20. Strange Highways, Dean Koontz

564 páginas

One rain-swept Sunday night when he was twenty years old, on his way back to college after a weekend with his family, Joey Shannon took the wrong highway - and from that moment, nothing ever went right for him again. Now, exactly twenty years later, on another rain-swept night, Joey finds himself at the same crossroads, looking down the road never taken. Which is odd. Because that road no longer exists. A superhighway replaced it nearly twenty years ago, and the old state route - which had crossed a web of perpetually burning, abandoned coal mines - was condemned as too dangerous and was torn up. But now the highway is exactly as it was on that long-ago night, and when Joey turns on to it, he begins an eerie, terrifying journey toward a truth so dark and stunning that it will change everything he believes about himself, his past, and the nature of life.

A collection of short fiction, including the title novel, nine novellas, and six stories, explores the variety of human adventures, terrors, joys, and more -- that occur along the path from birth to death.

19. Behaving Badly, Isabel Wolff

352 páginas

Stylishly written, sophisticated but warmhearted and accessible, this is Isabel Wolff at her inimitable best. All men are beasts...or so Miranda Sweet believes. As an animal behaviourist, she's good at understanding aggressive Airedales and irritated iguanas, but she can't understand why the men in her life have always behaved so badly. Especially Alexander, her ex-fiance and the biggest let-down of her romantic career. In Miranda's opinion, animals are braver, kinder and a lot more reliable. So she's given up on love to open her own clinic and work her magic on neurotic pets and their anxious owners. Can Miranda keep the whole male species at bay for ever? Her best friend, Daisy, an incurably romantic wedding-planner, doesn't think so, and when a delicious photographer comes into her life, even Miranda starts to wonder if she's been a bit hasty. But, just when she's letting her guard down, her past starts to catch up with her and she has to turn her expert eye on her own behaviour, which hasn't always been as sweet as she'd like to pretend...

18. One False Move, Harlan Coben

337 páginas

Brenda Slaughter, the star player of the Women's Professional Basketball Association, is getting threatening phone calls. Norm Zuckerman, owner of the league, convinces sports agent Myron Bolitar to protect Brenda by promising to deliver her as Myron's next big client. Brenda, who claims she doesn't need protection, enlists Myron to find her missing father--the assumed source of the phone calls and Myron's childhood mentor. It looks like a simple family dispute--overprotective father goes off the deep end when daughter decides to go her own way--until Horace Slaughter shows up dead and the police name Brenda as the primary suspect. What unfolds is a 20-year-old scandal, a series of disturbing family secrets, and an unexpected, if not entirely believable, ending. One False Move leads the reader through the dirty underbelly of the sports world. It has a little bit of everything: all-star athletes, dirty cops, corrupt politicians, and hired killers. It's a whirlwind of a story that Coben pulls off seamlessly with quirky but realistic characters and pages full of great one-liners. One False Move is a compelling thriller that no mystery fan should miss.

17. Hurting Distance, Sophie Hannah

408 páginas

Three years ago, something terrible happened to Naomi Jenkins -- so terrible that she never told anybody. Now Naomi has another secret -- the man she has fallen passionately in love with, unhappily married Robert Haworth. When Robert vanishes without trace, Naomi knows he must have come to harm. But the police are less convinced, particularly when Robert's wife insists he is not missing.In desperation, Naomi has a crazy idea. If she can't persuade the police that Robert is in danger, perhaps she can convince them that he is a danger to others. Then they will have to look for him -- urgently. Naomi knows how describe in detail the actions of a psychopath. All she needs to do is dig up her own troubled past...

16. Lição de Tango, Sveva Casati Modignani

446 páginas

Giovanna e Matilde não parecem ter nada em comum, excepto o facto de morarem no mesmo bairro de Milão e de às vezes se cruzarem na rua. A primeira é uma encantadora antiquária, casada e com uma filha adolescente; a outra é uma pobre idosa que vive sozinha numas águas-furtadas das quais obstinadamente não se deixa despejar. Uma série de circunstâncias dramáticas aproxima as duas mulheres, que aprendem a conhecer-se e a travar uma profunda amizade. Matilde ajudará a jovem a encontrar a serenidade e o amor, enquanto que Giovanna acompanhará Matilde ao longo da sua caminhada final. Uma história dominada pela paixão, que nos retrata, com o talento habitual de Sveva Casati Modignani, duas inesquecíveis figuras femininas.