Akron Public Library

“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,” writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life - both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read....

A beautiful and deadly New York woman can kill a man with a kiss.
"You're everything I ever wanted," he says. He leans in and kisses me. At last. I slip my hands away, letting my fingertips brush across his cheek. He takes his final bow over the railing and drops 15 floors toward the Fifth Avenue pavement. Pity.
BookShots
Lightning-fast stories by James Patterson

Novels you can devour in a few hours

Impossible

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"Legends, no matter how outlandish, are often grounded in reality. This has been the guiding principle behind the exhilarating career of Jeremy Logan, the "enigmologist"--an investigator who specializes in analyzing phenomena that have no obvious explanation--previously seen in The Forgotten Room, The Third Gate, and Deep Storm. Logan has often found himself in situations where keeping an open mind could mean the difference between life and death,...

As a science journalist with a regular column in Scientific American, Jeremy Marsh specializes in debunking the supernatural and has a real nose for the strange and unusual. A born skeptic, he travels to the small town of Boone Creek, North Carolina, determined to find the real cause behind the ghostly apparitions that appear in the town cemetery. What he doesn't plan on, however, is meeting and falling hopelessly in love with Lexie Darnell, granddaughter...

A collector of obscure and macabre artifacts, unscrupulous metal band musician Judas Coyne is unable to resist purchasing a ghost over the Internet, which turns out to be the vengeful spirit of his late girlfriend's stepfather.

A bone-chilling novel about a woman found holding a hunting knife, covered in blood that is not her own, who communicates with a single, ominous drawing, and the man who must get inside her head to solve a mystery without a crime. Detective Steven Paul has had the same nightmare for as long as he can remember, a strange symbol figuring prominently into his terror. He decided long ago that the recurring dreams are nothing more than an unfortunate side...

-- RelicJust days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human... But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders. Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who--or what--is doing the killing. But can she...

"Down the road from a working-class British pub, along a narrow brick alley, you might find the entrance to Slade House. A stranger will greet you by name and invite you inside. At first, you won't want to leave. Later, you'll find that you can't. Every nine years, the residents of Slade House extend a unique invitation to someone who's different or lonely: a precocious teenager, a recently divorced policeman, a shy college student. But what really...

Allison Moore is faced with a daunting question: How do you stand up for yourself when it means losing everything? Allison Moore is making it. Barely. The Seattle area architecture firm she started with her best friend is struggling, but at least they're free from the games played by the corporate world. She's gotten over her divorce. And while her dad's recent passing is tough, their relationship had never been easy. Then the bomb drops. Her dad...

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Paige Tyler brings you the latest in her sexy, pulse-pounding SWAT series SWAT werewolf Diego Martinez has always had a protective side, so when he meets a newly turned teenage werewolf, and the kid's intriguing mother, he readily offers to help Brandon learn what it means to be a werewolf. He also readily falls for for Brandon's mother, Bree, and the attraction is mutual. But as SWAT's biggest case...