TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of January 4, 1970

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5
1
THE INHERITORS
Harold Robbins
Cover of THE INHERITORS

THE INHERITORS

by Harold Robbins · Trident Press

6 wks on list

"Harold Robbins as he once said is still writing the scene -- the Hollywood scene as it began with The Dream Merchants, continued with The Carpetbaggers, and now what's left of it in The Inheritors; obviously it's changed from Jean Harlow to Sharon Tate. The industry has fallen off, and so to a degree has Mr. Robbins since this book doesn't really have the development or the diversification of the earlier ones but it won't matter. A massive promotion campaign is already well under way and the million dollar understanding has been reached with Joseph Levine. This then, paralleling what's happened, mediates between films and television via the dual careers of Sam Benjamin, who has been trying to reach the top ever since his early days as an exhibitor from the Bronx -- and Steven Gaunt, a good generation younger, with complete autonomy at Sinclair Television. Swivelling through grabs for properties of all kinds, Steve is seen marrying Sinclair's daughter, Barbara, who dies; readily available to all kinds of beautiful women including Benjamin's Italian import who for a time distracts him from his marriage; and Finally in the messy business with Benjamin's daughter whom he calls Darling Girl but, who is lost before he starts to try and reclaim her -- to drugs..."--Kirkus

7
FIRE FROM HEAVEN
Mary Renault
Cover of FIRE FROM HEAVEN

FIRE FROM HEAVEN

by Mary Renault · Pantheon/Random House

3 wks on list

Alexander's beauty, strength, and defiance were apparent from birth, but his boyhood honed those gifts into the makings of a king. His mother, Olympias, and his father, King Philip of Macedon, fought each other for their son's loyalty, teaching Alexander politics and vengeance from the cradle. His love for the youth Hephaistion taught him trust, while Aristotle's tutoring provoked his mind and Homer's Iliad fueled his aspirations. Killing his first man in battle at the age of twelve, he became regent at sixteen and commander of Macedon's cavalry at eighteen, so that by the time his father was murdered, Alexander's skills had grown to match his fiery ambition. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

10
NEW
THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN
Michael Crichton
Cover of THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN

THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN

by Michael Crichton · Alfred A. Knopf

The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere. Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the outer fringes of space to "collect organisms and dust for study." One of them falls to earth, landing in a desolate area of Arizona. Twelve miles from the landing site, in the town of Piedmont, a shocking discovery is made: the streets are littered with the dead bodies of the town's inhabitants, as if they dropped dead in their tracks.

Historical bestseller data sourced from the New York Times Book Review, archived by Hawes Publications.