TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of January 21, 1996

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4
1
THE LOST WORLD
Michael Crichton
Cover of THE LOST WORLD

THE LOST WORLD

by Michael Crichton · Knopf

16 wks on list

Jurassic Park, the primordial zoo has been closed and the dinosaurs it once housed have been destroyed. Now, six years later, there are rumors that some of them may have survived.

5
NEW
THE WEB
Jonathan Kellerman
Cover of THE WEB
6
5
HIDE & SEEK
James Patterson
Cover of HIDE & SEEK

HIDE & SEEK

by James Patterson · Little, Brown

2 wks on list

Could a superstar singer also be a cold-hearted killer? Not only because the defendant is Maggie Bradford, the woman whose songs have captured hearts across the globe. But also because people are saying that Maggie has murdered not just one husband, but two.In Maggie's world - the world of fame and celebrity - things are never what they seem.

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THE CHRISTMAS BOX
Richard Paul Evans
Cover of THE CHRISTMAS BOX

THE CHRISTMAS BOX

by Richard Paul Evans · Simon & Schuster

12 wks on list

Since it was first published, more than seven million people have been touched by the magic of The Christmas Box, a holiday classic that is as beloved in our time as A Christmas Carol was in Dickens's. When Richard Paul Evans wrote The Christmas Box, he intended it as a private expression of love for his two young daughters, Jenna and Allyson. Though he often told them that he loved them, he didn't feel that they could ever really understand the depth of his feelings until they had experienced the joy of rearing their own children, and by that time their relationship would have changed forever. In writing The Christmas Box, he hoped that at some time in the future they would read the book and know of their father's love. As Evans began to write, he was amazed at the inspiration that flowed into his mind and heart. He completed the moving story of a widow and the young family who comes to live with her in less than six weeks, and bound twenty copies to give as Christmas presents to family and friends. In the following weeks, those twenty copies were shared and passed along from family to family, from friend to friend, and what began as a tale for two little girls became a message of miracles, hope, and healing for people throughout the world.

9
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INTENSITY
Dean Koontz
Cover of INTENSITY

INTENSITY

by Dean Koontz · Knopf

1 wks on list

#1 "NEW YORK TIMES "BESTSELLER Past midnight, Chyna Shepard, twenty-six, gazes out a moonlit window, unable to sleep on her first night in the Napa Valley home of her best friend's family. Instinct proves reliable. A murderous sociopath, Edgler Foreman Vess, has entered the house, intent on killing everyone inside. A self-proclaimed "homicidal adventurer," Vess lives only to satisfy all appetites as they arise, to immerse himself in sensation, to live without fear, remorse, or limits, to live with "intensity." Chyna is trapped in his deadly orbit. Chyna is a survivor, toughened by a lifelong struggle for safety and self-respect. Now she will be tested as never before. At first her sole aim is to get out alive--until, by chance, she learns the identity of Vess's next intended victim, a faraway innocent only she can save. Driven by a newly discovered thirst for meaning beyond mere self-preservation, Chyna musters every inner resource she has to save an endangered girl . . . as moment by moment, the terrifying threat of Edgler Foreman Vess intensifies.

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THE FINAL JUDGMENT
Richard North Patterson
Cover of THE FINAL JUDGMENT

THE FINAL JUDGMENT

by Richard North Patterson · Knopf

5 wks on list

The bestselling novel by one of today's great authors of legal thrillers, Richard North Patterson's The Final Judgment. A young man has been murdered. His girlfriend, twenty-two-year-old Brett Allen, is found at the scene of the crime. She claims she is innocent—even though she's dripping in blood, the murder weapon covered with her fingerprints. Enter attorney Caroline Masters, Brett's estranged aunt. She's been summoned back to her affluent New England hometown to help Brett out of this mess...and revisit the troubled family she left behind. Caroline learned a long time ago that the ties that bind can also be broken. Now that she's back home, she can't help but doubt her family's motives—and Brett's innocence. As the trial heats up, Caroline finds herself up against those who would kill to keep dark secrets hidden...and the state prosecutor, who happens to be her former lover and will do anything to expose the truth. Now, with her family's fate—and her own reputation—hanging in the balance, Caroline must assume the role of a lifetime as she fights to save her niece. Or destroy them both... "Compelling...very possibly Patterson's best." -USA Today

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THE JUDGE
Steve Martini
Cover of THE JUDGE

THE JUDGE

by Steve Martini · Putnam

1 wks on list

Lawyer Paul Madriani tackles another thrilling case in this explosive mystery from New York Times bestselling author Steve Martini. When Judge Armando Acosta is charged with soliciting a prostitute, attorney Paul Madriani is less than sympathetic. Nevertheless, Madriani is forced to defend his old nemesis. And when the policewoman who snared Acosta is brutally murdered, Madriani wonders if the judge is also the executioner.

12
NEW
BEHIND THE LINES
W. E. B. Griffin
Cover of BEHIND THE LINES

BEHIND THE LINES

by W. E. B. Griffin · Putnam

1 wks on list

Behind the Lines is W. E. B. Griffin's powerful novel of World War II -- and the courage, patriotism, and sacrifice of those who fought it. By 1942, the Japanese have routed the outnumbered American forces and conquered the Philippines. But deep in the island jungles, the combat continues. Refusing to surrender, a renegade Army officer organizes a resistance force and vows to fight to the last man. A Marine leads his team on a mission through the heart of enemy territory. And the nation's proudest sons fight uncelebrated battles that will win -- or lose -- the war . . .

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THE HUNDRED SECRET SENSES
Amy Tan
Cover of THE HUNDRED SECRET SENSES

THE HUNDRED SECRET SENSES

by Amy Tan · Putnam

12 wks on list

The "wisest and most captivating novel" (Boston Globe) from the author of the bestselling The Joy Luck Club and The Backyard Bird Chronicles Set in San Francisco and in a remote village of Southwestern China, Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses is a tale of American assumptions shaken by Chinese ghosts and broadened with hope. In 1962, five-year-old Olivia meets the half-sister she never knew existed, eighteen-year-old Kwan from China, who sees ghosts with her "yin eyes." Decades later, Olivia describes her complicated relationship with her sister and her failing marriage, as Kwan reveals her story, sweeping the reader into the splendor and violence of mid-nineteenth century China. With her characteristic wisdom, grace, and humor, Tan conjures up a story of the inheritance of love, its secrets and senses, its illusions and truths.

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