She never presumed she herself would live out her natural life, so she wouldn't mind leaving this world through an untimely death.

Hornclaw is a sixty-five-year-old female contract killer who is considering retirement. But while on an assassination job for the 'disease control' company she works for, Hornclaw makes an uncharacteristic error, causing a sequence of events that brings her past well and truly into the present.

Threatened with sabotage by a young male upstart and battling new desires and urges when she least expects them, Hornclaw steels her resolve, demonstrating that no matter their age, the female of the species is always more deadly than the male.

"Darkly comic . . . It focuses engagingly and compassionately on the invisibility of ageing citizens" - * Financial Times *

"The pull of this novel lies in its incredible story, filled with fascinating, flawed, funny, heartbreaking characters. It's the experience of reading it that will stay with you" - * The Times *

"Darkly funny, this South Korean novel examines the universal challenge of aging while maintaining societal relevance" - * Washington Post *

"Fast-moving . . . its kickass approach to narrative convention leaves much of contemporary British fiction feeling positively lily-livered" - * Daily Mail *