An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good

Starred review from September 17, 2018
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.

If you admire Miss Marple's cleverness but secretly wish she would embrace crime rather than solve it, you'll enjoy Suzanne Toren's narration of these five stories about 88-year-old Maud. Toren gives Maud's machinations a dignity and even righteous indignation that belie Maud's actions. Toren also perfectly conveys Maud's clever ability to play upon people's underestimation of a seemingly poor, frail woman. You'll be shaking your head at Maud--but in admiration. While less satisfying than the stories in which Maud is center stage, one told by an elderly male is handled equally well. The collection suffers only from being almost too short to really enjoy all the wicked pleasure a character such as Maud has to offer. K.W. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine