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Book Review: An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good: Stories by Helene Tursten, translated from Swedish by Marlaine Delargy

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good: Stories by Helene Tursten, translated from Swedish by Marlaine Delargy.

Soho Crime, 2018 (1st edition)

ISBN-13 ‎978-1641290111

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD.

Buy:  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

 

Maud is an eighty-eight year old woman with a contract that allows her to live rent-free in her apartment as long as she is alive. She lives alone, likes to travel, and likes a peaceful, orderly life… and she knows how to get away with murder.

 

Three of the five stories are previously published. In “An Elderly Lady Has Accomodation Problems”, Maud discovers her friendly new neighbor is scheming to get her large apartment by trying to convince her that her smaller ground floor apartment is a better choice for an elderly lady, with fatal results. In “An Elderly Lady on Her Travels” Maud sees a notice that her ex-fiance is marrying one of her former students, a porn actress half his age, and decides to vacation at the same spa, with unfortunate consequences for the future bride. In “An Elderly Lady at Christmastime” Maud decides to take care of the loud arguments upstairs that are disrupting her peace by setting up an accident for the abusive husband. The last two stories are different perspectives on the same events, from a building resident and a police detective. Maud calls the police after discovering the dead body of a silver thief.

 

Maud is a sharp and canny elderly woman unafraid to use people’s perceptions of older women to influence the way they think of her: better for people to think she is dotty and deaf than a murderer. But she has no problem eliminating obstacles with premeditation and/or extreme violence. These aren’t murder mysteries, they are simply enjoyable stories where you can’t help being on the criminal’s side.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on August 20, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: Crime Scene: Poetry by Cynthia Pelayo

Cover art for Crime Scene: Poetry by Cynthia Pelayo

Crime Scene: Poetry by Cynthia Pelayo

Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1947879515

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com  )

 

This collection follows up Into the Forest and All the Way Through, a collection of poems about missing and murdered women and girls from all 50 states intended to bring the victims of cold cases to light without exploiting them.

 

Crime Scene is a more straightforward story. It’s a narrative in verse of the discovery and investigation of a cold case leading to the capture of a serial killer, using a format of numbered “reports”. It explodes on impact and immediately crashes into the parents’ grief on notification, then backtracks to the discovery of the crime scene and body by a brother and sister. Then we meet our protagonist, Agent K, whose investigation is complicated by her history as a witness to the disappearance of a friend when she was a girl, leading to guilt, insomnia, and a drive to solve the case. Much of the story explores both her actions and mental state.

 

Pelayo also addresses issues with reporting on true crime. Report 0011 comments on exploitation, and Report 0054, the medical examiner’s report, interestingly is nonspecific in describing the age, race, and ethnicity of the victim, avoiding the trap of “white girl” syndrome.

 

Crime Scene is a lyrical, powerful, surreal exploration of the justice system, its failures, and the human consequences. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Posted on February 20, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: The Raven by Dani Lamia with Gwendolyn Kress

 

Cover art for The Raven by Dani Lamia with Gwendolyn Kress

The Raven by Dani Lamia

Level 4 Press, Inc.

ISBN-13: 978-1933769707

Available: Preorder paperback, Kindle edition, MP3 ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

I received a .pdf ARC of this from the publisher.

 

Rebekah is bullied horrendously at school, mostly cruel jokes originating with popular Coralie Renner and her friends. Things get much worse when Beka accidentally spills a drink on her skirt at a party and Coralie nicknames her “piss bitch.” Not only does she face name calling and humiliation but someone pees in her locker, destroying her textbooks, clothes, and sketchbook.

 

As a young child Beka had a dream friend, the Raven, who eventually stopped visiting but left her with a special edition of the works of Poe. She starts dreaming of him and carrying the book again. This time her dreams are vengeful. The students who have been tormenting her begin to appear one at a time as she watches, waking up the next day with real physical damage- a broken tooth or arm, hair pulled out in a clump. They claim the damage is from accidents but all remember bad dreams.

 

This wouldn’t normally be concrete enough for a police investigation, but after parents insist, a cop is sent to investigate, who happens to be Beka’s neighbor, Mike Wilson. Mike is a couple years older than Beka and has a crush on her. Despite her being a potential suspect and it being completely inappropriate, they start dating.

 

Meanwhile things with the Raven are escalating inside Beka’s magical Poe-inspired dreams. She asks the Raven, who has stepped things up and is now killing, to stop, and he refuses. She realizes he is not merely a dream creature, but a person who can invade dreams who has taken a personal interest in her.

 

I liked the premise a lot, but I felt like the story started to go off the rails with the police investigation and other plot threads once we got closer to the end.

 

Contains: bullying, brief description of rape, scenes of torture and murder.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on January 8, 2023 by , Reply
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