If I’m reading a book whose central character is a multiple murderer, that wouldn’t be something I’d typically relax to. But the low-key and charming An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten and translated into English by Marlaine Delargy is unusual like that.
The book is made up of five short stories following the seemingly simple life of Maud, who lives in a large apartment she doesn’t pay for in Gothenburg and quietly kills anyone who interrupts her otherwise placid existence. You don’t have to do much to get on Maud’s nerves, but when you do, you’ll know about it – but not for long.
Nobody suspects Maud of her crimes, mostly because she blends carefully into the background, often deliberately – she uses mobility aids she doesn’t need to make herself look fragile and, crucially, incapable of being a serial killer. And she’s cunning, too. Every move is calculated (well, mostly) and despite feigning confusion when it will help to detract suspicion, she can plan and execute a murder better than people half her age.
You almost feel proud of her.
It’s not that you like Maud. There’s nothing much to her to like or dislike. But there’s something about a person doing an action that nobody would expect of them that makes you almost root for them.
Maybe this is the consequence of older people being so roundly ignored and underestimated in modern Western society, but – if we’re honest – who doesn’t love someone who breaks the stereotypes and goes for what she wants?
It also helps that none of her victims are that likeable. We only see them through Maud’s eyes, of course, but even so, we’re not on their side. So by default, we end up on hers.
The wholesome tales of an octogenarian are interrupted by lethality with such disconcerting ease that the reader laughs, loves Maud a bit more, and hopes she gets away with it.
This woman is pretty unpleasant, though, and when you get past the Don’t underestimate older women, grrrrrrl! vibes (or maybe that’s just me), you do realise that she kind of has to be stopped. And as this collection of five short stories following Maud continues, you start to wonder if she’s really as Teflon-coated as she believes herself to be.
She’s mostly invisible, sure, and she can put on a great front, but will she really get away with this indefinitely? How long has she been getting away with it for already?!
She may not actually be untouchable, though. As the stories go on, we see that, calculated and sly as she is, she may not be as untouchable as we are initially led to believe.
This Swedish slayer of people who cause minor annoyances may, finally, become under suspicion.
An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good begins so gently that her fury at, and then murder of, a neighbour is a shock. The wholesome tales of an octogenarian are interrupted by lethality with such disconcerting ease that the reader laughs, loves Maud a bit more, and hopes she gets away with it.
Maud is pragmatic, she is clever, and if society will insist on making older women invisible and presumed incapable, she will continue to take advantage of that invisibility. Maud lives a lonely life in a time capsule of her family’s belongings, breaking the monotony of her tedious existence with trips abroad and periodic slaughter.
We, as the readers, shouldn’t be on the side of this anti-heroine, yet we are. I want more.