Akron Public Library

In Rice's slim second Songs of the Seraphim novel (after Angel Time), the angel Malchiah whisks ex-contract killer Toby O'Dare back to 16th-century Rome, where Toby must save Vitale de Leone, a young Jewish physician who's been implicated in the poisoning of his gentile master and accused of bringing a poltergeist-like dybbuk into the household. Toby resolves both problems efficiently, but tragedy ensues, shaking his faith and leaving him vulnerable...

Visiting a NATO conference in Rome, Rogue Warrior Demo Dick gives a speech about Europe's vulnerabilities and the need to get serious about terrorism, ending with an impromptu demonstration, as he unmasks a plot to kill the conferees seconds before it begins. The former SEAL commander is then shanghaied to Sicily to help investigate the attempted theft of nukes from a U.S. base. Is the Mafia involved? Or is this the work of Saladin, a shadowy extremist...

""Richly evocative of the charms and contradictions of Italy. Brava!"-Chris Pavone, New York Times bestselling author What if you found yourself in the middle of a war armed only with lipstick and a sense of humor? Abandoned as a child in Los Angeles in 1931, dust bowl refugee Sally Brady convinces a Hollywood movie star to adopt her, and grows up to be an effervescent gossip columnist secretly satirizing Europe's upper crust. By 1940 saucy Sally...

In a hot summer morning, Arturo Clemente is sloppily murdered in his Roman apartment by a mysterious slasher. The killing is brutal, amateurish, and by all appearances random. But Clemente is no ordinary victim: He has made enemies by campaigning against illegal dog fighting, and he is married to a prominent politician. And his mistress is Manuela Innocenzi, the daughter of a dangerous crime boss. By the time police inspector Alec Blume arrives at...

"The main character in Asle Skredderberget's crime novels is Milo Cavalli. Half Norwegian and half Italian, he is definitely not your typical depressed Nordic noir investigator. In fact he's quite the opposite. Milo is successful and attractive AND extremely rich. He goes to confession. He worries about his friends and family. And he taps into his family fortune whenever he needs to in order to crack the case he's working on. In The Oslo Conspiracy,...

"Emilia arrives in Rome reeling from heartbreak and reckoning with her past. What was supposed to be a romantic trip has, with the sudden end of a relationship, become a solitary one instead. As she wanders, music, art, food, and the beauty of Rome's wide piazzas and narrow streets color Emilia's dreamy, but weighty experience of the city. She considers the many facets of her life, drifting in and out of memory, following her train of thought wherever...