TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of February 11, 2001

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1
A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT
Terry McMillan
Cover of A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT

A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT

by Terry McMillan · Viking Press

3 wks at #1 · 2 on list

“Without question, this is McMillan’s best. A glorious novel....A moving tapestry of familial love and redemption.”—The Washington Post With her hallmark exuberance and a cast of characters so sassy, resilient, and full of life that they breathe, dream, and shout right off the page, Terry McMillan has given us a tour-de-force novel of family, healing, and redemption. A Day Late and a Dollar Short takes us deep into the hearts, minds, and souls of America—and gives us six more friends we never want to leave.

2
NEW
A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT
Michael Connelly
Cover of A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT

A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT

by Michael Connelly · Little, Brown

1 wks on list

LAPD Detective Harry Bosch crosses paths with FBI profiler Terry McCaleb while investigating the murder of a Hollywood actress. Harry Bosch is up to his neck in a case that has transfixed all of celebrity-mad Los Angeles: a movie director is charged with murdering an actress during sex, and then staging her death to make it look like a suicide. Bosch is both the arresting officer and the star witness in a trial that has brought the Hollywood media pack out in full-throated frenzy. Meanwhile, Terry McCaleb is enjoying an idyllic retirement on Catalina Island when a visit from an old colleague brings his former world rushing back. It's a murder, the unreadable kind of murder he specialized in solving back in his FBI days. The investigation has stalled, and the sheriff's office is asking McCaleb to take a quick look at the murder book to see if he turns up something they've missed. McCaleb's first reading of the crime scene leads him to look for a methodical killer with a taste for rituals and revenge. As his quick look accelerates into a full-sprint investigation, the two crimes -- his murdered loner and Bosch's movie director -- begin to overlap strangely. With one unsettling revelation after another, they merge, becoming one impossible, terrifying case, involving almost inconceivable calculation. McCaleb believes he has unmasked the most frightening killer ever to cross his sights. But his investigation tangles with Bosch's lines, and the two men find themselves at odds in the most dangerous investigation of their lives.

4
THE FIRST COUNSEL
Brad Meltzer
Cover of THE FIRST COUNSEL

THE FIRST COUNSEL

by Brad Meltzer · Warner

3 wks on list

White House lawyer Michael Garrick has a relatively anonymous position at a very public address. That is, until he starts dating Nora Harston (secret service code name: Shadow), the sexy and dangerously irresistible daughter of the President. But the confident young attorney thinks he can handle the pressure. Until, out on a date, Nora and Michael see something they shouldn't. To protect her, he admits to something he shouldn't. And when a body is discovered and Michael is the suspected killer, he finds himself on the run. Now, in a world where power is an aphrodisiac and close friends carry guns and are under strict orders to risk their lives, Michael must find a way to prove his innocence.

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2
SPECIAL OPS
W. E. B. Griffin
6
6
THE MARK
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
Cover of THE MARK

THE MARK

by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins · Tyndale

11 wks on list

An evil world leader proclaims himself the Antichrist, drawing up plans to mark all human beings, but the members of the Tribulation Force are determined to stop him.

7
2
LOST AND FOUND
Jayne Ann Krentz
Cover of LOST AND FOUND

LOST AND FOUND

by Jayne Ann Krentz · Putnam

2 wks on list

The author of Smoke in Mirrors and Soft Focus presents a sexy, irresistible story of two people searching for secrets—and finding each other… Cady Briggs is useful to Mack Easton. Her expertise in art and antiques helps his low-profile company, Lost and Found, find missing treasures for high-paying clients. But Cady knows that being useful to a client is one thing—and being used is another. So no matter how alluring she finds Mack, she plans to keep business and pleasure entirely separate. But then a sudden tragedy puts Cady in charge of Chatelaine’s, her family’s prestigious art and antiques gallery. Suddenly the roles are reversed, as strange developments at Chatelaine’s lead Cady to ask for help from none other than Mack Easton. And instead of tracking down missing masterpieces together, they’ll be hunting for a killer…

9
4
PROTECT AND DEFEND
Richard North Patterson
Cover of PROTECT AND DEFEND

PROTECT AND DEFEND

by Richard North Patterson · Knopf

5 wks on list

'She was a girl, really, with short red hair and a waif-like slimness. But despite the flowered dress she wore, her belly had begun to show. Immobile, the girl gazed at the clinic as though it were a thousand miles away.' The young woman is Mary Ann Tierney. She is fifteen years old. Within days her name will be known to millions across America, her court case a television must-watch for everyone from the President downwards. As Mary Ann takes on her own parents and the constitutional law of the United States in a desperate bid to protect her future right to bear children, the ramifications of 'the Tierney case' bring a threat to the new President, Kerry Kilcannon, to his nominee for Chief Justice, Caroline Masters, and to his main rival for the Presidency, Senator Chad Palmer. All have dangerous secrets in their past, secrets that would not only threaten careers, but bring death and tragedy to innocent lives.

10
3
ROSES ARE RED
James Patterson

ROSES ARE RED

by James Patterson · Little, Brown

10 wks on list

Facing a particularly vicious killer in his latest investigation, Alex Cross finds his family targeted by the vengeful Mastermind, a situation complicated by tension in his relationship with his girlfriend and his daughter's unexplained seizures.

11
2
PRODIGAL SUMMER
Barbara Kingsolver
Cover of PRODIGAL SUMMER

PRODIGAL SUMMER

by Barbara Kingsolver · HarperCollins

15 wks on list

Wildlife biologist Deanna is caught off guard by an intrusive young hunter, while bookish city wife Lusa finds herself facing a difficult identity choice, and elderly neighbors find attraction at the height of a long-standing feud.

12
4
THE CONSTANT GARDENER
John le Carre
Cover of THE CONSTANT GARDENER

THE CONSTANT GARDENER

by John le Carre · Scribner

7 wks on list

Featuring his strongest heroine since "The Russia House", le Carre's "The Constant Gardener" combines the international suspense of his Cold War thrillers with the exotic romanticism of "The Little Drummer Girl". This is a masterful novel by one of the most compelling and elegant storytellers of our time.

13
7
RILEY IN THE MORNING
Sandra Brown
Cover of RILEY IN THE MORNING

RILEY IN THE MORNING

by Sandra Brown · Bantam

4 wks on list

One of romance’s best-loved authors, Sandra Brown creates love stories whose “larger-than-life heroes and heroines make you believe all the warm, wonderful, wild things in life” (Rendezvous). Now the New York Times bestselling author delivers a poignant, funny, and irresistibly sensual novel about one night in the life of a man and a woman that will change their future forever. Television producer Brin Cassidy was throwing the biggest dinner party of her life. And with everything in utter chaos, who should show up unannounced on her doorstep but her handsome estranged husband, Jon Riley. Brin had not only worked with the popular star of Riley in the Morning, she had fallen in love with and married him. She knew she owed Riley an explanation for why she walked out. But did he have to come on this of all nights? Temperamental, charismatic, and devastatingly blue-eyed, Riley was a man who knew what he wanted, and he wasn’t leaving until he got it. But the sensuous and strong-willed beauty he still called his wife was every bit his match. From dusk until dawn the two will experience a second honeymoon of passion, seduction, and deep revelation that will determine if there is any future for Riley in the morning.

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4
CODE TO ZERO
Ken Follett
Cover of CODE TO ZERO

CODE TO ZERO

by Ken Follett · Dutton

8 wks on list

In this classic Cold War thriller, #1 New York Times bestselling author Ken Follett puts his own electrifying twist on the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. "Code to Zero's split-second suspense proves that... Follett is] a hell of storyteller."--Entertainment Weekly

15
NEW
SHOPGIRL
Steve Martin
Cover of SHOPGIRL

SHOPGIRL

by Steve Martin · Hyperion

With more than 340,000 copies in print, Steve Martins Shopgirl has landed on bestseller lists nationwide including: New York Times, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. Filled with the kind of witty, discerning observations that have brought Steve Martin incredible critical success, this story of modern day love and romance is a work of disarming tenderness.

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