Having read the first collection, "An Elderly Lady is Up to Not Good" and loving it, I was thrilled to check out the sequel ("An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed"), which does not disappoint! It pretty much picks up after the last one, and again we have Maud, our 88 year-old protagonist still up to no good... due to the events in the previous collection getting a bit too hot, she must flee the country of Sweden for... S.Africa to lay low. If you know Maud, that is really not happening, LOL! I love how these books are all told in short story format - makes for easy reading! RECOMMEND highly! My thanks to the author, publisher & Net Galley for the ARC

Honestly, I’m not sure what to make of this. That said, I really enjoyed the book and think that Maud is such an interesting and compelling protagonist! I believe this is a Swedish series, of which I had never heard of previous till now, but this seems to be a short story in the series. In this story, you get some background info and you just can’t help but like Maud.

An elderly Swedish lady who has an unexpected homicidal tendency takes off on a trip to South Africa and - well her homicidal impulses travel with her. I enjoyed this lighthearted romp about a 90-something-year-old serial killer (I know, that sounds impossible). Her sociopathic nature makes for a rather subtle commentary on Swedish society and the role assigned to "nice old ladies" who are assumed to be a little dotty - it makes for good cover. This is the second in a quirky series by a seasoned Swedish author of two excellent procedural series that are a good deal more serious about murder. While generally a misanthrope, this elderly lady has reasons for her murders.

I had not read the first in this series; it sounded a little preposterous. But I really enjoyed this semi-cozy serial killer tale.

Having lived in Sweden for a while, I'm always happy to read books by Swedish authors that transport me back to that beautiful country. A few years ago we met Maud in An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good, where she played a forgetful old lady when the authorities were sniffing around, but showed herself to be shrewd and calculating when on her own. In this follow-up, An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed, Maud is back solving Problems in her own unique and permanent fashion.

In the previous book, a dead body had been found in one of the rooms in Maud's large apartment that she rarely ever entered. Even though she's nearly 89, she travels a lot and it was unfortunate that a burglar had broken in with an accomplice and ended up murdered (presumably by the absent accomplice) and lain dead in her apartment for many days while she was out traveling. The police do try to get to the bottom of what happened, but poor Maud is extremely hard of hearing and confused (when they are around, anyway), so they don't get much information out of her.

Now Maud is preparing for a luxury safari trip to South Africa, but before she can leave, the police show up with more questions about the death. Maud is still not able to follow their questions or provide any information, so they leave in frustration and she is able to go on her trip. While on the plane during the long flight, Maud remembers several other occasions in her life when she had to take care of Problems that cropped up in her life: a dependent sister, a co-worker in the way of advancement, and a neighbor's entitled son. How Maud deals with these Problems and her complete lack of any sort of remorse is eye-opening, to say the least.

Once Maud gets to South Africa, she finds her frail little-old-lady act useful in getting out of tours and events that she doesn't want to attend. As always, she has her own agenda. Unfortunately, some Problems crop up on her vacation as well . . .

As with the previous book, I felt a bit misled by the cutesy title and cover of the book. It would suggest that this book is about a feisty old lady getting into amusing scrapes. That is not at all what goes on. Maud is surely a sociopath, taking care of Problems in very well-reasoned ways that leave her unsuspected. The portion of the book where she is in South Africa is also somewhat puzzling -- it goes into minute detail about what Maud saw, ate, and thought on the trip, the stores she visited, etc. It was almost as if the author was using her own travel diaries to construct the story. I wonder if this particular book might also get some backlash for the "white savior" actions taken by Maud in South Africa. The story was interesting enough and is a quick read, but it is just not what I thought it would be.