🔨🔨🔨🔨1/2
Too Old for This
Samantha Downing
Publication Date: August 12th, 2025
Berkley Publishing Group
400 Pages
Amazon | Goodreads | Bookshop.org
Genre: General Fiction | Mystery & Thrillers
This is my first book by Samantha Downing, and it was a good one. The book is about Lottie, a woman in her mid-seventies who lives in Oregon. She likes playing bingo at the church, chatting with friends, and spending time with her grandchildren. Sounds typical, right? Lottie has a secret, though. When she was younger, she was a serial killer. She was never convicted of her crimes, even though the police suspected her. Suddenly, an investigative reporter shows up and wants to do a documentary about Lottie. Lottie is petrified of her secret coming out, so she decides her only recourse is to eliminate the threat of exposure. That’s when things begin to unravel.
I loved this cat-and-mouse game. This book was humorous and suspenseful in equal measure. It is told from Lottie’s point of view, and I loved her internal thoughts and dialogue. She may be in her seventies, but her mind is sharp and her wit is quick. I loved how the author uses Lottie’s age as both a positive and a negative. Lottie may seem like a mild-mannered senior and use this to her advantage, but her age also shows through her aches and pains and lack of technological knowledge. The chapters are short and punchy, which make the pages fly by.
This was an utterly unique premise that was executed flawlessly. As someone who recently turned 59, I loved that the book reflects my feelings about aging—you’re never too old to get up to old tricks. Know what was great about this book? The killer is a bingo-playing senior citizen. Know what was even better? I was cheering her on despite her dark side. Downing deserves an extra half star for those two points alone.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
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