Naked in death (in death #1) (nudez mortal [Portuguese])

By Nora Roberts:

Images.gr-assets.com. (n.d.). [online] Available at: https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462140609l/30070295.jpg [Accessed 30 Dec. 2016].

Novel first published in July 1995. It was my first meeting with a crime novel by Nora Roberts. It's a very nice novel, because it mixes the typical police literature with a love story. But do not underestimate the author as police writer! Nora Roberts is very good at imagining crime scenes and suspense. The novel is written in a future age, but without eccentricities.
Some quotes from this first book of the «In death» series, preceding «Glory in death», by the pseudonym J. D. Robb:

• «"(...) She told me once she'd never planned on making a career out of professional sex. She'd only gotten into it to make her family crazy. But then, after she got into it, she decided she liked it." (...) "So she stayed in the life, and killed two birds with one fuck. (...)"»
• «Eve hated funerals. She detested the rite human beings insisted on giving death. (...). There might be a God. She hadn't completely ruled such things out. And if there were, she thought, It must have enjoyed a good laugh over Its creations' useless rituals and passages.»
• «I hate to wast time», Roarke said.
• «"(...) Some men find the cool, disinterested, and understated attractive. Makes them think you're deep. (...)"», Mavis said, Eve's friend.
• «"So how did you get rich?" She asked him./"Various ways." (...).», Roarke replied./«"Name one."», Eve requested./«"Desire" (...).», Roarcke said./«"Not good enough." (...) "Most people want to be rich."», Eve said.»/«"They do not want  it enough. To fight for it. To take risks for it."», he aswered.
• «(...) She didn't have your thoroughness, Eve, your control, nor your enviable concentration.», Roarke said.
• «And it was terrifying to realize she believed him, and not be sure, not be absolutely certain if she believed because she needed to.»
• «"(...) The most obvious would be the subject could find her self-worth only in sexual skill. She either enjoyed or detested the act."/(...). "If she detested it, why would she become a pro?"/"To punish."/"Herself?"/"Certainly, and those close to her."»
• «"Whatever we've done in genetic engineering, in vitro, with social programs, we still can't control basic human failings: violence, lust, envy."/"The seven deadly sins."»
• «That was the biggest problem with getting used to someone, she thought. You were lonely when they weren't there.»

200 anos de Poe (Portuguese) (200 years of Poe)

By Edgar Allan Poe:

Source: Fnac.com. (2017). 200 Anos de Poe - Edgar Allan Poe em Fnac.pt. [online] Available at http://www.fnac.pt/200-Anos-de-Poe-Edgar-Allan-Poe/a201295 [Accessed 18 Jun. 2017].

A set of 7 short stories:

• «The purloined letter», 1845, «(...) in Paris (...), "au troisième, n.º 33, rue Dunôt, Faubourg St. Germain."» It is a detective story.

• «The fall of the house of Usher», September 1839, a macabre horror story: «(...) with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveler upon opium — the bitter lapse into everyday life — the hideous dropping off of the veil. (...) Among other things, I hold painfully in mind a certain singular perversion and amplification of the wild air of the last waltz of Von Weber.»

• «The gold-bug», June 1843, a suspense story: «(...) subject to perverse moods of alternate enthusiasm and melancholy [Sr. William Legrand]. (...) You will observe that the stories told are all about money-seekers, not about money-finders.»

• «The tell - tale heart», January 1843. It is is a short story about crime and paranoia.

• «Berenice», March 1835, a horror and macabre story about obsession and mental illness: «The undue, earnest, and morbid attention thus excited by objects in their own nature frivolous, (...). (...) the dreamer, or enthusiast, being interested by an object usually not frivolous, imperceptibly loses sight of this object in a wilderness of deductions and suggestions issuing therefrom, until, at the conclusion of a day dream often replete with luxury, he finds the incitamentum or first cause of his musings entirely vanished and forgotten. (...) the primary object was invariably frivolous, although assuming, through the medium of my distempered vision, a refracted and unreal importance. (...) The meditations were never pleasurable; and, at the termination of the reverie, the first cause, so far from being out of sight, had attained that supernaturally exaggerated interest which was the prevailing feature of the disease.»

• «The masque of the red death», May 1842. It is a horror short story, a Gothic fiction.

• «The man of the crowd», December 1840. It is a short story about obsession.

The author has an excellent ability to describe the mind and mental states, especially the disturbed minds, with too much detail.

High art (a grande arte [Portuguese])

By Rubem Fonseca:

The criticism of the corrupt Brazilian society. Ruben Fonseca leads us to the most representative Brazilian society of that country where corruption and crime still prevail. The language is strong, unfit for prudes; but, therefore, it is delicious and portrays perfectly that miserable, but majestic and precious, Brazil. It is a detective story that criticizes the society, and therefore it is very informative, current, recommended for those who want to be knowledgeable about the harsh realities of the world.

• The movie: