Review: AN ELDERLY LADY IS UP TO NO GOOD, Helene Tursten

• 
  This edition made available by my local library as an e-book through Libby
  
• Originally collated in Swedish in 2017
• English translation published by Soho Press in 2018
• Translator Marlaine Delargy
• ISBN 978-1-64129-011-1

Synopsis (publisher)

Maud is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and... no qualms about a little murder. This funny, irreverent story collection by Helene Tursten, author of the Irene Huss investigations, features two-never-before translated stories that will keep you laughing all the way to the retirement home.

Ever since her darling father's untimely death when she was only eighteen, Maud has lived in the family's spacious apartment in downtown Gothenburg rent-free, thanks to a minor clause in a hastily negotiated contract. That was how Maud learned that good things can come from tragedy. Now in her late eighties, Maud contents herself with traveling the world and surfing the net from the comfort of her father's ancient armchair. It's a solitary existence, and she likes it that way.

Over the course of her adventures--or misadventures--this little bold lady will handle a crisis with a local celebrity who has her eyes on Maud's apartment, foil the engagement of her long-ago lover, and dispose of some pesky neighbors. But when the local authorities are called to investigate a dead body found in Maud's apartment, will Maud finally become a suspect?

My Take

A very quick read.

A Collection of 5 short stories

• An Elderly Lady has Accommodation Problems 2012
  When one of her neighbours has designs on her apartment Maud takes swift action.
  

• An Elderly Lady on Her Travels 2012
  Maud sees a social notice that her ex-fiance, at 90, is marrying again, to someone she taught decades before.
  

• An Elderly Lady seeks Peace at Christmas time 2007
  Since her upstairs neighbours moved in a year before, Maud has had to put up with The Problem.
  

• The Antique Dealer's Death 2016
  Maud wants to sell some her father's gold and silver antiques, but a rapacious young antique dealer aims to cheat her out of her property
  

• An Elderly Lady is Faced with a Difficult Dilemma 2018
  This story gives you the background to the Antique Dealer's Death. 

In the last two stories Detective Inspector Irene Huss is the investigating officer. Huss of course makes her appearance in a number of Tursten's full length novels.

While Maud has good health she gives the impression at times that she is "not quite with it". But nothing could be further from the truth. Most of those who cross Maud don't live to tell the tale. 

A lovely collection of quirky tales.

My Rating: 4.7

I've also read

THE GLASS DEVIL
4.4, NIGHT ROUNDS
THE GOLDEN CALF
4.5, THE FIRE DANCE
4.4, HUNTING GAME

Review: HUNTING GAME, Helene Tursten

• format: e-book through Libby
• #1 in Detective Inspector Embla Nystrom series
• published 2016 
• Translated from Swedish by Paul Norlen

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Helene Tursten's explosive new series features Detective Inspector Embla Nyström, a sharp, unforgiving woman working in a man's world. When one of her peers is murdered during a routine hunting trip, Embla must track down the killer while confronting a dark incident from her past.

Twenty-eight-year-old Embla Nyström has been plagued by chronic nightmares and racing thoughts ever since she can remember. She has learned to channel most of her anxious energy into her position as Detective Inspector in the mobile unit in Gothenburg, Sweden, and into sports. A talented hunter and prizewinning Nordic welterweight, she is glad to be taking a vacation from her high-stress job to attend the annual moose hunt with her family and friends.

But when Embla arrives at her uncle’s cabin in rural Dalsland, she sees an unfamiliar face has joined the group: Peter, enigmatic, attractive, and newly divorced. And she isn’t the only one to notice. One longtime member of the hunt doesn’t welcome the presence of an outsider and is quick to point out that with Peter, the group’s number reaches thirteen, a bad omen for the week. Sure enough, a string of unsettling incidents follow, culminating in the disappearance of two hunters. Embla takes charge of the search, and they soon find one of the missing men floating facedown in the nearby lake. With the help of local reinforcements, Embla delves into the dark pasts of her fellow hunters in search of a killer.

My take:

I found this novel a little difficult to get into which I eventually put down to the style and the translation. I found characters and places difficult to identify.

Embla Nyström is a tough lady. She has suffered from nightmares for years, linked to the disappearance of her best friend Lollo when they were teenagers from a nightclub. Embla never revealed to the police and parents the true circumstances of Lollo's disappearance, particularly the link to some gangsters. 

The two missing men were once a group of 3, who nicknamed themselves "the three musketeers". Then 12 months ago one of them drove his car at high speed into a tree on his way home from that year's annual moose hunt.  It is Embla who discovers the link between these three men to the disappearance of Peter's sister.

An interesting but demanding read.
The author reveals in her final words that Embla has already made an appearance in one of the Inspector Huss novels, but now, she says, it is time for Embla "to stand on her own two feet."


My rating: 4.4

Detective Inspector Embla Nystrom
   1. Hunting Game (2019)
   2. Winter Grave (2019)
   3. Snowdrift (2020)

I've also read (Inspector Huss series)
THE GLASS DEVIL
4.4, NIGHT ROUNDS
THE GOLDEN CALF
4.5, THE FIRE DANCE

Review: THE FIRE DANCE, Helene Tursten

• first published 2005
  
• #6 in the Irene Huss series
• translated into English 2014, by Laura A. Wideburg
• published in 2014 by Soho Press
• ISBN 978-1-61695-010-1
• 306 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

In this sixth installment in the critically acclaimed Swedish crime series, the murder of a young ballerina named Sophie, apparently an arson victim, sets off shrill alarm bells for Detective Inspector Irene Huss, who remembers the matching details of an unsolved case from fifteen years earlier, when Irene had only just started in the police force. The stepfather of the then eight-year-old Sophie has been murdered in a very similar way, and at the time the girl herself had been under suspicions. The circumstances force Irene and her colleagues to confront an uncomfortable question: can a child be responsible for the cold-blooded murder of an adult? The case awakens vivid memories that take the reader back to Irene's days as a young police officer.

My Take

Rather frustratingly we are once again playing catch-up with quality Danish crime fiction. THE FIRE DANCER was first published in Swedish in 2005, and has only made it into English nearly a decade later.

The case spans Detective Inspector Irene Huss's career with the the Goteborg crime unit. She had been newly appointed when her boss asked her to take over the questioning of eleven year old Sophie Malmborg with regard to a house fire that killed her step-father Magnus Eriksson. Fifteen years later the details of the earlier case come flooding back to Irene when she learns of the death of Sophie also in an arson attack.

What I've enjoyed about this series is Irene's determination to get to the bottom of the cases. She has a very practical attitude to her work. Throughout the books there have been glimpses of her home life, and in the background in THE FIRE DANCE are her twin teenage daughters making their own ways in life, and her husband chef Krister who is suffering from burnout.

A satisfying read.

My rating: 4.5

I've also reviewed
THE GLASS DEVIL
4.4, NIGHT ROUNDS
THE GOLDEN CALF

Review: THE GOLDEN CALF, Helene Tursten

• format : Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 1723 KB
• Print Length: 340 pages
• Publisher: Soho Crime (February 5, 2013)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• Translated from Swedish by Laura A. Wide burg
• ASIN: B008ADBYWW

Synopsis (Amazon)

In this fifth installment in the critically acclaimed Irene Huss series, three men are found brutally executed in one of Goteborg's most fashionable neighborhoods. All three men were involved in an online poker company, but that's all they appear to have in common. The complex investigation immerses Detective Inspector Irene Huss and her colleagues into a world of expensive cars, fancy homes and impressive castles in the air.

Meanwhile, the normally peaceful atmosphere of the Huss family is disturbed by marital tension as Irene suspects her husband Krister of having an affair with a younger woman.

My Take

This novel explores the role of young Swedish businessmen in the collapse of the dot com world in the early 21st century. It begins with the death of one businessman and then the revealing of his strange living arrangements with his young wife and son. Then a further two businessmen who normally live together in Paris are found dead, obviously murdered. Police investigations reveal that another has been missing for three years. The wife of the first victim appears to hold the key.

Irene and a colleague are sent to Paris to view the apartment of the dead couple and they disturb a man who attacks both of them.

An action packed thriller that explores a web that reaches from Sweden to Paris and London and even into the mafia of New York.

Change is imminent in Irene's world with a couple close to going through  marital breakup and the Huss twins on the verge of leaving home.

This series are basically police procedurals, planted in a modern world, with plenty of human interest.

My rating: 4.4

I have already reviewed
THE GLASS DEVIL
4.4, NIGHT ROUNDS

Review: NIGHT ROUNDS, Helene Tursten

• Originally published in Swedish as Nattrond in 1999. 
• Published in English translation by Soho Press 2012, translated by Laura A. Wideburg
• 326 pages
• Source: my local library
• ISBN 978-1-61695-006-4

Synopsis (Amazon)

Irene Huss is a former Ju-Jitsu champion, a mother of twin teenage girls, the wife of a successful chef, and a Detective Inspector with the Violent Crimes Unit in Goteborg, Sweden. And now she’s back with a gripping follow-up to Detective Inspector Huss.

One nurse lies dead and another vanishes after their hospital is hit by a blackout. The only witness claims to have seen Nurse Tekla doing her rounds, but Nurse Tekla died sixty years ago. Detective Inspector Irene Huss of the Violent Crimes Unit has the challenge of disentangling wandering ghosts and complex human relationships to get to the bottom of this intriguing case.

My take

This is #2 in the Irene Huss series, published out of order in English.

Criminal Inspector Irene Huss is a member of the Violent Crimes Unit in Goteborg, Sweden, so NIGHT ROUNDS is a police procedural with a Swedish flavour. 

The Lowander Hospital is a small private hospital run by Dr. Sverker Lowander, a family business inherited from his father. It has a very small number of rooms, although it has an operating room, but at nights and weekends is managed by only 2 or 3 staff. When the blackout occurs in the middle of the night there are 2 nurses on duty and one doctor. The blackout triggers the failure of a respirator in the ICU room and the generator fails to kick in. The ICU nurse is missing and is later found dead.

NIGHT ROUNDS has some interesting plot strands: the murder of one nurse on the blackout night, the disappearance of another, the appearance of a ghost, the relationships between members of the Violent Crimes Squad, and Irene's family which consists of twin 14 year old daughters and a chef husband. the Squad works in small teams, each focussing on particular enquiries and reporting back to the main group at the beginning and ending of the day.

I found the style a little unusual, and couldn't quite work out whether this was the result of Tursten's writing style or the translation. It is a very direct style of writing, not much adornment, and shortish sentences, with economy in description. There were some peculiarities of expression like the constant references to "morning prayers", the meeting of the Crimes Squad at the beginning of each day. I have seen this used in other crime fiction works, but not as commonly as this novel seems to imply.

And yet, I think NIGHT ROUNDS is good reading if you like police procedurals (which I do). The plot is inventive, well supplied with red herrings, and there feels to be plenty of local colour. And I do like the character of Irene Huss.

My rating: 4.4

The order of the series (courtesy EuroCrime)
Inspector Huss, Gothenburg

• Detective Inspector Huss	2003	1
• Night Rounds	2012	2
• The Torso	2006	3
• The Glass Devil	2007	4

My review of THE GLASS DEVIL contains mini reviews of  DETECTIVE INSPECTOR HUSS and THE TORSO.

Other sites to check

• review of NIGHT ROUNDS on Murder by Type
• In the Spotlight on Confessions of a Mystery Novelist
• Reviews on Scandinavian books
• Review on DJsKrimiblog of THE MAN WITH THE LITTLE FACE, not yet translated into English.

DVDs available of the television movies made by Yellowbird of 6 stories based on Helene Tursten stories, with apparently more to come. These appear to be immensely popular in Sweden.

Review: THE GLASS DEVIL, Helene Tursten

Soho Press, ISBN 978-1-56947-489-1, 2003
Translated from Swedish in 2009 by Katarina E. Tucker, 2007, 311 pages.

Pillars of the community in a remote Swedish village, a pastor and his wife and their son, a teacher, are shot dead one night. The pastor has recently been investigating Satanism in his village, and all the signs are indicating that this may be a cult killing. It seems likely that the remaining member of the pastor's family, a daughter in London, may be in some danger and so the investigation takes Detective Inspector Irene Huss from Goteborg to England. When interviewing the daughter becomes difficult Irene feels that the Satanist clues are not really pointing to the answer. There are also suspects in the village, even amongst those who will take over from the pastor.

This is the third of Helene Tursten's Swedish police procedurals to be translated into English, and it will be a great pity if there are no more, which I believe at present may be the case. I believe there are another 5 Irene Huss novels not yet translated into English.

I don't think THE GLASS DEVIL is the strongest of the three we have seen so far. I'm not sure either about the opening Prologue and just how some of that fits in with the main story. There are patches that read a bit like a travelogue when Irene goes to London, but Irene Huss is such a strong, likeable character, that I do want to meet her again. However I do like the way Tursten weaves elements of 'ordinary' policing and family life into the plot. I also like the gruff and down to earth character of her boss Criminal Superintendent Sven Andersson.

My rating: 4.1
See review by Maxine Clarke for EuroCrime

My other reviews of Tursten novels:

THE TORSO
Translated from Swedish in 2006. The story begins with the gruesome discovery of part of a human torso in a black plastic bag on a shoreline near Goteborg. Detective Inspector Irene Huss, whose superintendent suspects she is a magnet for killings, is one of the team called in to investigate. When they learn of a similar torso turning up 2 years earlier in Copenhagen, Irene is sent to liaise with the Copenhagen police. Her investigations reveal strong connections between communities in Sweden and Denmark. As people she visits seem to die shortly afterwards, it certainly appears her superintendent's joke has at least a grain of truth. Irene herself is targetted by someone who does not want the connections fully revealed. Some detailed descriptions will not suit the squeamish. Irene Huss is strong, level-headed, intuitive, highly principled, but sometimes fallible.

My rating 4.6

DETECTIVE INSPECTOR HUSS
The first in the Irene Huss series. Originally titled in Swedish "The Broken Tang Horse". The Vicious Crimes Unit that Irene Huss is part of are investigating the death of a wealthy businessman who fell over 20 metres from the balcony of this apartment to the footpath below just as his wife and son arrived home and were getting out of their car.
The business man, Richard von Knecht, has recently celebrated his 60th birthday, and he and his wife Sylvia their 30th wedding anniversary. The building they live in is a fortress with their apartment on the top two floors and old friends living in apartments on other floors. Is it suicide? The day after his death, the building where his office was housed burns down, the result of an incendiary bomb, and Irene's Vicious Crimes Unit is investigating the connections. The book 'establishes' the character of Irene Huss: her physical endurance, her martial arts prowess, her family life, her chef/cook husband, teenage daughters, intuitive powers etc. There is an exploration of what it is that makes their 'team' work - the diversity of personalities and talents.
Translated into English by Steven T. Murray 2003. I read this after I had read a later book THE TORSO. I would recommend reading them in order.

My rating: 4.4

Body parts strewn around

The finding of body parts, hand, arm, foot, leg would be a gruesome enough discovery. In crime fiction it is often the beginning of a murder mystery.

This was true with Giles Blunt's THE DELICATE STORM, where the finding of a disconnected arm in the forest begins a search for other parts of the body.

Then it occurred to me that recently I have read other books where there is a similar plot. Here are a couple:

NOT IN THE FLESH by Ruth Rendell
Honey the dog is a wonderful hunter for truffles. But this time she unearths something even less savoury - a human hand. Another case for the inveterate duo Reg Wexford and Mike Burden. The body is male, and has been there for over 10 years, wrapped in a purple bed sheet. In this story Reg Wexford seems to be a little less clearly drawn and we learn more about the dynamics of the team he works with. The plot is a spider web of threads. It is all about degrees of separation, those threads that draw us together. And running through all the murder mysteries, missing persons and threads of deception, something else Rendell has on her mind - female circumcision, ritual genital mutilation of young immigrant children, providing a rich undercurrent, showing Rendell as aware of the issues of her times as ever.
My rating 4.8

BLIND SPOT by Terri Persons
FBI Agent Bernadette Saint Clare has many distinguishing features. At first sight she is a small person with a superficial resemblance to Mia Farrow. Then, if she discards her sunglasses, you notice she has devil’s eyes, each eye a different colour. Bernadette’s success as an FBI Agent however owes much to her “hidden” gift: an ability to see through the eyes of a criminal while holding an object the person has held.
A dog returning from an exploring trip to a nearby river brings his young master a rather gruesome trophy - a human hand. And so Bernadette Saint Clair begins her new posting with a new boss. Tony Garcia is a little different to her previous bosses – he wants to see where Bernadette’s “gift” will take them. When a male body is found in the locality without a hand, it is Bernadette who alerts them to the fact that the hand that the dog found is female.
My rating 4.1

THE TORSO by Helene Tursten
Translated from Swedish in 2006. The story begins with the gruesome discovery of part of a human torso in a black plastic bag on a shoreline near Goteborg. Detective Inspector Irene Huss, whose superintendent suspects is a magnet for killings, is one of the team called in to investigate. When they learn of a similar torso turning up 2 years earlier in Copenhagen, Irene is sent to liaise with the Copenhagen police. Her investigations reveal strong connections between communities in Sweden and Denmark. As people she visits seem to die shortly afterwards, it certainly appears her superintendent's joke has at least a grain of truth. Irene herself is targetted by someone who does not want the connections fully revealed. Some detailed descriptions will not suit the squeamish. Irene Huss is strong, level-headed, intuitive, highly principled, but sometimes fallible.
My rating 4.6

Skeletons tomorrow...