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. If you're not familiar with Eriksson's previous work (The Princess of Burundi), then you need to know that this series of books is set in Sweden. imho, the best crime writers in the world come out of the Scandinavian countries, although the UK runs a very close second.
In Cruel Stars of the Night, Lindell and the team are 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 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. Nowhere does Eriksson promise anyone a fast-paced thriller, and I personally believe that the beauty of Scandinavian crime writing in general is that it unfolds slowly. The exception is, perhaps, Stieg Larsson's books (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Girl Who Played With Fire) which are so appealing to American audiences because they are fast-paced and never a dull moment-type reads. Anyway, back to Eriksson: 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.
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