An Elderly Lady - Helene Tursten

This month brought us not, one but two books! I stumbled across these books after reading The Man Who Died Twice. After seeing the cute little book and reading the first story, I knew we had to read these books! Seriously, if you haven't read them yet, look them up, they are so cute!

Both An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good and An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed are books of short stories. All the stories feature the elderly lady protagonist....or maybe she's more of an antagonist since our elderly lady, Maud, has a habit of killing people.

In the first book, An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good, we get five short stories. The first story follows Maud disposing of a pesky neighbour with eyes on her apartment. A local celebrity is desperate to have a larger apartment and after seeing Maud's she decides to find a way to swap. But Maud, playing the frail old lady, gets the upper hand and is soon rid of the celebrity.

The second story follows Maud on a trip to a spa. She had recently learned that her ex-fiance was about to get married again and she had to go see it for herself. Maud quickly saw that the bride-to-be was only in it for the money, so she found a simple solution, one involving murder.

The third story has Maud disposing of another pesky neighbour. But this one is an abusive husband. Maud is tired of hearing the fighting while she is trying to enjoy the holidays so she plans a way to get rid of him. In this story, both Maud and the wife were happy to see the husband go!

The fourth story is told from the perspective of one of Maud's neighbours, Richard, after the death of an antique dealer. He is shocked to hear there was a body found in Maud's apartment. Richard offers his services to the police and is allowed into the apartment to see the crime scene. After hearing the story and seeing the scene, Richard is convinced that Maud is the killer, but who would believe that a helpless old lady was the killer?

In the fifth story, we get Maud's version of the antique dealer's death. Maud has decided to sell some of her father's silver to pay for a future trip. But when the antique dealer comes over, Maud is convinced he is going to try to steal from her, so she quickly gets rid of him. The problem is that she killed him in her apartment....how can she turn suspicion away from her?

An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed picks up shortly after the first book and ties up the antique dealer's story. Maud decides to go on the trip of a lifetime and as she travels, she remembers some interesting events from her past.

In the second story, Maud remembers being a little girl trying to protect her older sister, Charlotte. Charlotte suffered from "nerves" and sometimes some of the boys in the building would pick on her. One day Maud decides to get them back by locking them in the boiler room. There is no murder in this story, but this might be the beginning of Maud's taste for revenge.

The third story shows Maud in the beginning of her teaching career. Her parents have both died, so she has to take care of Charlotte. After working on a contract while another teacher was on sabbatical, Maud hoped to become full-time. But the other teacher came back so Maud's hours were cut. After enduring this for some time, Maud came up with a plan that involved a purse and a large icicle. Soon after, Maud was full time again and she remained teaching until her retirement.

The fourth story is about Charlotte. Throughout the stories, there was always a question remaining about Charlotte's death. Did Maud get tired of taking care of her and dispose of her? Or was it just an accident?

The fifth story is about Maud's friend Elsa. Elsa lived in the building and was a single mother to son Johannes. Maud first met Elsa when she needed a seamstress and soon the two became friends. The only problem was Johannes, Elsa's good for nothing son. He was draining her of funds, even pushing her to sell her apartment. Maud decided that Johannes had to go.

The last story is about Maud's trip to Africa. She decided to take her first luxury trip, but trouble seems to follow Maud and soon she was thinking about getting rid of someone. This story also showed Maud's good side as she helped two families while she was there. By the end of the story, Maud has decided to live in Cape Town for half the year and spend the other half in Gothenburg.

We both really enjoyed these stories. Maud was a likeable character, despite the murders. She only killed people who were annoying her, and in most cases, they seemed to deserve it when you looked at it from Maud's perspective! My favourite story was Maud's trip to the spa. Jen's favourite was the story of Maud's teaching career. In both cases, Maud was very creative with her approach. We both hope there is a third book!

We definitely recommend you read these cute little books!