TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of January 21, 1990

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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DADDY
Danielle Steel
Cover of DADDY

DADDY

by Danielle Steel · Delacorte Press

7 wks at #1 · 10 on list

Through the portrait of a caring family, young readers are reassured that continuity and love need not end when a parent remarries.

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CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER
Tom Clancy
Cover of CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

by Tom Clancy · Putnam

21 wks on list

At the end of the prologue to Clear and Present Danger, Clancy writes, "And so began something that had not quite begun and would not soon end, with many people in many places moving off in directions and on missions which they all mistakenly thought they understood. That was just as well. The future was too fearful for contemplation, and beyond the expected, illusory finish lines were things fated by the decisions made this morning--and, once decided, best unseen." In Clear and Present Danger nothing is as clear as it may seem.The president, unsatisfied with the success of his "war on drugs," decides that he wants some immediate success. But after John Clark's covert strike team is deployed to Colombia for Operation Showboat, the drug lords strike back taking several civilian casualties. The chief executive's polls plummet. He orders Ritter to terminate their unofficial plan and leave no traces. Jack Ryan, who has just been named CIA deputy director of intelligence is enraged when he discovers that has been left out of the loop of Colombian operations. Several of America's most highly trained soldiers are stranded in an unfinished mission that, according to all records, never existed. Ryan decides to get the men out.

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CARIBBEAN
James A. Michener
Cover of CARIBBEAN

CARIBBEAN

by James A. Michener · Random House

10 wks on list

A fictional account of the history of the Caribbean area includes the racial, political, and economic struggles from the arrival of Columbus and Spanish control to present day problems.

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HARMFUL INTENT
Robin Cook
Cover of HARMFUL INTENT

HARMFUL INTENT

by Robin Cook · Putnam

2 wks on list

A physician turned fugitive must save himself and stop a lethal drug-tampering plot in Robin Cook's most disturbing techno-chiller yet. Anesthesiologist Dr. Jeffrey Rhodes's nightmare begins with nerve-shattering swiftness, but it will haunt him always: he administers routine anesthesia during a normal birth. Suddenly the young, healthy mother goes into inexplicable seizures and dies; her infant survives but is severely disabled and brain damaged. But the living nightmare is only beginning: sued first for malpractice, then brought up on criminal charges, Jeffrey is convicted of malpractice—to the tune of $11 million—then of harmful intent and reckless disregard for human life...second-degree murder carrying a mandatory prison term. A ruined man, Jeffrey must pull himself from the depths of despair to try to salvage the wreckage of his life. A subtle clue puts him and Nurse Kelly Everson on the trail of a crazed killer. With Kelly's aid, Jeffrey remains in hiding in order to find the truth and gain the evidence he needs to prevent more "malpractice" deaths and to clear his name. But that truth is even more shocking than Jeffrey imagined. For there is a third dimension to the whole affair that neither he nor Kelly could have anticipated...

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STRAIGHT
Dick Francis
Cover of STRAIGHT

STRAIGHT

by Dick Francis · Putnam

9 wks on list
12
SPY LINE
Len Deighton
Cover of SPY LINE

SPY LINE

by Len Deighton · Knopf

3 wks on list

British agent Bernard Samson finds himself inexplicably hunted as a traitor, forced to abandon his life, his job, his position, and plunge into hiding in the most dangerous and darkest corner of Berlin. What is happening? What has he done? Nothing makes sense until Samson discovers that the Secret Service has known all along where he is. In fact, they have never taken him off the payroll. And now they are prepared to return his freedom and good name -- but there are strings attached, strings that begin to tighten around his neck even before his plane lands in Vienna . . . "From the Paperback edition.

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THE ELEVENTH HOUR
Graeme Base
Cover of THE ELEVENTH HOUR

THE ELEVENTH HOUR

by Graeme Base · Abrams

8 wks on list

An elephant's eleventh birthday party is marked by eleven games preceding the banquet to be eaten at the eleventh hour; but when the time to eat arrives, the birthday feast has disappeared. The reader is invited to guess the thief.

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