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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: From the Depths: Terrifying Tales by Richard Saxon

cover art for From the Depths by Richard Saxon

From the Depths: Terrifying Tales by Richard Saxon

Velox Books, 2021

ISBN 979-8745999574

Available: Paperback, Kindle ( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com )

 

It’s always a pleasure to discover a new author of dark fiction, especially when his debut collection is innovative, interesting and extremely entertaining.

 

This is the case with Richard Saxon, whose short story collection is characterized, first of all, by the unusual, long titles of each tale, which give you a hint of what is waiting for you in the following pages.

 

Here are some examples of the more accomplished stories.

 

“The Ocean is Much Deeper Than We Thought” is a tense, riveting piece blending SF and horror, about some mysterious, dangerous creatures living in the deepest part of the ocean, while “I Woke Up During Surgery. They Weren’t Trying to Save Me” is a very disquieting tale of medical horror where a man cured from cancer develops a scary kind of power.

 

The tell-tale title “My Job is to Watch People Die” perfectly describes the content of that unusual, well crafted story, but in  “We Have Been Guarding an Empty Room for the Past Five Years. Today We Found Something Inside”, a slightly surrealistic piece, the horrific nature of the story becomes apparent only at the end.

 

In the excellent “Every Year on My Birthday, I Have to Die”, a man keeps dying and then coming back to life when someone else takes on his death, while in “A Man Knocked at My Door at Midnight, He Gave Me A Horrible Choice”, an insightful tale with a Twilight Zone feel, the meaning (or the lack of it) of our existence on Earth is cleverly addressed.

 

“Arbor Vitae” effectively describes the story of a woman who makes an unusual, terrible bargain to protect her son.

 

The best story in the volume to me is “ My Favorite Twitch Streamer Just Died. He’ s Still Online”, an outstanding piece investigating the apparently tragic mystery of after-life.

 

I strongly recommend this superb collection to every lover of dark, speculative fiction.

 

Reviewed by Mario Guslandi

Posted on June 3, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: THE FEVERISH STARS: New and Uncollected Stories by John Shirley

Cover art for THE FEVERISH STARS by John Shirley

THE FEVERISH STARS: New and Uncollected Stories by John Shirley

Independent Legions Publishing, 2021

ISBN 978-88-31959-87-2

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition  ( Amazon.com )

 

A prolific, successful novelist and short story writer in the fields of dark fantasy and science fiction, John Shirley is back with a hefty new collection, assembling twenty-one stories (two of which are  previously unpublished).

Most of the included tales are quite enjoyable and well worth reading, although I must admit that I’m partial to the dark fiction pieces rather than to the science fiction stories.

“A State of Imprisonment”is an excellent mix of science fiction and horror, set in a future time when Arizona is transformed into a huge prison. A journalist trying to investigate suffers imprisonment and abuse aimed to prevent her from revealing the real nature of the place.

“ Sebillia” is a superb story (despite a weak supernatural side),  in which dark family secrets are finally revealed ,leading to a tragic ending.

The very short “Nodding Angel” effectively portrays the unusual power of a peculiar angel appearing to a family’s female members, while the quite original “Exelda’s Voice” describes a GPS program – which is actually much more than that- taking an active part in the escape of a bank robber.

“Hum- Hurt You. Hum-Hurt You. Hum- Hurt You”, is partly science fiction, partly technological horror that revolves around a fake house, which is really a shell for dangerous transmitters.

“ The Claw Spur”, perhaps my favorite story in the volume, is an excellent Western about killing and vengeance,  with a creepy supernatural side, graced by spectacular storytelling.

The insightful “ The Camera and the Rollercoaster” provides a proper ending to the collection, describing how a man riding a rollercoaster relives the various moments of his life while reaching his final destination. Recommended.

Contains: occasional violence and sex.

 

Reviewed by Mario Guslandi

 

 

Posted on April 9, 2021 by , Reply
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