Thank you to NetGalley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for this ARC.

Lottie Jones is 75 and has been a serial killer for a long time, starting with her son Archie's father Gary in the 80s.. There was a time where she was under suspicion for killing three different people, but nothing could ever be proven, and Lottie and Archie moved and changed their names. Now an investigative journalist called Plum Dixon knocks on her door, wanting to make a docuseries about people wrong ully accused of murder, and Lottie has to come out of retirement. Plum is the first to go but her death brings other people to her door and Lottie's kill list gets longer and longer.

The entertainment of this story lies in the matter-of-fact descriptions of what Lottie does to avoid detection, using her age and some technical knowledge to her advantage, but she also makes mistakes and the reader is constantly on high alert, willing her not to get caught. One police officer tries to blackmail her, Plum's distraught mother turns up and finally the person who arranged all the new interest: Kenneth Burke, the detective from 40 years ago who didn't manage to lock her away but had never really let go. A tense cat and mouse game ensues that will have you at the edge of your seat. At the same time, the story is funnier than it has any right to be. Lottie's interactions with a telemarketer and her friends from church had me snort now and then, plus Archie's new fiancée Morgan interrupts proceedings in her own way.

This is wickedly good fun. If you like your serial killers old and female, church going, cookie baking, with a creaking hip and disturbing knowledge about dismembering and burning bodies, then this is for you. And that cover - fabulous.

Lottie Jones wants to be left alone to get on with her life.
If only people would stop knocking on her door!
Dark, thrilling and funny.
The murders, the characters and the storyline were just brilliant.
Real life took a backseat for me.
My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy.