TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of March 12, 1989

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
STAR
Danielle Steel
Cover of STAR

STAR

by Danielle Steel · Delacorte Press

4 wks at #1 · 3 on list

Beginning just after World War II, Crystal Wyatt and Spencer Hill seem to kept apart by fate even as their stars are on the rise.

2
THE SATANIC VERSES
Salman Rushdie
Cover of THE SATANIC VERSES

THE SATANIC VERSES

by Salman Rushdie · Viking Press

2 wks on list

' Two men miraculously survive an explosion in a hijacked jumbo jet, only to discover they have been chosen as protagonists in the eternal battle between God and the Devil.

3
THE EDGE
Dick Francis
Cover of THE EDGE

THE EDGE

by Dick Francis · Putnam

3 wks on list

Undercover operative Tor Kelsey just received his make-or-break assignment: masquerading as a waiter on The Great Transcontinental Mystery Race Train -a high-class horse-racing junket for the super-rich. He was told to look out for trouble, but he never could have guessed how much. Because one of the passengers on this elegant excursion is Julius Apollo Filmer -a sociopathic genius of blackmail and criminal corruption. His goal -take the train and its passengers for everything they have. And Tor is the only one with enough cunning and courage to take him onhellip;

4
4
BILLY BATHGATE
E. L. Doctorow
Cover of BILLY BATHGATE

BILLY BATHGATE

by E. L. Doctorow · Random House

2 wks on list

Billy Bathgate is an urban Huck Finn who comes of age in New York City in the 1930s as the protege of Dutch Schultz, one of the most abominable gangsters of his time, but one of life's great teachers as well. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

5
1
MIDNIGHT
Dean R. Koontz
Cover of MIDNIGHT

MIDNIGHT

by Dean R. Koontz · Putnam

7 wks on list
6
1
CAT'S EYE
Margaret Atwood
Cover of CAT'S EYE
7
2
THE FORTUNE
Michael Korda
Cover of THE FORTUNE

THE FORTUNE

by Michael Korda · Summit

3 wks on list
9
2
THE CARDINAL OF THE KREMLIN
Tom Clancy

THE CARDINAL OF THE KREMLIN

by Tom Clancy · Putnam

32 wks on list

Jack Ryan, CIA analyst, must rescue Colonel Filitov, America's highest agent in the Kremlin, from the KGB as the race to build the first Star Wars missile defense system continues.

10
RIVALS
Janet Dailey
Cover of RIVALS
11
A SEASON IN HELL
Jack Higgins
Cover of A SEASON IN HELL

A SEASON IN HELL

by Jack Higgins · Simon & Schuster

8 wks on list

Widowed American socialite Sarah Tolbert loses her son in a mysterious drug-related death. She travels abroad to investigate the matter and is plunged into a sinister European underworld of murderous organized crime. Reissue. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

12
MUTATION
Robin Cook

MUTATION

by Robin Cook · Putnam

7 wks on list

Il fallait le prévoir. Le champion des "thrillers" médicaux rajeunit dans ce roman réussi le mythe de Frankenstein.

13
NEW
THE LONG DARK TEA-TIME OF THE SOUL
Douglas Adams
Cover of THE LONG DARK TEA-TIME OF THE SOUL

THE LONG DARK TEA-TIME OF THE SOUL

by Douglas Adams · Simon & Schuster

1 wks on list

When a passenger check-in desk at Terminal Two, Heathrow Airport, shot up through the roof engulfed in a ball of orange flame the usual people tried to claim responsibility. First the IRA, then the PLO and the Gas Board. Even British Nuclear Fuels rushed out a statement to the effect that the situation was completely under control, that it was a one in a million chance, that there was hardly any radioactive leakage at all and that the site of the explosion would make a nice location for a day out with the kids and a picnic, before finally having to admit that it wasn't actually anything to do with them at all. No rational cause could be found for the explosion-it was simply designated an act of God. But, think Dirk Gently, which God? And why? What God would be hanging around Terminal Two of Heathrow Airport trying to catch the 15:37 to Oslo? Funnier than Psycho... more chilling than Jeeves Takes Charge... shorter than War and Peace... the new Dirk Gently novel, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.

14
STORMING INTREPID
Payne Harrison
Cover of STORMING INTREPID

STORMING INTREPID

by Payne Harrison · Crown

3 wks on list

Desperate to acquire the latest American technology relating to the SDI program, the Soviets hijack the U.S. space shuttle Intrepid, triggering a costly and dangerous battle.

15
NEW
THE LYRE OF ORPHEUS
Robertson Davies
Cover of THE LYRE OF ORPHEUS

THE LYRE OF ORPHEUS

by Robertson Davies · Viking Press

The Cornish Foundation, set up by the late Francis Cornish, decides to fund the doctoral work of Hulda Schnakenburg, a grumpy musical genius who is completing an unfinished Hoffman opera. Bestseller 1988.

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