Tursten’s stories about Maud subvert common conventions of the Nordic Noir subgenre through humor. A common trope in these novels is the gritty, troubled professional detective, beaten down by years of service in a difficult field. While Maud is troubled, she is hardly a hard-bitten pro—she is a well-off elderly lady intensely concerned with propriety and creature comfort. While the police investigators more typical of the subgenre battle against serial killers, corrupt authorities, and sexual predators, Maud battles a noisy neighbor, an apartment poacher, and an adult film actor looking to make an advantageous marriage.

In many ways, the stories in An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good are more typical of another subgenre: the cozy domestic mystery. These stories take place in domestic settings—like Maud’s apartment building and the Selma Spa. Cozy domestic mysteries often employ humor, like Tursten’s stories, and they often feature elderly protagonists who, like Maud, are greatly concerned with social order and enjoying small pleasures like a good meal or a soft bed.

An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good does not fit perfectly into this genre, either. The protagonists of cozy domestic mysteries tend to be amateur sleuths caught up in events by happenstance. Maud is not a “sleuth” at all: She is a killer, and her involvement in the murders is by design, not happenstance. Unlike the typical elderly protagonist of a cozy domestic mystery, Maud is not warm, well-meaning, and charming. She is cold, calculating, and dangerous. Her stories are not lighthearted or uplifting, unlike most cozy domestics. Instead, the humor in An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good is dark and biting, satirically pointing out the dangers of things like self-centered thinking and stereotyping.

Importing elements of the cheerful cozy domestic mystery into the dark and brooding confines of Nordic Noir offers a comical element. This effect is compounded by making Maud both a fussy older lady and a cunning killer, creating a parody of both Nordic Noir and the cozy domestic mystery. Tursten is not the only author who has created works that simultaneously celebrate and undermine the conventions of Nordic Noir. Antti Tuomainen’s novel The Rabbit Factor embodies this humorous genre subversion, as does the popular television series Lillehammer.