Review: AN ELDERLY LADY IS UP TO NO GOOD, Helene Tursten

• 
  This edition made available by my local library as an e-book through Libby
  
• Originally collated in Swedish in 2017
• English translation published by Soho Press in 2018
• Translator Marlaine Delargy
• ISBN 978-1-64129-011-1

Synopsis (publisher)

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, and 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 dead body found in Maud's apartment, will Maud finally become a suspect?

My Take

A very quick read.

A Collection of 5 short stories

• An Elderly Lady has Accommodation Problems 2012
  When one of her neighbours has designs on her apartment Maud takes swift action.
  

• An Elderly Lady on Her Travels 2012
  Maud sees a social notice that her ex-fiance, at 90, is marrying again, to someone she taught decades before.
  

• An Elderly Lady seeks Peace at Christmas time 2007
  Since her upstairs neighbours moved in a year before, Maud has had to put up with The Problem.
  

• The Antique Dealer's Death 2016
  Maud wants to sell some her father's gold and silver antiques, but a rapacious young antique dealer aims to cheat her out of her property
  

• An Elderly Lady is Faced with a Difficult Dilemma 2018
  This story gives you the background to the Antique Dealer's Death. 

In the last two stories Detective Inspector Irene Huss is the investigating officer. Huss of course makes her appearance in a number of Tursten's full length novels.

While Maud has good health she gives the impression at times that she is "not quite with it". But nothing could be further from the truth. Most of those who cross Maud don't live to tell the tale. 

A lovely collection of quirky tales.

My Rating: 4.7

I've also read

THE GLASS DEVIL
4.4, NIGHT ROUNDS
THE GOLDEN CALF
4.5, THE FIRE DANCE
4.4, HUNTING GAME