An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed

An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed / Helene Tursten
trans. from the Swedish by Marlaine Delargy
New York, NY : Soho Crime, c2021
255 p.

This is volume two of short stories featuring Maud, an octogenarian serial killer. It's funnier than it sounds. I read vol. 1, An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good, last year, and really enjoyed it so when I saw that this one was being published, it was a must read. It's just a shade less compelling than the first volume -- still very entertaining. And the book itself is quite a delight, really small and with that embroidery cover. It also includes cookie recipes at the end, though with a caveat that you shouldn't really use them as Maud did...

The book is set up as 6 interlinked stories; it carries on from the previous book, with Maud still under suspicion in the most recent murder of a man in her own flat. Tursten's police investigator from her straight detective novels shows up to question Maud in the opening pages, which is amusing for Tursten readers. However, Maud is feeling the heat so decides it's high time to take that luxury trip to South Africa she's been dreaming of, after all she is nearly 90, what is she waiting for? 

As she travels to South Africa, she drifts off a few times, and remembers incidents from her past - our stories. And when she gets to South Africa we have the longest story. Maud is on a tour and isn't fully engaging for her. She spends a lot of time observing the other travellers, and when there's an incident at one stop they're all under suspicion. Once they arrive back in Johannesburg Maud feels more lively. But she also intervenes in a crime in progress, and must once again cover her tracks. 

The ending is a bit iffy, to me, but overall a fun and engaging read about a woman who uses all the expectations of age to confound the law, and solves her many problems in a permanent way. 

It's a bit of a seasonal read as well, since the story featuring Maud's killer cookies is set around the holidays. Recommended.