For some situations, there is only one conclusion

And that conclusion is death. Helene Tursten's novels in translation featuring 88-year-old Maud, a Swiss woman who outlives and out-maneuvers all of her family and peers, brings new light to the phrase, "up to no good." She may seem frail, wispy, hard of hearing, and forgetful, but she is none of those things.

In An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good (that title!), the reader learns through a series of connected stories that Maud is definitely up to no good. If you cross her, you are as good as dead. No joke. She is fierce and not to be reckoned with. If you threaten her, her home, her family, her livelihood, your days are numbered. She's whip-smart and in really good shape. In one of the stories, she climbs a scaffolding in smooth bottom shoes! I can't climb a scaffolding in any kind of shoes!

In An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed, Maud travels to South Africa and Zimbabwe for the vacation of a lifetime. Since Maud is almost 89, this may be her last hurrah, so to speak. She spares no expense, from the upgraded flight and accommodations to the safari that she's been wanting to participate in for decades. As Maud makes her way across the globe, she recounts her past and the death that surrounds her. There's a lot of death. And she is responsible for most of it. She also recounts how she is wanted by the police for a murder committed in book one!

As you make your way through both books, you learn more about Maud and her circumstances. She is the much younger daughter of an older couple who die under difficult circumstances, leaving Maud financially unstable and responsible for the care for her sickly sister, Charlotte, who is eleven years older. Maud and Charlotte live through World War II and other dramatic life events, with Maud finally on her own as she nears retirement. Her goal is to travel, and she is successful in this regard. Will she outwit the police who are after her? You'll have to read to find out.