Akron Public Library

"Descent, the story of a family undone by the disappearance of a daughter who went out for a morning run and didn't come back, marks the adult fiction debut of a remarkable young writer. Stunning in its emotional impact, Descent is a compulsively readable page-turner with a strong literary sensibility. The girl's vanishing--on a sunny, late-summer vacation morning--all the more devastating for its mystery, is the beginning the family's harrowing journey...

Dr. Julia Cates child psychiatrists whose career was ruined and confidence shattered is called back to her hometown by her sister Ellie, a police chief, when a six year old girl emerges from the heart of the Olympic National Forest. The child is locked in a world of unimaginable fear and isolation. The media descend on Julia and once again her competence is challenged, but nothing is more important to her than saving the child.

The Dunnes have set off on a ten day boat trip, a trip that hopefully will bring them closer together, despite the fact that the father, Stuart is staying behind on land. But only an hour into the trip they're already falling apart. The teenage daughter plans to drown herself, and the teenage boy is high on drugs. Ten-year-old Ernie is near catatonic. But their mother Anne, with the help of her brother-in-law Jeff, is insistent on pulling everyone...

"Daisy Darker was born with a broken heart. Now after years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in her crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. When the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours. But at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next...

Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon: acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law. But as he embarks on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his conscience and finds the noose of his own guilt...

"In her new novel, Danielle Steel tells a riveting story of the dark side of motherhood. Zoe Morgan's childhood was marked by her younger sister's tragic illness, watching as her parents dedicated themselves completely to her final days and then divorced. As a young woman driven by these painful memories, Zoe sets the bar high for herself, studying hard and pursuing a career in the nonprofit world, where her deep compassion for disadvantaged children...

"Welcome to Stanhope. A safe neighborhood. A place for families. On the surface, William Wooler is a family man. But he's been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper. Hours later, Avery's family declares her missing. Suddenly Stanhope doesn't...

A wealthy American who sees marriage to a French countess as his crowing acquisition finds that he is no match for the machinations of her realtives.

A new translation of the Nobel laureate's famous classic follows the story of successful aging writer Gustave von Aschenbach, whose search for spiritual fulfillment in Venice leads to erotic ruin when he becomes obsessed with an alluring Polish youth, Tadzio.

"Alex Cross enters the final battle with the all-knowing genius who has stalked him and his family for years. Dr. Alex Cross and Detective John Sampson venture into the rugged Montana wilderness--where they will be the prey. They're not on the job, but on a personal mission. Until they're attacked by two rival teams of assassins, controlled by the same mastermind who has stalked Alex and his family for years. Darkness falls. The river churns into...