3.24.2025 | Monday

An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed

category: Book Reviews
tag(s): adult
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title: An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed
author: Helene Tursten
series: Elderly lady #2
published: 10.8.2020
publisher: Soho Press
genre(s): cozy mystery, thrillers
pages: 145
source: library
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | BookBub | BookHype | StoryGraph | Goodreads

rating:

| series rating:

the blurb

Everyone’s favorite octogenarian killer is back in this new collection of stories by Swedish crime writer Helene Tursten that is sure to have you in stitches.

Eighty-eight-year-old Maud is never looking for trouble, but it always seems to find her. First, a woman in her building met an untimely end: tragic. Then, just recently, a dead body mysteriously appeared in her very own apartment, prompting an investigation by the local Gothenburg authorities. Such a strange coincidence. When it seems suspicion has fallen on her, little old lady that she is, Maud decides to skip town and splurges on a trip to South Africa for herself.

In these six interlocking stories, memories of unfortunate incidents from Maud’s past keep bubbling to the surface, each triggered by something in the present: an image, a word, even a taste. When she lands in Johannesburg at last, eager to move on from the bloody ordeal last summer, she finds certain problems seem to be following her. Luckily, Maud is no stranger to taking matters into her own hands . . . even if it means she has to get a little blood on them in the process.

Don’t let her age fool you. Maud may be nearly ninety, but this elderly lady still has a few tricks before she’s ready to call it quits.

*Includes cookie recipes*

a few notes

trigger warning: ❗some graphic violence❗

POV: 3rd person
setting: Sweden, South Africa
keywords/phrases: murder, aging
tropes: unlikable victim, villain protagonist
spice: 0🔥
language: 0🤬

read this if… you love quirky and morally grey characters!

my review

Note: This is the second of a duology of short stories, some of which contain the character of Irene Huss, who is the central figure in one of the author’s series.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I love Maud. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I do. I love her independence, her strength, and her adventures, even if some of her adventures have been a tad… questionable!

This was a fun collection of stories, with a bit more of a look into Maud’s past as she moves into her future. That went a long way to explain Maud as the interesting octogenarian we have come to love. And the final story showed Maud to have a huge heart, as she embraces a future that looks a little less solitary.

These stories are so much fun! They are unlike anything I’ve ever read, completely irreverent and somehow deeply entertaining with the quirky characters. Maud is just a complex woman whom I’ve loved reading about. I can only hope that there will be more of her in the future!

About Helene Tursten

Helene Tursten (born in Gothenburg in 1954) is a Swedish writer of crime fiction. The main character in her stories is Detective Inspector Irene Huss. Before becoming an author, Tursten worked as a nurse and then a dentist, but was forced to leave due to illness. During her illness she worked as a translator of medical articles.

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