New York, New York – In Samantha Downing’s latest thriller, a serial killer is pulled out of retirement when an unexpected visitor spells trouble. Speaking exclusively with TAG24 NEWS, the author opened up about how Too Old For This puts a fresh spin on the genre.
Too Old For This, which hits bookstores on August 12, follows 75-year-old Lottie, a former serial killer who has put down her hammer to enjoy a proper retirement.
But when a journalist comes knocking, Lottie realizes her deadly streak may not be over just yet.
As Downing told TAG24, she hadn’t planned on exploring such a unique character when she first sat down to work on her sixth novel.
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“I actually was writing a different book with a younger protagonist, and I wasn’t really into it,” she explained.
“I wasn’t really excited about the story, and at the time, I was going through some health problems – specifically with mobility – and I had to have a couple of surgeries, and I couldn’t really move the way I typically did or work out or do anything, and so I had to do a lot of adapting and adjusting.”
And with that, the roots for Lottie were formed. Downing drew inspiration from this idea of struggling to adapt to a new reality – both in the sense of the now-elderly killer’s increased physical limitations and an evolved digital landscape that makes getting away with murder much more complicated.
As Too Old For This unfolds, Lottie is forced to confront the obstacles that modern technology presents for a serial killer who was in her prime long before the iPhone made its debut.
“A lot of the older serial killers, the famous ones we know from the 70s and 80s, with today’s technology and science, they would have been caught right away,” Downing said.
But with all of the challenges her age poses, Lottie knows exactly how to use society’s treatment of the elderly – and especially older women – to her advantage.
As a church-going grandmother, Lottie certainly isn’t anyone’s first idea of a serial killer, and this has helped her largely escape being seen as a prime suspect.
“Lottie is well aware of the perceptions of her, and as an older woman, she’s either invisible and ignored,” Downing said.
“People think she’s incapable of thinking properly or that her mind or body is going.”
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Such misconceptions and judgments from others fueled the fire in Lottie that drove her to a life of violence in the first place.
As a single mother who never wed, Lottie faced constant scrutiny from the world around her, and as Downing explains, this became “rage-inducing” for Lottie.
“The first thing she realizes with her first kill is that after it’s over, her anger is gone.”
Will Lottie be able to keep her secrets buried? Find out when Too Old For This is published on Tuesday!
For more on this summer’s hottest reads, check out TAG24’s Book Release Radars for June and July 2025.
