“An elderly lady begins to remember her past.” This story picked off from where we left Maud in the first book. She’s just gotten away with a murder back home - an antique dealer trying to steal her wares - and she’s decided to get away and take a trip to South Africa. She reminisces how she was almost found out - the detectives returning to question her after some things didn’t add up. “Little Maud sets a trap” - As Maud dozes on her plain to South Africa we get a memory from her past. I liked going back to when Maud was a child because I had a lot of questions about her as a character - did something happen to make her who she is or was she always like that? In this story we see her defend her sister, who was being bullied by two boys, by tricking the boys to get stuck in a coal cellar. This is an early instance we see of Maud sticking up for herself and sister.“Lancing a boil” - This is probably my favorite story of the bunch, even though it doesn’t feature Maud as an old lady but as a young woman trying to start her teaching degree. As we know from the earlier stories. Maud spent most of her career as an English and French teacher. But it took a lot to keep that job. When she just started out she had a good salary but was filling in for another teacher. When that teacher - who is described as a very horrid lady - returns, Maud’s pay and prospects are cut in half. She decides to take care of the problem by setting up a scene where the woman looks to have bit injured by a falling icicle, but was actually Maud hitting her in the head. The woman never fully recovers, leading Maud to take over her full teaching role. It shows another earlier instance of Maud’s cunning and skewed moral compass.“The Truth about Charlotte” - When I first saw this title I was like I knew it! I had suspicions that Charlotte’s death was somehow caused by Maud, despite Maud taking care of her sister for most of her life. The truth is a bit more complicated. Maud has had to take care of Charlotte her whole life because the woman suffers from severe “nerves,” and their parents died young. Maud realizes one day that she hasn’t really been able to live her life and travel, having to act as breadwinner and caretaker her whole life. When Charlotte confusingly stumbles outside the house on a landing, Maud doesn’t act to save her when she falls down the stairs. Charlotte is bedridden and dies shortly after. Maud is haunted by this thought that no, she didn’t push Charlotte, but she didn’t save her, either.“The Peter Pan Problem” - Maud is not a people person, but she did find something akin to friendship - or maybe acquaintance - with a woman named Elsa who lived nearby. But Maud is also definitely not a kid person and so she always thought of Elsa’s child as a “drooling brat.” Over the years, the boy has seemed to cause nothing but trouble to her friend, to the point where he has racked up so much debt that Elsa asks if she can rent a room from Maud to save money. That’s a big no from Maud but instead of just telling her that she decides to make cookies with almonds and feed them to Elsa’s son, who is deathly allergic. There. Problem solved. “An Elderly Lady Takes a Trip to Africa” - I think this is the longest story in this collection, and the only one that isn’t a memory or past event. Maud makes it to Africa, but while there crimes seem to follow her. First a young girl is raped by a “white man,” and then their tour guide is “mugged.” Except he’s not the victim, he’s the rapist! And he wasn’t mugged, but hit over the head with a cane by Maud when he tries to get another girl. Maud takes the girl safety home where she meets her family, who are very grateful. Maud also visits another friend there, who had come on some tough times. The story suggests that Maud is going to use some of her wealth to her help her friend and the girl’s family, showing us that while Maud has done some not-so-good things, she does have a heart. A random tidbit is that the bad guy in this story is Pieter, and this author has another book with a bad guy of the same name. I feel like someone with that name must have wronged her in real life… haha. Overall I really liked this collection - maybe not as much as the first book, which was funnier to me, while this touched on some darker themes and was very personal to Maud. But I do like how we were able to see more of how she came to be who she is.