Too Old For This by Samantha Downing

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About The Book 📚

Title: Too Old For This

Author: Samantha Downing

Publication Date: August 12, 2025

Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group

Genre: Adult, Detective & Mystery, Thriller

Pages: 400

Setting: Oregon, U.S.

Click Here for Content Warnings (may contain spoilers)

Three Words That Describe This Book: murder, aging, funny

About The Author

“Samantha Downing is an internationally bestselling thriller author whose books have appeared on the Sunday Times and USA Today bestseller lists. Her novels include My Lovely Wife, He Started It, For Your Own Good, and A Twisted Love Story.

Her debut novel, My Lovely Wife, was nominated for Edgar, ITW, and Macavity awards in the US, the CWA award in the UK, and was the winner of the Prix des Lectrices award in France.

Her next thriller, Too Old For This, will be released on August 12, 2025 in the US.” https://www.samanthadowning.com/about

My Review

› I didn’t give A Twisted Love Story by Samantha Downing 5 stars because it failed the Bechdel Test, I wanted more character development, world-building, description, and intrigue. In Samantha Downing’s 5th book, Too Old For This, she has improved on all of those aspects. The cover caught my eye on Netgalley, and I’m grateful to have received an advance digital copy for review. It’s hard to put this one into a genre, as it is kind of cozy in a way when Lottie is playing Bingo with her church friends, and it’s darkly funny, yet there are gruesome murders.

› Lottie Jones is a 75-year-old retired serial killer. She stopped murdering people 10 years ago and has been living under a new name, raising her son. She loves her son, even though he has made some decisions she disagrees with, such as divorcing the mother of his children and starting a relationship with a much younger woman. Lottie’s favourite drink is tea, and her greatest fear is having her family and friends learning about her past life as a serial killer. She’s struggling with aging, frustrated that her body can’t do what it used to do, has been forgetting things and is worried about dying alone.

› A knock at the door introduces Plum Dixon, a producer of a docuseries who knows Lottie’s real name and how she was once accused of murder. She was found innocent at the time, but the public didn’t agree. Plum wants to set the record straight, but Lottie DOES NOT want a show done about her…so the only solution really is to kill Plum. What other choice did she have?

› The only problem is that murder is exhausting. Especially the cleanup. Lottie has to adapt to this new world. She’s not as strong as she once was, and there is a lot of new technology that makes it more difficult to get away with murder. She is “too old for this”.

“Like so many other things, murder began to feel like a chore instead of a joy.”

› One murder starts the domino effect, and Lottie ends up having to deal with one person after another.

Quotes That Stuck With Me

“Isn’t that horrible? To feel lucky no one attacked you?”
Lottie explains that knowing she can murder someone makes her feel safe in a world where too many women are attacked. In her aging body, she’s feeling weak and worried about being attacked. She wants to appear strong and refuses to use a walker or cane in public.

“My original plan wasn’t to kill her. But when _____________ was so ungrateful about the money and then ordered me out of her house, she didn’t leave me a choice.”

“She nods, her face tight. Look at that. One good thing happened today. Anytime I can make Glenda do that with her face, I consider it an accomplishment. Whenever I find myself feeling particularly down, or desperate, she is the one I imagine killing. Countless hours have been spent planning her death, and I’ve come up with so many different ways. One of my favorites is hitting her over the head with a pickleball paddle.”

HAHA oh the dark humour is next level

“Sometimes I say things just to make myself laugh on the inside.”

“Judgment is one of those things you can feel before you know what it is.”
So true. This sentence stopped me in my tracks.

› The main character has goals, strengths, flaws, external conflict and internal conflict; however, the side characters felt underdeveloped. I liked the relationship between Lottie and her soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Stephanie. The dialogue and banter with the Bingo group are really fun to read. I enjoyed the descriptions of setting, world-building, and mood. The writing is engaging, with high readability, and I enjoyed the first-person point of view and short chapters. Although it is repetitive and has some fluff, the plot has a good pace, and I enjoyed the conflict and suspense. This has high intrigue, and it’s unique. There were a things that didn’t seem realistic, but I had a good time reading this, and it made me laugh out loud many times.

APPEAL FACTORS
Storyline: character-driven, intricately plotted, plot-driven, unconventional
Pace: medium
Tone: high-drama, suspenseful, dark, gruesome, violent
Humour: dark humour, sarcastic
Writing Style: well-crafted dialogue, candid, engaging, gritty, witty
Character: complex, flawed, sarcastic, strong female, well-developed
Disability representation: physically disabled

Read Alikes:
Diary of a Murderer by Young-Ha Kim, translated by Krys Lee
Secrets of a Serial Killer by Rosie Walker
What She Did by Carla Kovach
The Old Woman With the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo, translated by Chi-Young Kim

› In the past, I have given a rating out of ten and converted that to a star rating, but I’m no longer giving a star rating here on my blog. I will continue to do that on Goodreads and The Story Graph.

› Final Thoughts
• Too Old For This is a darkly humorous story about aging and murder. It’s about the ways people have to learn to adapt to the changing world around us. I recommend this to fans of murder stories with sarcastic humour. This is set to release on August 12, 2025.