3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

542 páginas

Financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist has made his living uncovering the corrupt and crooked practices of Stockholm's leading financiers in his magazine, Millennium. But one expose unexpectedly backfires, and Blomkvist's reputation is in tatters. When he is offered an investigative job by powerful businessman Henrik Vanger, he is in no position to refuse. But he is surprised to find it has nothing to do with high finance - this time, it is a case of murder.Many years ago, Henrik's niece, Harriet, disappeared during a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the Vangers. No-one saw her leave the island, and no body was ever found. Even so, Henrik is convinced that she was murdered by a member of his own family - the tightly knit but dysfunctional Vanger clan.Blomkvist is soon in over his head. He has linked Harriet's disappearance to a number of gruesome murders from forty years ago, but it has become too dangerous to proceed alone. He needs a competent assistant, and he gets one: the gifted and conscience-free computer specialist, Lisbeth Salander. This truculent young woman has problems of her own. She in unwilling to take orders, rides a motorbike like a Hell's Angel and handles makeshift weapons with a skill born of rage.This improbably pair unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

2. Long Lost, Harlan Coben

371 páginas

Myron hasn't heard from Terese Collins in years. Not since their affair ended without explanation. He's had no contact with her since, so her call catches him off guard. She's in Paris, she says, in trouble and only Myron can help. Terese tells him a sad story she's never before revealed: a good marriage, her struggles to get pregnant, the happiest moment of her life when her only child was born, the day everything she'd ever loved was taken from her. As the years passed Terese heard nothing from her ex-husband, until the phone call that brought her to Paris. But on arrival, Terese finds her husband has been murdered, leaving her as a prime suspect. Then comes a startling piece of evidence that turns the entire case upside down, laying bare Terese's long-buried family secrets in the most shocking way and leaving Myron nowhere to turn for help. Caught in a foreign landscape where nothing is as it seems, he must tear apart the city - and eventually the globe - fighting for answers to unfathomable questions that will take Myron, and Harlan Coben's readers, where they have never gone before.

1. Crocodile on the Sandbank, Elizabeth Peters

296 páginas

Amelia Peabody is Elizabeth Peters' best loved and brilliant creation, a thoroughly Victorian feminist who takes the stuffy world of archaeology by storm with her shocking men's pants and no-nonsense attitude! In this first Egyptian mystery, our headstrong heroine decides to use her substantial inheritance to see the world. On her travel, she rescues a gentlewoman in distress - Evelyn Barton-Forbes - and the two become friends. The two companions continue to Egypt where they face mysteries, mummies and the redoubtable Radcliffe Emerson, and outspoken archaeologist, who doesn't need women to help him solve mysteries - at least that's what he thinks!

2010

Parece que os anos passam e os livros lidos diminuem. Nem sei bem para onde vai o tempo que não se tem para ler, apesar das promessas iniciais de ler mais que no ano anterior! A ver vamos se 2010 traz ao menos boas leituras.

49. Morte à Primeira Vista, Peter James

462 páginas

Eles observam. Eles escolhem. Eles matam. Tom Bryce fez aquilo que qualquer pessoa decente faria. Mas horas depois de ter pegado no CD que tinha sido esquecido no banco ao lado do seu no comboio, e na tentativa de o devolver ao proprietário, Tom é a única testemunha de um assassínio perverso, e a sua jovem família é ameaçada de morte se ele contar à polícia. Mas apoiado pela sua mulher, Kellie, Tom presta corajosamente declarações junto da equipa de investigação criminal chefiada pelo comandante de polícia Roy Grace, um homem com os seus próprios fantasmas pessoais. A partir desse momento, o assassinato da família Bryce torna-se uma mera formalidade - e uma atracção macabra. O anúncio da morte de Kellie e Tom já foi posto na Internet. Pode entrar e vê-los numa página. A morte fica-lhes bem.

48. Cross Country, James Patterson

406 páginas

When Detective Alex Cross is called to investigate a massacre-style murder scene, he is shocked to find that one of the victims is an old friend. Angry, grieving, and more determined than ever, Cross begins the hunt for the perpetrators of this vicious crime. He is drawn into a dangerous underworld right in the heart of Washington DC that leads him on a life-threatening journey to the Niger Delta, where heroin dealing, slave trading and corruption are rife. At the centre of this terrifying world, Cross finds the Tiger - the psychopathic leader of a fearsome gang of killers who are not what they seem. As Cross tracks the elusive Tiger through Africa, he must battle against conspiracy and untold violence. Alex Cross is in a heart-stopping chase that takes him across a vast and uncompromising landscape and finds him not only hunting for a horrific killer, but also fighting for his own survival.

47. A Busca, Iris Johansen

264 páginas

Integrando uma equipa de elite de busca e salvamentos, Sarah Patrick e o seu cão Monty, têm o dom de encontrar aquilo que mais ninguém conseguiria localizar, seja um sobrevivente enterrado vivo durante um tremor de terra ou o esqueleto de uma criança assassinada. É a Sarah que Eve Duncan deve a recuperação dos restos da filha Bonnie (ver os anteriores romances da autora publicados pela Gradiva). Mas agora Sarah é forçada a tomar parte numa missão de vida ou de morte por um homem que sabe o suficiente sobre o seu passado para garantir a sua cooperação. Um homem que não aceita uma recusa.
John Logan está habituado a conseguir o que quer e o que quer agora é a ajuda de Sarah. O seu laboratório ultra-secreto foi sabotado, as instalações destruídas e o pessoal, que escolheu a dedo, massacrado. O único sobrevivente foi vítima de sequestro. Logan sabe que a única maneira de salvar o homem ¾ e os segredos que guarda ¾ é encontrá-lo o mais rapidamente possível.
Correndo contra o tempo para impedir o derramamento de sangue antes que surjam mais vítimas, Sarah e Logan vão apontar directamente ao coração do mal.

46. A Faint Cold Fear, Karin Slaughter

462 páginas

Sara Linton, medical examiner in the small town of Heartsdale, is called out to an apparent suicide on the local college campus. The mutilated body provides little in the way of clues - and the college authorities are keen to avoid a scandal - but for Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, things don't add up. Two more suspicious suicides follow, and a young woman is brutally attacked. For Sara, the violence strikes far too close to home. And as Jeffrey pursues the sadistic killer, he discovers that ex-police detective Lena Adams, now a security guard on campus, may be in possession of crucial information. But, bruised and angered by her expulsion from the force, Lena seems to be barely capable of protecting herself, let alone saving the next victim...