These excerpts from Kjell Eriksson's novel, "The Cruel Stars of the Night," chronicle a complex police investigation and the deteriorating mental state of a woman named Laura Hindersten. The central plot involves Detective Ann Lindell and her team investigating a series of murders of elderly men, which they eventually link through a bizarre chess-game theme and connections to a missing academic, Ulrik Hindersten, who is later discovered to be Laura’s father and a murder victim himself. Simultaneously, the text explores Laura's toxic relationship with her deceased father and her desperate, erratic attempts to settle scores with her past, including burning his library and engaging in a volatile affair with her married colleague, Stig Franklin. The narrative culminates with Lindell being trapped in Laura's burning house after discovering her father's corpse, while Laura is apprehended following a violent confrontation with Stig and his wife, Jessica.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.