An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed

By: Helene Tursten, Marlaine Delargy - translator

Narrated by: Ann Richardson

Don't let her age fool you. Maud may be nearly 90, but if you cross her, this elderly lady is more sinister than sweet.

Just when things have finally cooled down for 88-year-old Maud after the disturbing discovery of a dead body in her apartment in Gothenburg, a couple of detectives return to her doorstep. Though Maud dodges their questions with the skill of an Olympic gymnast a fifth of her age, she wonders if suspicion has fallen on her, little old lady that she is. The truth is, ever since Maud was a girl, death has seemed to follow her.

In these six interlocking stories, memories of unfortunate incidents from Maud's past keep bubbling to the surface. Meanwhile, certain problems in the present require immediate attention. Luckily, Maud is no stranger to taking matters into her own hands...even if it means she has to get a little blood on them in the process.

©2020 Helene Tursten (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Not as good as the first book

I bought both books together on sale. The premise seemed interesting and they were both short - good for a trip. The first book was okay. Obviously I didn't read much about it prior to buying as I was surprised that she took care of "problems" by eliminating the source---albeit in very cunning ways. This second book really disappointed. I found a lot of repetition from the first and I'm not sure what happened with either the translation or narrator (different one for each book), but in Book 1 she had a sister named Charlotte. In Book 2 it seemed in early stories her sister's name was was something like "Fria"??? I actually thought she had another sister that had not been mentioned previously with a very Swedish name. At only ONE point in Book 2 was her sistered referred to as Charlotte. Then the name became something like Harlotte - spoken as if you were gagging!!! Very disappointing.

Goes slow

There’s and extremely long and meandering chapter about her trip to Africa that isn’t very interesting and takes a very long time to get to the climax. I do like Maud, and it’s a happy ending, so that’s nice.

A spry 80 something lady vigilante with a heart of gold

This book was surprisingly excellent read. I will definitely go back to read the first book of this series because the author is a fabulous writer.

old ladies are remarkable

loved it. Maude is absolutely amazing and horrifying to boot! you will cheer for her bad behavior

good short book

loved it. great listen for my short trip in the car. i could picture it as things were happening

Judge old ladies by their age at your peril

A fun book of crime stories, with tongue placed firmly in a cheek. Retired language teacher 80 something Maud is fine living alone in her large Swedish apartment and taking the occasional trip. She's not one to do much socializing and is rather intolerant of annoying people, but if she can avoid them, all should be well. Unfortunately that's not always possible. When some overstep her boundaries or become too annoying to ignore, she's been known to take matters into her own resourceful murderous hands...

Different, but still fun

This part had much different tone and vibes from the first one, it was a lot more serious. Still, I enjoyed myself. Narrator was great, it only take me some time to get used to her pronunciation of "Charlotte".

Great stories

Loved the stories and characters. Have to keep your eyes on the little old ladies, never know what they are capable of.

A fun afternoon little story

An old lady’s tale of bad and good. Maude is a delightful, spy woman with a great passion for the underdog taking me on a wonderful vacation across the globe:

Not Quite as Good

I liked the first one much more. The ending fotr this one wasn't satisfying. The end of the story or will there be a third book?