An elderly lady is up to no good

Review by New York Times Review

The star of this deliciously noir short story collection, Maud, is nearly 90, with a cloud of "snow-white" hair twisted into a thick "old-fashioned chignon," and she hobbles about her neighborhood with a wheeled walker. It's a decoy: Using it makes her look weak and helpless, and Maud likes that - because she is anything but. Like Miss Marple, she is a benign-looking senior citizen with murder on her mind. Maud doesn't solve murders, though. She commits them, usually when someone breaches her peace and quiet. In fact, in each of these crisp, mordantly funny tales, someone around her dies, usually in spectacular fashion. Tursten takes readers deep inside Maud's head as she plots the demise of anyone who crosses her. In "An Elderly Lady Has Accommodation Problems," a conniving local sculptor who specializes in penises - made of wood, clay, concrete and even Play-Doh - goes after Maud's desirable prewar apartment. So the old lady dispatches her using a piece of the sculptor's own artwork (a penis cast in bronze, to be specific). In "An Elderly Lady Seeks Peace at Christmastime," Maud must take measures into her own hands when her upstairs neighbor begins beating his wife, causing an unbearable racket. "Maud had been unable to concentrate on the film starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers on TV that night. All she could hear was quarreling and shouting from upstairs." At one point in "The Antique Dealer's Death," Detectives Irene Huss and Embla Nystrom - who star in Tursten's two ongoing mystery series - arrive to figure out why there's a dead man in Maud's apartment. They'd like to nail her for the crime but don't have enough evidence. ("I wouldn't invite that old woman for tea anytime soon," a neighbor is advised.) Here's hoping Tursten brings back the flinty homicidal octogenarian for more adventures.

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 30, 2019]

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Review by Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Tursten has entertained readers for 20 years with her series of crime novels featuring DI Irene Huss of the Violent Crimes Unit in Göteborg, Sweden. Her new character, identified only as Maud, is another brilliant creation. Maud is an irascible 88-year-old criminal in full possession of her faculties who hides behind the fake persona of an addled elderly woman. She made her debut last year in a short story (included in this volume) in the Soho Press collection The Usual Santas, wherein she decides to make her Christmas merry and bright by sending her wife-abusing neighbor off to his eternal damnation via a one-way trip (literally) down the apartment-house stairs. Yes, you read that right. He was too noisy, you see. Our antihero Maud believes that her family pedigree entitles her to a peaceful and genteel existence, and woe be to anyone who threatens it. She is presented here in five episodes, all dark, irreverent, and hilariously funny. Huss puts in a guest appearance in the final piece, where a stolen walker acts as the perfect prop to disguise the scaffold-climbing abilities that enable Maud to murder a greedy antiques dealer. Yes, this woman actually snatches people's canes and walkers. And she can climb scaffolding. Come back soon, Maud. But be careful. The police are getting suspicious.--Jane Murphy Copyright 2018 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

The five stories in this exceptional collection from Tursten (the Irene Huss mysteries) feature Maud, a seemingly mild-mannered 88-year-old Gothenburg resident who's perfectly willing to use wiles and sometimes deadly force to defend her independent lifestyle. In the delightful "An Elderly Lady Has Accommodation Problems," a pushy neighbor has designs on Maud's apartment, and that can't be tolerated. When a gold digger hooks an old beau of Maud's in "An Old Lady on Her Travels," Maud decides to intervene, showing that she's also ready to right wrongs that threaten others. Perhaps the best entry is "An Elderly Lady Seeks Peace at Christmas Time," in which Maud cleverly puts a young clerk in his place and rids herself of an abusive neighbor. In the last two tales, she deals ruthlessly with a greedy antique dealer. Readers will be amused by how sharp-as-a-tack Maud plays the forgetful, fuzzy-brained old lady to achieve her ends. With any luck, she'll be back for an encore. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Five connected stories about a murderous old Swedish lady.Maud has a good thing going. At age 88, she's lived in a large apartment rent-free for 70 years because of a clause in an old contract. Never married, she loves to travel alone and to be alone. In the first story, "An Elderly Lady Has Accommodation Problems," a rare event happens: Her doorbell rings. Jasmin Schimmerhof, a 40-year-old avant-garde artist who lives in the building, stops by to say hello. The daughter of celebrities, her past includes drugs, multiple divorces, and tragedy. Her current art project strives to "unmask the domineering tactics of the patriarchy," meaning that her small apartment is filled with phallusessome even hanging from the ceiling. She is delightfully overbearing as she constantly tries to weasel her way into Maud's good graces. But Maud isn't stupid or senile, and she knows Jasmin is up to something. Once Maud figures out what it is, her solution is drastic, funny, and final. Maud is a seasoned world traveler who once, at age 18, had been engaged to Lt. Gustaf Adelsi. He'd emphatically broken off their engagement on learning her family wasn't rich. Now, in "An Elderly Lady on Her Travels," she reads in the newspaper that he is a wealthy 90-year-old widower about to marry the 55-year-old Zazza, whom ex-teacher Maud knows as her long-ago student, a schemer and a failed soft-core porn actress. When Maud arranges to get near her at a spa and then overhears Zazza's plans to take control of Gustaf's estate, Maud devises an emphatic countermeasure. And then in "An Elderly Lady Seeks Peace at Christmastime," she deals with "The Problem" in the apartment above her. Maud's murders always have plausible motives, and she is a sympathetic character as long as one keeps a safe distance. Each story takes its sweet time to develop and concludes with a juicy dose of senior justice.The book is pure fun, although slender. Another volume of Maud's misdeeds would be most welcome. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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An excerpt from the short story "An Elderly Lady Has Accommodation Problems"   The shrill sound of the doorbell sliced through the silence. Maud sat motionless in her armchair, making no attempt to get up. She knew the bell would soon ring again. And again. And again. This had been going on for weeks.       The reason behind the whole thing was her living arrangements, which were rather unusual.       The apartment in which Maud lived was the only thing her family had managed to hold on to after her father's sudden death from a heart attack. Until then he had kept up appearances, but when he died the family lawyer quickly discovered there was virtually no money left. The only thing of value was the large apartment building in the Vasastan district of Gothenburg. When it was sold, the lawyer managed to work out an agreement with the new owner.       To put it briefly, a clause was inserted in the contract stating that the widow and her two daughters should be allowed to remain in their apartment without paying any rent; they simply had to cover the cost of electricity, water, and heating. In return, the buyer was given the opportunity to purchase the building at a very reasonable price. In addition, the clause stated that "for as long as any member of the family wishes to reside in the apartment, no rent will be payable." A few lines further down it was made clear that the term "member of the family" referred only to the widow and her two daughters. Seventy years had passed since the contract had been drawn up, and at the time no one could have envisaged that one of the daughters would still be living there.       Of course there had been a dispute over the interpretation of the original contract when the building was taken over by a housing association many years later, but after taking the matter to court, Maud won the day, and still lived rent-free. The members of the housing association board ground their teeth in frustration, but there was nothing they could do, though they did win a small victory when it was established that Maud had to pay a small monthly sum toward the general maintenance of the apartment building.       It had now been about forty years since Maud's sister died, leaving her with no living relatives. Maud lived alone, and she went on vacation alone. That was the way she wanted it. Freedom, no idle chatter, and no problems. Idle chatter and problems were the worst things she could think of, and now she was faced with one of the biggest problems she had ever encountered. And she just couldn't see a way out.     Maud realized she had only herself to blame. She had walked straight into the trap with her eyes wide open. Even though a little voice inside her head had tried to warn her, she could never have imagined how badly things would turn out! It had all begun so innocently.       During the spring, a genuine celebrity had moved into the building--a woman who was about forty years old, by the name of Jasmin Schimmerhof. She was famous mainly because her parents were famous. As the only child of two of Sweden's best-known personalities, she experienced the trauma of growing up with parents who were totally preoccupied with their respective careers. Neither of them had much time to spare for their daughter, if any. A series of nannies and boarding schools were responsible for Jasmin's upbringing. Her father was a successful financier, and her mother had been one of the country's most internationally renowned opera singers. She toured the great opera houses of the world and was rarely at home with her husband and daughter. Jasmin's mother had died in a car accident just outside New York a few years earlier. Nobody knew how it had happened because she had been alone when she crashed into a concrete column supporting an overpass. The newspapers showed pictures of the grieving widower, but there was no sign of Jasmin. After a period of intense undercover work by tabloid journalists, it emerged that she had been admitted to a private rehab clinic; she had been abusing both legal and illegal drugs, as well as drinking heavily. Her condition was so unstable that she wasn't even able to attend her mother's funeral. The trigger for the abuse was rumored to be her divorce from husband number two six months earlier. Both her first and second marriages had been childless. The press got plenty of headlines out of the tragedy, reveling in the misery of such a powerful family. Media interest flared up again when Ian Schimmerhof, Jasmin's father, got married again six months later--to a woman forty years his junior. From the paparazzi shots taken at the couple's wedding in Switzerland, where they were now living, it was very clear that the new wife was heavily pregnant. A month or so later, Jasmin gained a half-sibling forty years younger than her. The headline writers had a field day, speculating on whether Maria Schimmerhof's car crash really had been an accident--or suicide.       Over the next two years, no one had heard much about Jasmin Schimmerhof. It was said she was writing her autobiography, and when the book was published, it became an instant bestseller; everyone wanted to know what life had really been like behind the stylish façade of the enormous villa in Örgryte. A number of reviews may have hinted that the use of language was poor, the descriptions of the characters somewhat flat, and the narrative style rather clumsy, but people didn't care. There were a few particularly juicy sections where Jasmin tore into her parents, especially her father. It was clear from the book that he had lavished money on his daughter but had given her neither his time nor his love. She wrote candidly about her father's many affairs and how her mother had hit back with her own indiscretions. The book sold like hotcakes.       The following year, Jasmin bought an apartment in Vasastan, in the same building where Maud lived. It was the only apartment on the ground floor. It had a special entrance at the foot of the elaborate marble staircase in the lobby, and its windows looked out onto both the street and the backyard. With the permission of the housing association board, the previous owner had built a small glassed-in terrace at the back. He owned an IT company and had renovated the run-down apartment to the highest standards, according to what Maud had heard. When he married and the couple was expecting their first child, he sold the place to Jasmin Schimmerhof and moved to a delightful house by the sea. Among other reasons, Jasmin wanted the apartment because it was fairly large--around 450 square feet. After the success of her autobiography, she had decided to embark on a new career. She was going to be an artist. Several walls were knocked down in order to make room for a substantial studio. Jasmin wanted to create large installations and needed space.       She had spent the entire spring working on her creations. She wrote in her blog, Me Jasmin: I despise sovereignty and the patriarchy. I have grown up under that kind of oppression, and I know how terrible it is. I want to give the finger to all oppressors and tell them to go to hell! In October, I will be putting on an exhibition at the Hell Gallery. Come along and see my new pieces! At the moment I am working on Phallus, Hanging . It's going to be a kick in the balls for all those bastard men!       Maud had learned all this over the past few weeks by looking up newspaper articles online; she also found Jasmin's blog extremely informative, and it contained high-res pictures of various works. The enormous pieces of art had thickly painted layers of color, into which Jasmin had pressed photographs, scraps of fabric, sheet music, tampons (Maud couldn't quite see whether or not they were used), fragments of bone, and all kinds of unidentifiable trash. And trash was precisely the right word for Jasmin's art, in Maud's opinion. The pictures were titled No Title I , No Title II , No Title III , and so on.       Her so-called sculptures all had the same construction. Each one had a concrete base into which Jasmin had stuck various objects before the concrete had set. There were pieces featuring old exhaust systems pointing up at the ceiling, baseball bats, broken ice hockey sticks, golf clubs, cone-shaped items with Missile or Atomic bomb written on the side, and--last but not least--enormous black rubber dildos. Needless to say, these masterpieces were titled Phallus I , Phallus II , Phallus III , presumably ad infinitum.        Makes life easier, I suppose , Maud thought.       Every morning Maud spent an hour or so surfing the Internet on her laptop, checking out interesting people and events. She hadn't bothered researching Jasmin's life when her flamboyant neighbor moved in; at the time, Maud had been fully occupied with planning her first visit to a spa. After a very successful stay she had gone on vacation to Sardinia, where she had spent three glorious months before returning to Gothenburg.       And that was when it began. Excerpted from An Elderly Lady Is up to No Good by Helene Tursten All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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