25. A Darker Domain, Val McDermid

392 Páginas

1984. The National miners' strike is dividing the country, and in a struggling coal-mining town, the miners and their families are living at the edge of their resources. They have no money, and there is no food or heating. On the 14th of December, five miners break ranks to travel to Nottingham and work. For those who stay behind, this is an unforgivable betrayal, and the men are branded as scabs. 23 years later, a young woman is asking the police to trace her missing father: miner Mick Prentice vanished, never to be seen again, although money has been sent to his family; he was widely considered to be one of the scabs. Soon, D I Karen Pirie and DS Phil Parharta find themselves investigating a forgotten disappearance.
This is the provocative premise of Val McDermid's latest novel, A Darker Domain, and this utterly compelling book is further proof that McDermid is determined to stretch the parameters of what crime fiction is supposedly capable of. McDermid has always been prepared to freight serious issues into her work, and this novel -- which, in many ways, is an examination of the conditions that produced the Britain we live in today -- demonstrates the continuing high level of her ambition.
In fact, Karen Pirie, when taking on this new assignment, is already involved in a case of kidnapping that took place 22 years earlier (in which a woman was killed during a bungled handover of money). Journalist Bel Richmond makes a startling discovery concerning the MacLennan kidnapping while on holiday in Tuscany, and as the three protagonists dig deeper into ever-more labyrinthine mysteries, they are to make some remarkable discoveries -- discoveries which throw light not just on the crimes involved, but on the whole of British society.
As all of this might suggest, the stakes here are as high as one is likely to find in a crime novel, and Val McDermid demonstrates that she is as capable as ever of integrating the demands of the page-turning crime narrative with a discussion of the things that make society tick.

24. Caught, Harlan Coben

380 Páginas

Wendy is a reporter on a mission: She's chasing down the lowest of the low-sexual predators-and exposing them on national television. Her big break comes when she nails a child advocate who works with abused and underserved children. She's there, cameras rolling, when the cops cuff him and the guy realizes his life is well and truly over. Three months later, the perp is off the grid, missing and presumed dead after the father of a victim claims to have killed him. Wendy, proud to have taken the man down in front of a shocked television audience, has moved on to the story of a missing girl, Erin, in a nearby suburb. The whole country is obsessed with finding this child, and Wendy should be well on her way to journalistic superstardom. Then is all comes unhinged: Wendy gets a phone call that changes everything. A group of local fathers, out of work and not above vigilante justice, begins to take matters into their own hands on Erin's behalf. Secrets long-buried rise to the surface and Wendy begins to wonder if her assumptions that fateful night three months ago were based on solid investigative journalism-or if she has unwittingly been part of a grand manipulation aiming to destroy an innocent man.

23. Indelible, Karin Slaughter

416 páginas

Karin Slaughter’s reputation grows apace, and Indelible sports all the customary fingerprints. Over the space of a handful of novels, the author has built a reputation as one of the key crime novelists at work today. What's her secret? In some ways, Slaughter’s work is a refining of the Southern Gothic idiom that has been the bedrock of so much atmospheric work in the past, but Slaughter’s way with the form is entirely her own, and despite the lashings of atmosphere, she never forgets that a crime novelist has to be rigorous in the arena of plotting--and that’s her strongest suit.
Medical examiner Sara Linton and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver take a trip from the pressures of Heartsdale (in the hope of straightening out their relationship), but a detour to Jeffrey’s hometown lands them in the most difficult case of their career.
Readers are probably growing weary of the inevitable comparison novels like Slaughter’s draw with those of Thomas Harris--and rightly so. But the trouble is, such comparisons are right on the nail for Slaughter. She may not quite have the older writer's authority, but she is undoubtedly skilled at creating a delicious, unsettling tension in the reader--as is very much the case in Indelible. And she’s careful, too, to ensure that the relationship between Sara Linton and Jeffrey Tolliver isn’t sidelined by the accelerating tension--that relationship is moved on considerably here. The fulsome praise on the jacket from such fellow scribes as John Connolly and Michael Connelly is more than professional courtesy here--they’re fully justified by the work on offer.

22. Out of My Depth, Emily Barr

416 páginas

When Susie decides to invite her old school friends for a reunion she tells herself that it's just about showing off. It's about letting Amanda, Izzy and Tamsin, see how well she's done, with her successful career as an artist, her gorgeous house in France, her deliciously louche boyfriend. But the truth is that this is a dark plan. A plan that could make or break her seemingly perfect life!and she knows it. As the old friends gather at Susie's for a long weekend of catching up and comparisons, it is clear that despite their lives having taken very different turns, they are all still haunted by a dark and common past. They each know that up until now they have been treading water -- waiting for the inevitable moment when they have to face the truth. The question is, now that the time has come, who will sink and who will swim?

21. O Hipnotista, Lars Kepler

560 páginas

Erik Maria Bark é o mais famoso hipnotista da Suécia. Acusado de falta de ética, e com o casamento à beira do colapso, jurou publicamente nunca mais praticar a hipnose nos seus pacientes e há dez anos que se mantém fiel à sua promessa. Até agora. Estocolmo. Uma família é brutalmente assassinada e a única testemunha está internada no hospital em estado de choque; Josef Ek, de apenas 15 anos, presenciou o massacre dos seus pais e irmã mais nova, sendo ele próprio encontrado numa poça de sangue, vivo por milagre. Nessa mesma noite, Erik Maria Bark recebe um telefonema do comissário Joona Linna solicitando os seus serviços ¿ urge descobrir a identidade do assassino e para tal Josef deverá ser hipnotizado. Erik aceita a missão com relutância, longe de imaginar que o que vai encontrar pela frente é um pesadelo capaz de ultrapassar os seus piores receios. Dias mais tarde, o seu filho de 15 anos, Benjamin, é sequestrado da própria casa. Haverá uma ligação entre estes dois casos? Para salvar a vida de Benjamin, o hipnotista deverá enfrentar os fantasmas do seu passado e mergulhar nas mentes mais sombrias e perversas que jamais poderia imaginar; o que tinha por difuso revela-se abominável, o que tinha por suspeito surge como demoníaco. Para Erik, a contagem regressiva já começou...