationship is built on trust and acceptance.

Teammates: Mary Alice has a scrappy, affectionate dynamic with Natalie—they insult each other constantly but never mean it. She respects Helen’s authority and Billie’s leadership. When the team is in danger, Mary Alice puts herself on the line for them without question.

The chicken: Though Mary Alice initially refuses to babysit the bird, she ends up jumping from a train with it under her arm. This absurd detail underscores her loyalty: she will protect even a nuisance if it belongs to a friend.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Jumping from the train with the chicken: Mary Alice could have abandoned the bird to save herself, but she chooses to bring it along. The consequence is that the chicken survives and later serves as a comic relief, but more importantly, the act reaffirms her identity as someone who will not sacrifice the vulnerable.
Agreeing to the train mission: Mary Alice, like the others, agrees to a plan that requires them to face Galina and Tamara directly. The consequence is the death of the enemy leaders and the recovery of the Leda painting, but also broken ribs and exhaustion.
Marrying Akiko and living openly: Mary Alice chose to marry outside the Museum’s secrecy, trusting Akiko with the truth. This decision gives her a stable home life, but it also creates a vulnerability that she acknowledges when she worries about pushing her luck.

Themes and Symbol Connections

Mary Alice embodies the theme of aging and competence. She is sixty-two but still deadly, and her body protests (she needs painkillers after the jump) but she refuses to be sidelined. Her fierce loyalty ties into the theme of loyalty and chosen family; the four women rely on each other beyond any blood tie. Her willingness to use disguises (nanny, old-lady secretary) connects to deception and disguise. Her participation in killing those who threaten the team and the painting aligns with revenge and justice. Finally, her decision to protect cultural heritage—the Raphael—ties to art and legacy. The chicken, deliberately kept alive, can be read as a symbol of the absurd, messy life they preserve.

Questions and Answers

Why does Mary Alice remember the name “Lilian Flanders” from the first mission? She recalls it because the first boy she had a crush on was named Flanders, and she wondered if Lilian might be related. This is explicit text from Chapter Three.
How does Mary Alice contribute to the train escape? She jumps from the train with the chicken, then hikes through the night with the others. She also participates in the plan to smoke out Galina and Tamara by suggesting they use smoke, which Billie executes with burning chips.
What does Mary Alice’s relationship with Akiko reveal about her character? It shows she values honesty and partnership. Akiko knows she is an assassin and fully accepts it, calling herself an assassin by “transitive property.” Mary Alice is deeply protective of Akiko but also trusting.
Why is Mary Alice willing to “give them all the money in my pockets” and “any sexual favors” to get a ride after the jump? This exaggerates her desperation but underscores her fierce loyalty to the team. She will sacrifice her dignity or resources to ensure they survive. It is an interpretation based on the text that she made the offer.
What does the chicken symbolize in Mary Alice’s arc? The chicken represents the unexpected burdens of loyalty. She initially rejects it but ends up physically carrying it off the train. By protecting the bird, she protects a piece of Natalie’s identity, showing that for Mary Alice, family includes the ridiculous and the inconvenient.

For a deeper look at how the mission concludes, visit the ending explained page or the questions and answers for broader plot discussion.