Too Old for This

Too Old for This (2025) is a domestic noir thriller by Samantha Downing, an author known for novels such as My Lovely Wife (2019) and For Your Own Good (2021). The novel centers on Lottie Jones, a 75-year-old serial killer whose quiet retirement is disrupted when a young documentary filmmaker arrives intending to expose her hidden past. To protect her secrets, Lottie is forced to confront the challenges of a modern world filled with digital surveillance. The book explores themes including The Perils of Ageism and Gender Discrimination, The Performance of Identity as a Tool for Survival, and The Frailty of the Body Versus the Resilience of the Will.

This guide refers to the 2025 Berkley edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of gender discrimination, graphic violence, alcohol use, sexual content, cursing, illness or death, emotional abuse, and mention of death by suicide.

Plot Summary

Seventy-five-year-old Lottie Jones lives a quiet, solitary life until Plum Dixon, a young docuseries producer, arrives at her door. Plum intends to create a series about a string of murders from 1985 in which Lottie, then known as Lorena Mae Lansdale, was the primary suspect but was never arrested. Lottie later changed her name to escape the media scrutiny and the bullying her son endured. When Plum reveals she will make the series with or without Lottie’s cooperation, Lottie feigns hospitality before killing her with an umbrella.

Lottie immediately begins a methodical cover-up. She cleans the blood from her kitchen with hydrogen peroxide, drives Plum’s car to the Salem airport, destroys Plum’s phone and laptop, and returns home via taxi. She places Plum’s body in a chest freezer in her garage. The next day, she dismembers the body with a chainsaw. Lottie packages the body parts in butcher paper, labels them as different types of meat, and begins the multi-day process of burning them in her fireplace.

Plum’s boyfriend, Cole Fletcher, calls Lottie, having tracked Plum’s phone to her house. Lottie lies, claiming Plum left safely. Soon after, Cole visits in person. Lottie uses a walker to appear frail and helpless. Cole reveals that the police suspect he was abusive and that Plum may have run away from him. When Salem Police Detectives Rey Tula and Kelsie Harlow question Lottie, she reinforces their suspicion by claiming she saw a bruise and a burn on Plum. Lottie then reads the file Plum left behind, which details Lottie’s past in Spokane and includes a flashback to her interrogation by Detective Kenneth Burke, during which she remained completely silent to avoid incriminating herself.

Detective Kelsie Harlow grows suspicious of Lottie. She returns to Lottie’s house alone, revealing that Plum never boarded a flight and that she knows Lottie’s real name. Kelsie blackmails Lottie for $50,000 to keep her past a secret. Lottie begins stalking Kelsie to find an opportunity to kill her. After giving Kelsie a partial payment, Lottie observes her worried reaction and realizes Kelsie is desperate for the money. Lottie goes to Kelsie’s house and kills her with a claw hammer, staging the scene to look like an accidental slip-and-fall in the shower so effectively that the news later reports her death as an accident. Afterward, Lottie realizes she made a critical mistake: She brought her smartphone with her, which tracked her location to Kelsie’s house.

To control the narrative, Lottie attends Kelsie’s funeral and befriends Detective Tula. She fabricates a story that Kelsie was obsessed with proving Cole’s guilt, leading Tula to believe that Kelsie discovered Plum’s earring planted in Lottie’s bathroom by Cole.. To explain her phone’s location data, Lottie tells Tula she visited Kelsie’s house on the night of her death to return the earring back she supposedly found, providing an innocent reason for being there. Tula believes her story, and his suspicion shifts away from Lottie.

Soon after, Plum’s estranged mother, Norma Dixon, arrives in town and confronts Lottie. Lottie manipulates Norma, convincing her that the police lied about Plum’s supposed injuries to frame Cole and quickly close the case. Lottie then begins a campaign of psychological manipulation, using a prepaid phone and a voice-changing app to send Norma anonymous, cryptic messages in an attempt to confuse Norma and direct her suspicion elsewhere. The torment culminates with Norma drugging Lottie’s wine during a dinner at her house, tying her to a chair, and confronting her with Plum’s file. Lottie tricks Norma into loosening her bonds, escapes, and kills Norma during a chase through the house.

Archie’s fiancée, Morgan, arrives for an unexpected visit and discovers one of Norma’s severed fingers in the kitchen freezer. Lottie convinces her it is a hyper-realistic prop for a church play. To maintain the illusion that Norma is still alive, Lottie goes to Norma’s hotel room. Using Norma’s finger to unlock her phone, Lottie discovers encrypted messages between Norma and the retired Kenneth Burke. The texts reveal that Burke, obsessed with Lottie’s case for 40 years, found her through a photo Morgan posted on social media. He then contacted Plum and instigated the docuseries project to trap Lottie. His plan involved Norma planting a hidden camera in Lottie’s house. Lottie finds the camera, plants it herself, and stages her own “murder” for Burke to witness, making it appear as if Norma attacked and killed her during their dinner together.

Lottie travels to Norma’s motel room, where Burke’s son, “Junior,” breaks in. Lottie deduces he was sent by his father to kill Norma and eliminate her as a witness to his illegal surveillance plot. Lottie incapacitates and kills Junior, then sets fire to the room to destroy his body, framing Norma for the murder. She drives to Spokane in Junior’s SUV for a final confrontation with Burke. She breaks into his home, but Burke, now elderly and in a wheelchair, ambushes her with a gun, having tracked his son’s phone. Burke confesses his obsession was driven by a desire to be “remembered.” Lottie distracts him, disarms him, and knocks him unconscious. She plants Norma’s and Junior’s phones at the scene and stages it to look like Norma killed Junior, then drove to Spokane to kill Burke before dying herself in an explosion caused by Burke’s oxygen tank.

Lottie returns to Baycliff by bus, and the deaths are reported as a murder-suicide. She reconciles with Archie, sells her house, and moves into the Oak Manor retirement community. Sometime later, Cole Fletcher returns, proposing to make the docuseries about Lottie to honor Plum. Instead of killing him, Lottie counters with a proposal: They become partners and produce docuseries about other wrongfully accused individuals. She sees this as a way to continue Plum’s legacy in a new, non-lethal capacity, redefining her future.