Book Talk | An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good

 I picked up this little book while I was out on a Barnes & Noble run. It's size, it's funny title, and it's description made me put it in my tote bag and check out with it. Since it's a small book, it was the perfect size to read with one hand while my daughter contact napped on me. Here's a little book talk on An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten.

About the Author

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 (who does make an appearance in this book). 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.

About the Story

Maud is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and…no qualms about a little murder. This funny, irreverent story collection by Helene Tursten, author of the Irene Huss investigations, features two-never-before translated stories that will keep you laughing all the way to the retirement home.

Ever since her darling father’s untimely death when she was only eighteen, Maud has lived in the family’s spacious apartment in downtown Gothenburg rent-free, thanks to a minor clause in a hastily negotiated contract. That was how Maud learned that good things can come from tragedy. Now in her late eighties, Maud contents herself with traveling the world and surfing the net from the comfort of her father’s ancient armchair. It’s a solitary existence, but she likes it that way.

Over the course of her adventures—or misadventures—this little bold lady will handle a crisis with a local celebrity who has her eyes on Maud’s apartment, foil the engagement of her long-ago lover, and dispose of some pesky neighbors. But when the local authorities are called to investigate a murder in her apartment complex, will Maud be able to avoid suspicion, or will Detective Inspector Irene Huss see through her charade?

 Book Talk 

This was a nice little book to pass by some time. I found the humor throughout the story to be subtle, but hitting the laughter button on a few places. The way our main character, Maud, thinks about her victims and why she wants to murder them is pretty funny, but the rest of the humor falls flat in my opinion. 

Speaking of getting into what Maud thinks, we get to sneak a peak into the mind of Maud throughout the story. Readers will find themselves enjoying how Maud plans her murders and gets away with them through her "senile old lady" acting. Although, it would be nice to get into the more nitty gritty on why Maud is the murder that she is. I wish maybe we got a backstory, even if it was a subtle one. It would be nice to just get to know more about Maud, though I know these are just short stories, an interesting character deserves a little more. 

“But she had learned that it was smart not to reveal that all her senses were in full working order; instead, she allowed people to act in accordance with their own preconceptions. This was often a useful source of information, and Maud could form her own opinion of the person and the situation.” 

Overall, I did like An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good, but there definitely could have been more, which is what I wanted. I liked that we got little stories exploring her different murders, but a backstory of some sort or maybe revealing her backstory throughout the little short vignettes would have been nice. Overall, I give this story a 3 out of 5 stars.  

Until next time, Happy Reading!