TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of April 19, 1998

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WeekMonth
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1
THE STREET LAWYER
John Grisham
Cover of THE STREET LAWYER

THE STREET LAWYER

by John Grisham · Doubleday

9 wks at #1 · 9 on list

A corporate lawyer in Washington goes to war against his own company to defend the homeless. It happens after Michael Brock is abducted by a homeless man and held hostage. The homeless man is killed by a police sharpshooter and the lawyer is rescued, but the experience changes his life. Michael was in a hurry. He was scrambling up the ladder at Drake & Sweeney, a giant D.C. law firm with eight hundred lawyers. The money was good and getting better; a partnership was three years away. He was a rising star with no time to waste, no time to stop, no time to toss a few coins into the cups of panhandlers. No time for a conscience. But a violent encounter with a homeless man stopped him cold. Michael survived; his assailant did not. Who was this man? Michael did some digging, and learned that he was a mentally ill veteran who'd been in and out of shelters for many years. Then Michael dug a little deeper, and found a dirty secret, and the secret involved Drake & Sweeney. The fast track derailed; the ladder collapsed. Michael bolted the firm and took a top-secret file with him. He landed in the streets, an advocate for the homeless, a street lawyer.

2
PANDORA
Anne Rice
Cover of PANDORA

PANDORA

by Anne Rice · Knopf

4 wks on list

Anne Rice iniciaba con Pandora la serie «Nuevas Historias de Vampiros», integrada por la presente novela y por Vittorio el vampiro, recuperando así el universo y algunos de los personajes de sus míticas «Crónicas Vampíricas». En este primer volumen de las «Nuevas Historias de Vampiros», el vampiro novel David Talbot invita a Pandora, su igual, a rememorara sus casi dos mil años de existencia. « No han pasado veinte minutos desde que me dejaste aquí, en el café, desde que respondí "no" a tu petición; jamás escribiría para ti la historia de mi vida mortal, jamás te contaría cómo me había convertido en un vampiro, cómo había conocido a Marius pocos años después de que él hubiera perdido su vida mortal. Ahora estoy aquí con tu libreta ante mí, utilizando una de las plumas afiladas y eternamente cargadas de tinta que me dejaste, deleitándome con la sensual sensación que me produce contemplar cómo la tinta negra se fija sobre el costoso papel inmaculadamente blanco. »

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COLD MOUNTAIN
Charles Frazier
Cover of COLD MOUNTAIN

COLD MOUNTAIN

by Charles Frazier · Atlantic Monthly Press

41 wks on list

The impact of the Civil War on lovers. Inman is not the man he used to be, as wounded in battle he slowly makes his way home to North Carolina. His sweetheart, Ada, too has changed, no longer a flighty belle but a hard-working farm woman. Will love be the same?

5
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PARADISE
Toni Morrison
Cover of PARADISE

PARADISE

by Toni Morrison · Knopf

13 wks on list
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HOMEPORT
Nora Roberts
Cover of HOMEPORT

HOMEPORT

by Nora Roberts · Putnam

3 wks on list

Dr. Miranda Jones is called to Italy to secure the authenticity of a valuable Renaissance sculpture. There she meets a gorgeous art thief. But when dangerous sparks of passion begin to fly, Miranda finds herself in more trouble than she'd packed for.

8
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MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
Arthur Golden
9
BLACK AND BLUE
Anna Quindlen
Cover of BLACK AND BLUE

BLACK AND BLUE

by Anna Quindlen · Random House

10 wks on list

An ultimately uplifting tale, full of drama and the details of a personal crisis. Oprah Book Club Choice and international bestseller. ‘The first time my husband hit me, I was nineteen years old’ For eighteen years, Fran Benedetto kept her secret. And hit her bruises. And stayed with Bobby because she wanted her son to have a father. And because, in spite of everything, she loved him. Then one night, when she sae the look on her ten-year-old son’s face, Fran finally made a choice – and ran for both their lives. Now she is starting over in a city far from home, far from Bobby. But every day she waits fro him to catch up with her. Because Bobby always said he would never let her go. And despite the flawlessness of her escape, Fran Benedetto is certain of one thing – it’s only a matter of time. ‘The honesty of her storytelling is exemplary’ - Sunday Times ‘Relationships and family life are captured in a beautiful, intelligent way’ - Good Housekeeping

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SUDDEN MISCHIEF
Robert B. Parker
Cover of SUDDEN MISCHIEF

SUDDEN MISCHIEF

by Robert B. Parker · Putnam

4 wks on list

Susan Silverman's ex isn't your average ex... he's someone much more suspicious Susan's ex doesn't call himself "Silverman" anymore—he's changed his name to "Sterling." And that's not the only thing that's phony about him. A do-gooding charity fundraiser, he's been accused of sexual harassment by no less than four different women. And not long after Spenser starts investigating, Sterling is wanted for a bigger charge: murder...

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AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST
Iain Pears
Cover of AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST

AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST

by Iain Pears · Riverhead

3 wks on list

An extraordinary intellectual thriller set in Oxford in the 1660s, AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST has been compared to both Umberto Eco's THE NAME OF THE ROSE and Rose Tremain's RESTORATION. The 1660s were a time of great ferment - intellectual, religious and political - and this is reflected in Pears's text. The novel is centred on a suspicious death, that of Robert Grove, fellow of New College. We hear about it from four witnesses, a Venetian Catholic intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood transfusion; the son of a supposed traitor to the Royalist cause, determined to vindicate his father; John Wallis, chief cryptographer to both Cromwell and Charles II, a mathematician, theologican and master spy; and Anthony Wood, the famous Oxford antiquary. Each of the first three witnesses is unreliable - they seem convincing, but the conclusions are contradictory - and only Wood, in the final volume, reveals the truth. Brilliantly written, utterly convincing, gripping from the first page to the last, AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST is destined to be a major international bestseller.

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THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
Gore Vidal
Cover of THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

by Gore Vidal · Random House

3 wks on list

Good Friday, 1939, and T., a sixteen-year-old schoolboy, arrives at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. The museum is closed, but T. manages to slip in, and it would appear that somehow, he is expected. An old man, Bentsen, shows him around, and T. realises that all is not as it seems. As he goes to examine a Native American exhibit, he is drawn magically into the nineteenth-century world of a reservation of Sioux Indians. They like what they see of T. and immediately get the pot boiling. T. is forced to take refuge in the tent of a young Squaw. They become lovers, and she helps him to escape back to the safety of the Smithsonian. Back with Bentsen, T. explores the Smithsonian further and begins to fathom the mysteries of time travel. The Smithsonian scientists have discovered how to get back to the past, but still don't know how to travel to the future. T. puts his brilliant mathematical brain to the problem. However, given a glimpse into the future, T. sees his own untimely death, and becomes determined to prevent the outbreak of WWII...

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MIRACLE CURE
Michael Palmer
Cover of MIRACLE CURE

MIRACLE CURE

by Michael Palmer · Bantam

An agonizing sports injury did more than end Brian Holbrook's professional football dreams. It left the skilled cardiologist with an addiction to prescription painkillers that eventually cost him his marriage and his license to practice medicine. But now, at thirty-eight, Brian's cleaned up his act, swallowed his pride, and is ready to start over. The prestigious Boston Heart Institute has offered Brian an opportunity to participate in trials of a new drug that could revolutionize medicine. Vasclear may have the power to reverse arteriosclerosis, the number one killer in the civilized world. The initial results are so dazzling Brian pushes to get his own father, who has a dangerous heart condition, into the scheme. But soon Brian is uneasy. Under close scrutiny because of his past, Brian cannot afford to make waves, but the mysterious disappearance of a colleague and deaths of patients on the scheme compels him to ask questions. However, with billions of dollars at stake, questions could cost him his career - and his father's life. For as Brian is beginning to suspect, knowing too much at the Boston Heart Institute is the quickest way to the morgue.

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