An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good
by Helene Tursten
translated by Marlaine Delargy
2018

This is a delightful little book of five short stories starring Maud, the titular elderly lady who is up to no good. She’s like Miss Marple’s nemesis in a series of cozy noir mysteries.

In her late 80s, Maud has lived her whole life in the same apartment in Gothenburg, Sweden because there was a clause in the sales contract for the apartment building that her father’s children could live there rent-free for as long as they’d like. Maud has enjoyed living there her whole live (much to the dismay of the housing association board) and has saved up enough money to travels extensively in her retirement. She also saves by being casually criminal whenever the opportunity arises. As an apparently frail little old lady, Maud is generally treated well except when she’s condescended to. As an actually quite fit and capable little old lady, Maud sometimes decides that when she is not treated well, then that person should be removed from this life and goes about making that happen.

What’s particularly interesting about this book is that the narration isn’t on her side. She isn’t an anti-hero or a vigilante. She’s a killer who gets away with it by playing into society’s biases about little old ladies.

In addition to the stories themselves, I also got a kick out of the afterward/about-the-author section which described how Tursten is the author of two detective series, but she was getting burnt out writing about honest people supporting the law. Instead, she was inspired to write a story about someone on the opposite side of the law. And thus Maud came into being.