25 May 2026

I am a huge fan of Samantha Downing’s work, and while Too Old for This feels quite different from her previous novels, it is another easy five-star read for me.

Lottie Jones lives a quiet and seemingly ordinary life — until the day journalist Plum Dixon appears on her doorstep asking far too many questions about Lottie’s past. Faced with the possibility of her secrets being exposed, Lottie decides there is only one solution: Plum has to die.

The problem is that times have changed, and getting away with murder is not nearly as easy as it used to be.

I absolutely loved Lottie as a character and found myself rooting for her from beginning to end. She fully embraces the fact that she is an older woman and cleverly uses society’s assumptions to her advantage. She knows exactly when to play the role of the harmless, frail old lady and when to quietly take control of a situation.

The strange thing is that Lottie Jones is undeniably a terrible person. She is a serial killer who genuinely enjoys killing people, and by all accounts she should be impossible to like. Yet Samantha Downing writes her with so much charm, wit, and personality that you cannot help but love her anyway. It certainly helps that many of the other characters are equally awful in their own ways.

Downing cleverly explores the way society tends to overlook older women, automatically viewing them as harmless or invisible. Lottie’s victims willingly walk straight into her life because no one ever considers her capable of being dangerous. It is a fascinating concept, and the author handles it brilliantly.

Despite the dark subject matter, the book is packed with humour, which often distracts from just how gruesome some of the murders actually are. And there are quite a few gory moments throughout the story. Still, the wit and sharp narration keep the novel feeling entertaining rather than overly heavy.

Lottie Jones makes for a fantastic reading companion, and I genuinely found myself missing her once I turned the final page. This was a wildly entertaining thriller that I cannot recommend highly enough.