Too old for this

When walker-wielding septuagenarian Lottie Jones pulls up her compression socks and answers her door one day, she gets an awful surprise. Ambitious documentary filmmaker Plum Dixon wants to feature her in an online series telling comeback stories of people falsely accused of crimes. Well, Lottie simply can't allow that. She has changed her name, relocated, and made a new life for herself revolving around her church, and even a hint of past criminal involvement could ruin everything for her. The horrible truth is that although she was exonerated of several murders 40 years ago, she actually did commit them. And her house was paid for by the money she won suing the city of Spokane over her "ordeal." Lottie makes a hasty but seamless dispatch of the unfortunate Plum, but when people come looking for the young woman, the long-retired serial killer finds she must go back to work full-time and try not to kill her somewhat enfeebled self in the process. This is Downing at her best. Delightfully macabre and so artful that the reader might well root for Lottie, even when she is psychotic to the max. The perfect recommendation for someone looking for something different and extremely entertaining.

In Downing's (A Twisted Love Story) wryly funny and clever new novel, 75-year-old Lottie Jones's quiet, retired life is suddenly upended when journalist Plum Dixon arrives on her doorstep. Plum is determined to tell Lottie's story of being wrongly accused in the deaths of multiple people many years ago. There's a small problem, though: Lottie wasn't wrongly accused, and she would rather not reopen that can of worms. She'd prefer to keep her previous life as Lorena Mae Lansdale in the past. She'll do anything to keep her old crimes from being dredged up, including, perhaps, killing again. But murder is messy in more ways than one, and Lottie isn't as mentally or physically agile as she once was. Now she's scrambling to keep the past from catching up with her as the consequences of her actions create more problems. VERDICT Downing's impressive ability to have readers rooting for her anti-heroes is on full display in this propulsive cat-and-mouse thriller.--Jane Jorgenson