The Cruel Stars of the Night

This book got better as I continued to read it. There are two stories in the book--the first is about three murders. The other is about a woman's mind going. This not so much a who-dunnit but a why-dunnit. An exciting finish.

While Inspector Ann Lindell and her colleagues in Uppsala are investigating the murder of an elderly farmer, another one is murdered. Then another elderly man dies. The murders must be connected, but the investigators are unable to find a common thread. Perhaps they're related to the disappearance of an elderly professor a few weeks earlier, but again, any connection isn't immediately apparent.

This is a fairly solid police procedural, but I didn't like it as well as the ones I've read by Karin Fossum. The police didn't seem to work well as a team. Perhaps that's the fault of the department head rather than a flaw in Lindell's character. Lindell did withhold important information from her colleagues, and she went off on her own to follow show more hunches. Both of these traits got her into trouble. I don't like cozy mysteries with amateur detectives who unthinkingly put themselves into dangerous situations, and it's even more unforgivable when the investigator is a professional. The book ended abruptly with some threads unresolved. I've come to accept this as a characteristic of many Scandi crime novels. Readers who prefer a tidy resolution to their crime fiction might want to skip this one. show less

In this, Eriksson’s second book to be translated into English, we once again meet up with Ann Lindell and her team from the Uppsala police department’s Violent Crimes division. This time, the team is called in to investigate the seemingly motiveless deaths of three elderly men, all very quiet, all living alone. The police, in the search for anything which might lead them to a killer, try to fathom why these men were killed and what tied their lives together. Lindell gets the idea that perhaps she should make the examination broader, and begins comes up with a man who turned up missing around the same area some time back. It seems that a Laura Hindersten had turned in a missing person report when her father, a professor with a love show more of Petrarch, went missing. Laura’s story interweaves with that of the police investigation, and the combination of the two lead to an incredible read.

I love the way Eriksson writes and I love the slow and methodical pacing of this novel, even though many readers complained that it was too slow for their liking. I liked the characters and I liked the dual plotline. What I didn’t like was that the author allowed his main character, Lindell, to make a really stupid mistake that I don’t think was in keeping with the police side of her character, in order to build to a bit of a hair-raising climax. This error, especially for a writer of Eriksson’s caliber, would normally be (for me) an unforgiveable lapse, but the rest of it was so good that I could overlook it, once I got past my initial annoyance. I can definitely recommend Cruel Stars of the Night to those who enjoy a really good police procedural, and to those who also enjoy psychological suspense. It’s also a bit more gritty than the lighthearted books cozy readers tend to enjoy, so I probably wouldn’t recommend it for that crowd. This author is also definitely a must for those who are exploring the realm of Scandinavian crime fiction. show less

I was surprised to learn that this was only Eriksson's second book about Ann Lindell (the chief investigator on the case). The police team characters seemed to have been together for awhile and the author does a great job conveying a sense of a long-standing team working well together. I was looking forward to finding earlier books of the series but I guess I have to be satisfied with there being only one.

I liked the book a lot despite the fact that, to me anyway, there was no mystery of who the killer had to be. The mystery was, why the obvious killer was the killer. It certainly wasn't obvious to the police who, except for Lindell, never made a connection between the old professor's disappearance and the murders of the old men.

I show more thought the bit with the chess pieces and the potential connection to an assassination attempt on the queen was a total distraction. It might have work better if the author had explained a bit better what the connection was. The old chess match history was interesting but I never did get the connection.

But that was only a minor complaint. On the whole I enjoyed the book quite a lot. I had a hard time putting it down. show less

Overall, a good mystery but how no one but a few convience store clerks did not figure out that Laura was starking raving mad is beyond me. Esp. Ann Lindell, who fell (quite literally) into the most basic of mystery plot traps. Overall, the relationships between the police officers is more of a focus than the mystery, which is not bad but the balance needs to be much better. Another one I'm glad I took from the library rather than buying it.

Kjell Eriksson's police procedural is set in Uppsala, Sweden, where Inspector Ann Lindell's team are investigating the brutal murder of two old men. Meanwhile the local police have been informed of the disappearance of a local history professor.

Lindell's investigation plods along for about half the book, developing twin plot lines about the dead farmers and how Laura, the professor's daughter, is coping with her father's disappearance. Ericksson then reveals a plot twist, but takes his time developing it, which is a bit tedious.

The book has far too many elements of a soap opera in it, and the climax is brought about when Lindell makes one of the most dead ordinary, cliched mistakes in crime fiction, something which nobody can really show more credit in a character such as hers. It's clearly done solely for plot purposes, is at odds with her character, and it's a pretty facile and boring plot twist at that.

While I point out these disappointing areas, I did like Eriksson's prose style, which is quite lyrical and philosophical at times. I'm prepared to give him another go, by reading The Princess of Burundi, which appears to be the high water mark in the Lindell series. show less

A 70-year-old professor is missing. A few months later, it is apparent that there is a serial murderer killing 70-year-old men. Is there a link between the missing man and the dead men? Inspector Ann Liddell in Uppsala sets out to investigate. The professor's daughter is acting strange. Is it because she's hiding something, or is she just crazy? This is a novel that plays with many layers. Sometimes the writing seems a bit choppy because chapters alternate between various viewpoints of characters, and some are very short. I really did not like the ending very well for a number of reasons--some upon which I cannot comment without revealing spoilers. I did not find the Inspector's actions plausible toward the end. Still, the book is an show more interesting venture into the world of Swedish crime fiction. show less