Is it weird that I found this book so much fun? This lady is in her seventies and just minding her own business when this chick shows up that knows all about her past life. Well that chick is a problem that needed taken care of. But then other people start poking their noses in and an old woman can not get any peace.
Old people serial killers needs to be the next thing.

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This was very fun! A 70-something woman thought she had left behind her life of crime, but when a journalist comes sniffing around, she may have to come out of retirement.

In pure Samantha Downing fashion, this book is great! Lottie Jones is a retired serial killer living a quiet life. When Plum Dixon stops by her house, her retirement is over. Things happen and more things happen! This story is very engaging and entertaining!

Lottie is sharp for her age and can outsmart most people. She has a grown son and several grandchildren. She gets in bad situations and can outwit herself out of them. She does crazy stuff but you will love her whit and charm!

This book is great and highly recommended!

Well Played, Razor-Sharp Instincts and Twisted! 5 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy! This book will be released 8/12/25.

Alright, it’s official. If Samantha Downing has no fans, then I no longer exist ✨

An old lady serial killer?! Immediately yes.

Who knew I would so easily get sucked into the world of Thursday night bingo, hip replacements, and decades old revenge?

This was so much fun! As always, she continues to bring us hit after hit!

An intriguingly cozy thriller! Lottie/Lorena is endearing. She has her close frenemies from church, she attends bingo and brunch, and she visits retirement homes with the realization that she doesn't want to die in her home. Along the way, Lottie commits murder. And then another to cover it up, and that just sets her on a path with few choices. I loved this thriller, and there are some humorous moments along the way that will keep the reader engaged. Super believable, not really, but that's a suspense novel for you. Patrons will be placing holds on this for sure.

This book drops you in it from the get go.. I am not normally the one to side for serial killers but I like Lottie and I love how this book takes you through her thoughts and actions. I love her relationships with her friends and that she goes to bingo but at the same time is a cold blooded killer. This is a great book.

"Too Old for This" is an upcoming thriller by the amazing. Samantha Downing. The story follows Lottie Jones, a typical senior living out her retirement quietly playing weekly bingo at church and enjoying small town gossiping. Her past as a retired serial killer is blown wide open when she meets Plum Dixon, an investigative journalist looking to dig up Lottie’s past. To protect her past, Lottie contemplates committing another murder, but she soon realizes her with her age, murder is more complicated.

I enjoyed following Lottie and her “Dexter/Golden Girls” personality. On the outside you see a sweet grandma, but you have no idea what she’s capable of.

The characters are very well developed. You feel like you know Lottie and could be her friend….just don’t cross her.

This was my first book from Samantha Downing. Consider me a fan!!!! From the first page to the last, I devoured this book! It kept me guessing until the end

Lottie Jones has spent a lifetime eliminating problems—and people—who dared to stand in her way. For decades, she moved through life with precision, taking down obstacles with an efficiency that left even the police baffled. They once came close to pinning several deaths on her, but Lottie slipped through their fingers every time.

Now, at nearly 80, she’s retired from all that nonsense. These days, Lottie enjoys the quiet life—bingo nights at church, gossiping with her friends, and critiquing questionable potluck dishes. She’s traded in her sharp instincts for a well-earned sense of peace.

At least, she thought she had.

Enter Plum Dixon, an ambitious docu-journalist who’s unearthed Lottie’s past—trails of fake names, carefully constructed misdirection, and a string of mysterious deaths that never quite led anywhere. Plum is convinced she’s found the story of a lifetime, and she’s not leaving without answers.

Now Lottie has a choice: prove that she really has hung up her hat for good… or remind the world that old age doesn’t mean harmless. With the challenges of modern serial killing—pesky phone tracking, omnipresent cameras, and nosy journalists—it’s harder than ever to stay off the radar.

But Lottie didn’t survive this long by being sloppy.

Wickedly clever and darkly hilarious, Too Old for This is a razor-sharp thriller that proves retirement is just a state of mind.

#TooOldForThis #SamanthaDowning #Berkley #KillerInstinctsNeverDie #SeniorCitizenSass #TrueCrimeMeetsBingoNight

Samantha Downing is back and she’s created possibly her most deviously cunning antihero yet! Meet Lottie Jones, aka Lorena Mae Lansdale. Don’t let this septuagenarian fool you. Her mind and body may not be quite as sharp now, but she knows her way around plenty of other sharp and deadly things … after she’s served you some tea and cookies, of course.

Serial killer stories are a dime a dozen lately, but what I really loved about this book is that it showcased Downing’s trademark black humor with an MC, Lottie Jones, who did truly heinous things but was also witty, likeable and smart - something she achieved previously with her character Teddy Crutcher in For Your Own Good. You want to root for her, despite knowing how wrong what she’s doing is!

Downing also brought attention to the very real plight of aging, where society isn’t always kind or accommodating to those already dealing with physical, mental and financial stresses. You see that Lottie isn’t on her ‘A’ game anymore and that the world is moving on, so there’s a sympathetic response. Watching her struggle with all the advances in technology … I felt that to my core!

This was engaging, fun, dark, macabre, ridiculous at times - but in the best way - and, for me at least, was a return to form for Downing after not loving her last book A Twisted Love Story quite as much. You’ll have to suspend disbelief and just roll with this one. My only minor criticism: at 400 pages, a couple parts dragged a little or felt repetitive, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment. One thing is for sure: I’ll think twice before I knock on anyone’s door again!

I’ll tell you what I’m too old for, and that is staying up to the wee hours of the morning to finish a book I started because I couldn’t put it down. I REALLY enjoyed this new thriller from Samantha Downing and I love a fresh new idea for a thriller. A should be retired serial killer still having to cover her tracks, it was chefs kiss. The ending was good, but slightly fell flat for me as I expected something a bit grander. However, still a 5 star read for me because I enjoyed every second.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing this book, with my honest review below.

I haven’t read a thriller quite like Too Old for This but I loved the different elements at play in it, and would be happy to continue to follow our serial killer, Lottie, as she continues to enjoy her ‘retired’ life.

Lottie is a grandma struggling with aches and pains that come with aging, her routine incorporating bingo and church when a visitor at her door has her visiting her past, and bringing her proclivities from back then to the present. Lottie just can’t seem to help herself and for that I’m glad because I loved ‘hearing’ her thought process and learning about the very unique way she gets her thrills. Sadly one visitor leads to many others and this book got super dark and super funny as things just get more complicated.

If you love a thriller this is not like your usual fare, and that’s a great thing because this is a standout.

I enjoyed this story about Lottie Jones who is a senior citizen that is a (retired) serial killer. This book was fun and thrilling to read. I loved that it was about an older protagonist. This book was fast paced and I really was hooked from the start. This is great enertainment!

This was an excellent read, packed with dark humour, unexpected twists, and a protagonist who is deceptively dangerous. Lottie Jones, a seemingly harmless small-town retiree, conceals a dark past behind her bingo-night charm. When her carefully built life comes under threat, the stakes skyrocket, and the darkly comedic mayhem ensues.

The story moves at a quick pace, with tension escalating with every knock on Lottie’s door. While the plot occasionally dips into the improbable, it only adds to the entertainment factor.

An ideal weekend read for fans of mysteries laced with wit and a hint of danger.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with an eARC of Too Old for This prior to its publication.

Lottie Jones is a senior citizen with a secret: she is a serial killer. Living a decidedly average life in an Oregon suburb, Lottie fills her time with church and normalcy, but beneath the surface she is hiding a different identity and a trove of murders.

When a young woman comes by her home trying to convince Lottie to participate in a docuseries about wrongly accused criminals that will focus on her, Lottie jumps into action: she murders the filmmaker. What follows is an entertaining game of cat and mouse with a couple of detectives and many more in Lottie’s life.

I loved the plot of this book and author Samantha Dixon really delivered in this story. Lottie is a complex, often humorous character, well crafted and executed. I enjoyed the plot and the many twists of the story, so I am rating this one 4.25 stars. You will want to grab this one when it drops on August 12.

I received this advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and feedback.

All the stars for this gem!!

This was such a fun thriller!! Is it super realistic? No not really. But it starts and stays that way, which for me makes it ok. I absolutely love the way Downing wrote Lottie. Ok fine, so she’s a retired serial killer and not exactly role model material. But man was she fun to hang out with in this book!

The action starts in the first chapter, and after a million slow burn mysteries it was a welcome change. I couldn’t stop reading this because let me tell you it was a string of dominos falling and I couldn’t wait to see what crazy thing would happen next.

While a totally different story, this has similar vibes to For Your Own Good, my fav book by the author. Or I should say former fav bc my NEW fav is Too Old for This! It was dark humor at its best with a very high body count. Loved and absolutely recommend putting this on your summer TBR!

Thanks Berkley & NetGalley for the advanced copy!

I usually love Downing’s thrillers so this was obviously very anticipated and it did not disappoint! Following Lottie was so much FUN - we’re in the mind of a geriatric former serial killer who got away with it, and now a documentary team wants to make a show about her being ‘wrongfully accused’. It was a really interesting and well-paced story from a morally grey protagonist, comparing to Downing’s previous works it reminded me a lot of <i>For Your Own Good</i> which was my favorite of hers.

Wow Samantha Downing has done it again! I could not put this one down. Finished it in one day. Lottie is an elderly lady that lives in a small town and gets together with her friends at church. What her friends don’t know is Lottie is a retired serial killer. But a podcaster wants to interview Lottie as she was accused of being a serial killer but the charges were dropped. Lottie can’t have this so she goes back on a killing spree. Great book! I really enjoyed it!

Lottie is a 75 year old retired serial killer just going to church and minding her own business when Plum Dixon shows up at her door. Plum is creating a docuseries where she is intent on clearing Lottie's name, but Lottie changed her name and moved away and has no intentions of letting Plum make her show so she dusts off her umbrella and unretires from murder setting off a chain of events that leads to a hell of a body count and a lot of Advil for Lottie. I loved this book. Downing has a way of writing the most endearing serial killers, it's a real talent. If you were a fan of For Your Own Good you will absolutely love this one too.

You know a thriller is going to be good when the first chapter is so captivating it makes up the entire synopsis of the book! From there, readers better fasten those seatbelts, because Downing takes us on a wild ride with this one. I don’t think I’ve ever cheered so hard for a main character, who is essentially the villain of the story. I was gripped by Lottie and so invested in what was going to happen to her. I’ve never been so tempted to flip to the back of a book and read the final page in my life. But I stayed strong and the journey this one-of-a-kind character took me on was well worth every moment of suspense and tension. This was truly a thrilling read!