TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of December 15, 2002

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1
NEW
PREY
Michael Crichton
Cover of PREY

PREY

by Michael Crichton · HarperCollins

4 wks at #1 · 1 on list

Deep in the remote Nevada desert, eight people are trapped inside of the Xymos Corporation by a rapidly evolving swarm of predatory molecules that have massed together to form a powerful and intelligent organism that is targeting its creators.

4
THE LOVELY BONES
Alice Sebold
Cover of THE LOVELY BONES

THE LOVELY BONES

by Alice Sebold · Little, Brown

23 wks on list

Susie Salmon is just like any other young American girl. She wants to be beautiful, adores her charm bracelet and has a crush on a boy from school. There's one big difference though – Susie is dead. Add: Now she can only observe while her family manage their grief in their different ways. Susie is desperate to help them and there might be a way of reaching them... Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones is a unique coming-of-age tale that captured the hearts of readers throughout the world. Award-winning playwright Bryony Lavery has adapted it for this unforgettable play about life after loss.

6
1
CHESAPEAKE BLUE
Nora Roberts
Cover of CHESAPEAKE BLUE
8
2
VISIONS OF SUGAR PLUMS
Janet Evanovich
Cover of VISIONS OF SUGAR PLUMS

VISIONS OF SUGAR PLUMS

by Janet Evanovich · St. Martin’s Press

4 wks on list

It's five days before Christmas and things are not looking merry for Fugitive Apprehension Agent Stephanie Plum. She hasn't got a tree. She hasn't bought any presents. The malls are jam-packed with staggering shoppers. There's not a twinkle light anywhere to be seen in her apartment. And there's a strange man in her kitchen . . . Sure, this has happened to Stephanie Plum before. Strangers, weirdos, felons, creeps, and lunatics are always finding their way to her front door. But this guy is different. This guy is mysterious, sexy—and he has his own agenda. His name is Diesel and he is a man on a mission. And Diesel is unlike anyone Stephanie has ever met before in her life. The question is, what does he want with her? Can he help her find a little old toy maker who has skipped out on his bail right before Christmas? Can he survive the Plum family holiday dinner? Can he get Stephanie a tree that doesn't look like it was grown next to a nuclear power plant? These questions and more are keeping Stephanie awake at night. Not to mention the fact that she needs to find a bunch of nasty elves, her sister Valerie has a Christmas "surprise" for the Plums, her niece Mary Alice doesn't believe in Santa anymore, and Grandma Mazur has a new stud muffin. So bring out the plastic reindeer, strap on your jingle bells, and get ready to celebrate the holidays-Jersey style. In Janet Evanovich's Visions of Sugar Plums, the world of Plum has never been merrier! "Stephanie Plum is destined to join ranks with Kinsey Millhone and Carlotta Carlyle . . . tough, vulnerable, resourceful, and impulsive." —Nora Roberts

9
QUENTINS
Maeve Binchy
Cover of QUENTINS

QUENTINS

by Maeve Binchy · Dutton

5 wks on list
10
ESTHER'S GIFT
Jan Karon
Cover of ESTHER'S GIFT

ESTHER'S GIFT

by Jan Karon · Viking Press

5 wks on list

A holiday story finds Esther Bolick considering not giving her expensive holiday cakes to friends that have disappointed her, before a Christmas carol reminds her of the meaning of gift giving.

11
3
REVERSIBLE ERRORS
Scott Turow
Cover of REVERSIBLE ERRORS

REVERSIBLE ERRORS

by Scott Turow · Farrar, Straus & Giroux

5 wks on list

A suspenseful death row drama, Reversible Errors is Scott Turow's sixth Kindle County legal thriller. Rommy "Squirrel" Gandolph is an inmate on death row for a 1991 triple murder. His slow progress toward execution is nearing completion when Arthur Raven, a corporate lawyer and Rommy's reluctant representative, receives word of new evidence that will exonerate Gandolph. Arthur's opponent is the formidable prosecuting attorney Muriel Wynn. Together with Larry Starczek, the original detective on the case, she is determined to see Rommy's fate sealed. Meanwhile the judge who originally found him guilty is just out of prison herself. Scott Turow's compelling, multi-dimensional characters take the reader into Kindle County's parallel yet intersecting worlds of weary police, small-time crooks and ambitious lawyers. No other writer offers such a convincing picture of how the law and life interact – or such a profound understanding of what is at stake when the state holds the power to end a man's life.

12
BLACKWOOD FARM
Anne Rice
Cover of BLACKWOOD FARM

BLACKWOOD FARM

by Anne Rice · Knopf

5 wks on list

In her new novel, perennial bestseller Anne Rice fuses her two uniquely seductive strains of narrative -- her Vampire legend and her lore of the Mayfair witches -- to give us a world of classic deep-south luxury and ancestral secrets. Welcome to Blackwood Farm: soaring white columns, spacious drawing rooms, bright, sun-drenched gardens, and a dark strip of the dense Sugar Devil Swamp. This is the world of Quinn Blackwood, a brilliant young man haunted since birth by a mysterious doppelganger, "Goblin," a spirit from a dream world that Quinn can't escape and that prevents him from belonging anywhere. When Quinn is made a Vampire, losing all that is rightfully his and gaining an unwanted immortality, his doppelganger becomes even more vampiric and terrifying than Quinn himself. As the novel moves backwards and forwards in time, from Quinn's boyhood on Blackwood Farm to present day New Orleans, from ancient Athens to 19th-century Naples, Quinn seeks out the legendary Vampire Lestat in the hope of freeing himself from the spectre that draws him inexorably back to Sugar Devil Swamp and the explosive secrets it holds. A story of youth and promise, of loss and the search for love, of secrets and destiny, Blackwood Farm is Anne Rice at her mesmerizing best.

13
NEW
FROM A BUICK 8
Stephen King
Cover of FROM A BUICK 8
14
1
I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT
Allison Pearson
Cover of I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT

I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT

by Allison Pearson · Knopf

5 wks on list

Delightfully smart and heartbreakingly poignant, Allison Pearson’s smash debut novel has exploded onto bestseller lists as “The national anthem for working mothers.” Hedge-fund manager, wife, and mother of two, Kate Reddy manages to juggle nine currencies in five time zones and keep in step with the Teletubbies. But when she finds herself awake at 1:37 a.m. in a panic over the need to produce a homemade pie for her daughter’s school, she has to admit her life has become unrecognizable. With panache, wisdom, and uproarious wit, I Don’t Know How She Does It brilliantly dramatizes the dilemma of every working mom.

15
NEW
RED RABBIT
Tom Clancy
Cover of RED RABBIT

RED RABBIT

by Tom Clancy · Putnam

Der Historiker Jack Ryan wird vom amerikanischen Geheimdienst gebeten, einen russischen Überläufer zu befragen und stösst dabei auf eine hochbrisante Story. Russische Politfunktionäre planen die Ermordung des Papstes. Für Jack Ryan beginnt ein Wettlauf mit der Zeit.

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