Read an exclusive excerpt from the author’s upcoming novel, which will hit shelves in the summer of 2025

Samantha Downing is back on her thriller game with her upcoming release.

Downing is the author of bestsellers such as My dear wife, A twisted love story and For your own good. PEOPLE can exclusively share the cover of the author’s upcoming thriller, Too old for thatwhich will be released this summer from Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Lottie Jones, a retired serial killer, thought she had left her life of crime behind. He moved to a small town, changed his name and stayed mostly out of the limelight. That is, until Plum Dixon arrives at her house.

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Plum, an investigative journalist, rushes after Lottie with questions about her past, not to mention her involvement in a series of unsolved crime cases. All of Lottie’s chances of trying to silence Plum become more complicated when another mysterious guest shows up on her doorstep – someone who could be the end of her.

Read on for an exclusive excerpt from Too old for that.

“As I said, Reboot Productions specializes in telling the story behind the story. Here let me show you the site.” She pulls out her phone and jumps out of her chair, pushing the screen in front of me.

“Looks good.”

“What I like to do is really dig into a story, investigate…”

“So you’re a reporter.”

“No, I’m the producer. I am the owner of the company.” Plum smiles. She is quite proud of it. I’m sure it’s a great achievement, but I’d be happier if they stopped stalking me.

“Congratulations.” The kettle whistled. We poured boiling water into our cups.

“Thank you. But I’m more interested in talking about you, not me.”

Here it is. I may be 75, but I know a sales pitch when I hear one. It hasn’t been that long since I bought my last car, and Plum reminds me a bit of the car salesman. Not a compliment.

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I put the tray with tea and sugar, milk and spoons on the table.

“You really didn’t have to go to all that trouble,” says Plum.

“I think I have some cookies too.”

“I don’t have to…”

“There is no problem. No problem.”

She puts a dollop of cream into the tea, ignores the sugar, and stirs it before pulling out the tea bag. Now the string is wrapped around the stem of the spoon. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch her trying to discreetly untie it.

We all have different abilities, I suppose.

“Ms. Jones, I think . . .”

“Please. Call me Lottie.”

“Lottie, okay. Well, Lottie, you’ve had one of the most fascinating lives I’ve ever come across. A lot of people would love to hear your side of the story.”

I sit down and mix my own tea, without adding sugar or milk. Both are bad according to my doctor.

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“Your story is exactly what we do,” she says. “We investigate old crimes and compare what we know now with how it was reported back then. You lost your job, your family, probably all your friends. And the names they gave you were so horrible! The media acted like you were some kind of devil.”

She-devil. They called me that, along with “that serial killer woman” and sometimes “psychopathic bitch.” It all happened before the internet. The era of tabloid journalism was a forerunner of things to come.

“How’s your tea?” I ask.

“Lottie, I want to tell the story of what happens when you are wrongly accused of a crime. You were judged and condemned by the public without ever being arrested and I want to focus on what it was for you.”

“Why would I want you to remove all of this? The world has forgotten me. I moved on years ago.”

“Did you do it?” she says. Prune peeks into my ancient kitchen in the house where I live alone. For someone like her, Bluebell Lane probably feels like the end of the world.

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