Taken hostage by a failed bank robber while attending an open house, eight anxiety-prone strangers--including a redemption-seeking bank director, two couples who would fix their marriages, and a plucky octogenarian--discover their unexpected common traits. Viewing an apartment normally doesn't turn into a life-or-death situation, but this particular open house becomes just that: a failed bank robber bursts in and takes everyone in the apartment hostage....

Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award • Winner of the Orange Prize • National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist

"Bel Canto is its own universe. A marvel of a book." —Washington Post Book World

New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett's spellbinding novel about love and opera, and the unifying ways people learn to communicate across cultural barriers in times of crisis

Somewhere

...

Georgia Bureau of Investigations Detective Faith Mitchell, her partner Will Trent, and trauma doctor Sara Linton join forces to find Faith's mother, missing after a deadly hostage situation that leaves Faith a murder suspect -- and the scapegoat for police corruption, bribery, and murder.

The woman's body was found in the early morning, on a bench in a New York City playground. She was clean, her hair neatly arranged, her makeup carefully applied. But other things were very wrong, like the tattoo and piercings, clearly new. The fatal wound hidden beneath a ribbon around her neck. And the note: Bad Mommy, written in crayon as if by a child. Eve Dallas turns to the department's top profiler, who confirms what Eve believes: They're dealing...

Alex Cross has Washington, D. C. The Women's Murder Club has San Francisco. Detective Michael Bennett has all of New York City, chaos capital of the world.
The son of one of New York's wealthiest families is snatched off the street and held hostage. But this kidnapper isn't demanding money. Instead, he quizzes his prisoner on the price others pay for his life of luxury . . . and wrong answers are fatal.
Detective Michael Bennett heads...

After a standoff between a top nuclear scientist from Los Alamos and an innocent family taken hostage turns violent, Gideon Crew must track down a rogue nuclear device.

"FBI special agent Julianna Jameson is a top-notch negotiator who has never lost a hostage. Surely she can manage to take care of her much younger sister, Dottie, who showed up unannounced to live with Julianna while she finished her senior year of high school.A former sniper with the 75th Ranger Regiment, Clay Fox left the army after a tragic incident that he can't get past. Now he's working as a high school resource officer until he can figure out...

When seventeen-year-old Nora O'Malley, the daughter of a con artist, is taken hostage in a bank heist, every secret she is keeping close begins to unravel.

In the midst of a sudden spring snowstorm, an unknown man armed with a gun walks into an elementary school classroom. Outside the school, the town of Broken Branch watches and waits. Officer Meg Barrett holds the responsibility for the town's children in her hands. Will Thwaite, reluctantly entrusted with the care of his two grandchildren by the daughter who left home years earlier, stands by helplessly and wonders if he has failed his child again....