Maud and Dexter should be BFFs

Our favorite 88yr old Swedish murderess is back! Helen Tursten’s first book, An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good, was really fun, quirky, and dark, and thus right up my street. An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed is a solid follow-up to the original, providing the reader with 6 more short stories about Maud’s life of lackadaisical violence.

This book picks up from where the last left off, with some investigators coming to talk to her about the dead antique buyer who died in her apartment. Though she is pretty sure she’s not a suspect, the worry is still there, so she decides to sell some belongings and go on a trip to South Africa. On the plane, she is triggered by a memory and the reader is presented with different interlocking stories from Maud’s life that lead to the present and how Maud became the woman she is.

In short, Maud rules. One of the things I constantly hate about most novels is pacing, and Tursten has it spot on in all her books I’ve read. The stories are fun, quirky, and dark, just like Maud, but you never feel bad for the people Maud murders. Maud isn’t a good person and doesn’t act or pretend to be to the reader, but the people she’s killing aren’t angels either, so the book remains largely comical. Maud does have a soul and morals and does lookout for people she believes deserve her kindness, yet isn’t afraid to use the stereotypes people assume about her age against them. She’s a genius. I want her and Dexter to be BFFs. Let this happen or you are cowards world!

Title:  An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed
Author: Helene Tursten
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 272
ISBN: 9781641291675

Three Descriptors: Darkly Humorous, Offbeat, Quirky

Read Alikes:
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Death in her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon