An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed

May 1, 2021

Back after her best-selling short story collection, An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good, 88-year-old Maud is still up to no good. With dead bodies accumulating around her, she's got the Gothenburg police vexed, so she decides on a little vacation in South Africa. Of course, trouble follows--just nothing she can't handle. From popular Swedish crime author Tursten.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2021
Six more adventures of Maud, the retired language teacher who meets life's vicissitudes with a refreshingly homicidal approach. En route to a luxury vacation in South Africa, Maud recalls half a dozen earlier times when her generally untroubled life was threatened by someone who ended up coming to grief. "An Elderly Lady Begins To Remember Her Past" rehashes her latest foray into criminal violence and her satisfying escape from Tursten's franchise detective, Inspector Irene Huss. "Little Maud Sets a Trap" takes her back to her childhood, when she sticks up for her neurasthenic older sister, Charlotte, by taking condign, though not yet murderous, revenge on the boys who've bullied her. "Lancing a Boil" shows how Maud, now a substitute teacher, deals with her demotion when the regular teacher she's replaced seeks to return to the classroom. "The Truth About Charlotte" recalls Charlotte's sad demise, which leaves Maud much wealthier and freer to accrue an even larger income and begin her world travels. Maud smartly relieves her longtime neighbor, seamstress Elsa Petr�n, of the problems her wastrel son has stuck her with in "The Peter Pan Problem." And when she finally arrives at her destination in "An Elderly Lady Takes a Trip to Africa," the longest and most deliberately plotted of these stories, she gets to display an unaccustomed generosity, even magnanimity, to an impoverished family brought even lower by a crime Maud is more than happy to avenge. Readers may want to think twice before sampling the appended naughty-and-nice cookie recipes. A guidebook to growing old without a single regret for victims who deserved just what they got.

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July 19, 2021
The six linked stories in Swedish author Tursten’s delightful sequel to 2018’s An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good showcase the ingenious murder methods that Maud, an idiosyncratic octogenarian with questionable motives, has devised over the years. In “An Elderly Lady Begins to Remember Her Past,” set during a flight to South Africa, Maud reflects on a recent visit by Tursten’s two series detectives, Irene Huss and Embla Nyström, who want to question her about the murder of an antique dealer found dead in her home in Gothenburg. This memory prompts Maud to recall an incident, the subject of “Little Maud Sets a Trap,” in which as a child Maud took revenge on two boys who bullied her mentally challenged older sister. The highlight is the concluding novella, “An Elderly Lady Takes a Trip to Africa,” about a safari that proceeds without incident until Maud decides to correct the criminal behavior of a travel guide. Assured prose matches an irresistible heroine. Readers are sure to welcome a third entry in this beguiling series. Agent: Anneli Høier, Copenhagen Literary (Denmark).

October 1, 2021

Swedish crime novelist Tursten's second book featuring 88-year-old Maud takes up right where An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good left off. Maud plays a doddering, senile old lady when it suits her purposes, but she's actually in perfect health with a sharp and cunning mind--handy for plotting and getting away with murder. After selling family heirlooms to fund her travels, Maud is off on a luxury guided trip of South Africa. The plane ride kindles past memories of problems that she has solved ingeniously but often fatally: mean neighbor boys, her needy sister, a rival teacher, a friend's gambler son. Arriving in South Africa, Maud offers up wry observations of her fellow travelers and captivating descriptions of her travels. Near the end of the trip, she turns sleuth and stops a rapist. After befriending the girl whom she rescued, Maud finds new life purpose and a way to leave a legacy. VERDICT In spite of her penchant for using murder to solve her problems, elderly Maud is incredibly clever and oddly charming. Readers may find themselves rooting for her to get away with it all and will also appreciate the bonus gingerbread recipe.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2021
Tursten brings back Swedish octogenarian Maud (An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good, 2018) in this second title in her Elderly Lady series. After being interviewed by two hostile police detectives about the burglar's body found in her Gothenburg apartment, Maud decides she needs a change of scene and embarks on a luxury tour of South Africa. As she travels, Maud recalls her past life as a problem solver, beginning with her first foray into the art of fixing, when she forthrightly dealt with bullies who were tormenting her mentally ill sister. Further recollections follow, each showing how Maud shrewdly plays the part of a doddering old woman to her own advantage, but not always without collateral damage. In Cape Town, Maud seizes the opportunity to halt an attack on a young girl, while also coming up with a way to address the unanswered questions about that body back in Gothenburg. Tursten effectively juxtaposes a cozy, Agatha Christie-like tone against the often surprisingly dark nature of Maud's recollections, which are rife with clever satirical jabs and delicious ironies. This absorbing dive into the mind of a ruthless pragmatist posing as a Swedish Miss Marple will please psychological-thriller fans, once they realize that Maud isn't nearly as cozy as she looks.

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