Frightful Reads Friday A Deep Dive into Helene Tursten's An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good

Source: FantasticFiction

She baked cookies. She buried a body.

In crime fiction, villains are usually easy to spot — they wear menace like a badge. But sometimes evil hides behind a polite smile, a cup of coffee, and orthopaedic shoes.

Meet Maud, the sharpest killer in Sweden: an 88-year-old woman with a tidy apartment, a fondness for travel, and absolutely no tolerance for nonsense.

Helene Tursten’s An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good (translated by Marlaine Delargy) is a collection of five interconnected short stories about Maud’s quiet, bloodstained life. Each story begins in the everyday — a noisy neighbour, a greedy relative, an uninvited guest — and ends with the kind of “solution” only Maud would consider reasonable.

It’s Scandi noir with a wink. A blend of dry humour, sharp social commentary, and surprisingly cosy murder.

Tursten, best known for her Detective Irene Huss series, trades procedural grit for something more intimate — a miniature study of power, solitude, and the fine art of getting away with it.

Death in a Doily

Maud lives alone in her Gothenburg apartment, rent-free thanks to an old family clause. She has no children, no husband, and no one to answer to — a freedom she protects with ruthless precision.

Her days are ordinary: morning coffee, crossword puzzles, the occasional overseas trip. But when anyone threatens her peace — a neighbour hammering too loudly, an art professor eyeing her flat, or a relative sniffing around for inheritance — Maud handles it herself.

Quietly. Efficiently. Permanently.

Tursten writes these moments with a delightful understatement. There’s no gore, no sensationalism — just a faint scent of bleach and a body that needs dealing with.

Maud doesn’t kill out of rage. She kills out of practicality. It’s not malice — it’s maintenance.

“When one lives alone,” she muses, “one must occasionally take matters into one’s own hands.”

Maud: The Murderous Matriarch

Maud is not your average criminal — she’s methodical, witty, and often likeable in an unnerving way. Readers can’t help but cheer her on, even as she drags yet another victim into her freezer.

Her charm lies in her contradictions: she’s sweet but sinister, frail but formidable. Society’s expectations of age and femininity have rendered her invisible, and she uses that invisibility as a weapon.

At 88, Maud has achieved a kind of freedom most people only dream of. She answers to no one, hides behind the armour of “sweet old lady,” and dispenses her own form of justice.

Through her, Tursten pokes fun at how society underestimates elderly women — and how easily that underestimation can become lethal.

“At her age,” Tursten seems to say, “Maud has nothing to lose — and that makes her unstoppable.”

Helene Tursten’s Style – Where Scandi Noir Meets Deadpan Comedy

Tursten’s writing is crisp, elegant, and quietly hilarious. Each line feels sharpened to a Scandinavian point: clean, cold, and cutting.

Fans of Nordic noir will recognize the hallmarks — the understated prose, the moral ambiguity, the biting social realism — but here it’s turned inside out. The detective is gone, replaced by a tiny woman with a rolling pin and a suspiciously serene smile.

Tursten’s dry tone pairs perfectly with Maud’s matter-of-fact worldview. When Maud disposes of a body, she does so with the same energy most people reserve for baking.

The translation captures that same understated humour, making each murder feel absurdly domestic.

“Tursten proves,” as one reviewer noted, “that in Scandinavian crime fiction, not even the snow is as cold as Maud’s sense of justice.”

Themes – Age, Power, and Invisible Rage

Beneath the laughter lies something sharp.

An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good isn’t just about a killer — it’s about freedom, autonomy, and the quiet rage of being dismissed.

Maud’s violence is both shocking and strangely understandable. She’s lived a long life watching others take advantage of politeness and pity. Her murders, while horrific, are often acts of self-preservation — her way of maintaining dignity in a world that treats the elderly as fragile relics.

It’s also a sly commentary on female rage: how it builds, simmers, and eventually finds expression through unconventional means. Maud may be a monster, but she’s also a mirror — reflecting every moment we’ve smiled through condescension.

“Maud’s crimes aren’t fuelled by hate,” Tursten suggests. “They’re powered by exhaustion — and a lifetime of being underestimated.”

A Festive Treat for Twisted Hearts

With its winter setting, cosy domesticity, and sly humour, An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good makes for a perfect December read.

There’s something deliciously perverse about pairing holiday cheer with homicide. Between Christmas cookies and corpses, the book captures that peculiar Scandinavian mood — bleak, beautiful, and strangely comforting.

Each story is short enough to finish in one sitting but lingers long after the last page, like the faint smell of something burned in the oven.

This isn’t just a book you read — it’s one you chuckle guiltily over.

Why is An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good a Frightful Read

🩸 A killer protagonist you can’t help rooting for.

☕ Murder disguised as civility.

👵 A refreshing twist on age, gender, and crime.

💀 Cosy, clever, and unsettlingly plausible.

📖 Perfect for fans of dark humour, Scandi noir, and wickedly smart writing.

Tursten delivers a macabre delight — equal parts charm and chill. It’s Agatha Christie with sharper edges and Golden Girls with body bags.

Final Thoughts – Don’t Underestimate Grandma

Maud is one of crime fiction’s most quietly terrifying characters — not because she’s evil, but because she’s reasonable.

Every act of murder in her world feels neat, tidy, and almost logical. And that’s what makes it horrifying.

Helene Tursten has written a darkly funny, utterly original collection that reminds us of two essential truths:

1. Never underestimate little old ladies.

2. Good manners can hide evil intentions.

“In Tursten’s world,” you’ll realize by the final page, “evil isn’t loud. It’s polite, punctual, and probably wearing a cardigan.”

So this winter, pour yourself a cup of coffee, pull up a blanket, and let Maud keep you company.

Just… don’t make too much noise.