TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of April 18, 2004

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1
NEW
GLORIOUS APPEARING
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
Cover of GLORIOUS APPEARING

GLORIOUS APPEARING

by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins · Tyndale

3 wks at #1 · 1 on list

After seven years, the remaining members of the Tribulation Force are gathered at Petra, trying to find a way to stop Nicolae Carpathia, the Antichrist, and his forces, while awaiting the return of Christ.

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1
THE DA VINCI CODE
Dan Brown
Cover of THE DA VINCI CODE

THE DA VINCI CODE

by Dan Brown · Doubleday

55 wks on list

THE #1 WORLDWIDE BESTSELLING PHENOMENON, WITH MORE THAN 85 MILLION COPIES SOLD “Blockbuster perfection . . . a gleefully erudite suspense novel.” —The New York Times “A pulse-quickening, brain-teasing adventure.” —People While in Paris, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened by a phone call in the dead of the night. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, his body covered in baffling symbols. As Langdon and gifted French cryptologist Sophie Neveu sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci—clues visible for all to see and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter. Even more startling, the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion, a secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, and he guarded a breathtaking historical secret. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle—while avoiding the faceless adversary who shadows their every move—the explosive, ancient truth will be lost forever. Robert Langdon returns in The Lost Symbol, Inferno, Origin, and The Secret of Secrets (coming soon)!

3
THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN
Mitch Albom
Cover of THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN

THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN

by Mitch Albom · Hyperion

5 wks on list

Plot Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him, as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: "Why was I here" Personal Details Collection Status In Collection Index 10 Read It Yes Links Amazon US Product Details LoC Classification PS3601.L335F59 2003 Dewey 813/.6

4
NEW
3RD DEGREE
James Patterson and Andrew Gross

3RD DEGREE

by James Patterson and Andrew Gross · Little, Brown

Lindsay Boxer and friends must track down a deadly terror group who begins their killing spree by blowing up an expensive townhouse¿with the family still inside. In the meantime, a member of the club may be in some trouble of her own and Lindsay could be too late to save her.

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1
THE LAST JUROR
John Grisham
Cover of THE LAST JUROR

THE LAST JUROR

by John Grisham · Doubleday

9 wks on list

In 1970, one of Mississippi's more colorful weekly newspapers went bankrupt. To the surprise and dismay of many, ownership was assumed by a 23 year-old college dropout, named Willie Traynor. The future of the paper looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped and murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details and the paper began to prosper. The murderer, Danny Padgitt was tried before a packed courthouse in Clanton, Mississippi. The trial came to a startling and dramatic end when he was found guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison, but in Mississippi, in 1970, "life" didn't necessarily mean "life" and nine years later Danny Padgitt managed to get himself paroled. He returned to Ford County and the retribution began

6
NEW
FIRESTORM
Iris Johansen
Cover of FIRESTORM

FIRESTORM

by Iris Johansen · Bantam

1 wks on list

#1 New York Times bestselling author Iris Johansen turns up the heat in this explosive new psychological thriller. This time a gifted arson investigator teams up with a mysterious operative to stop a killer raging completely out of control... For Kerry Murphy, the inferno is never far away. The flames of that long-ago night still burn in her nightmares: the heat, the choking smoke, the helplessness. She can never run fast enough... Now Kerry works as an arson investigator with her evidence-sniffing dog, Sam. Together they're a great team, but her life is about to change in the time it takes to strike a match. The deadly flames of her past are back, and from out of the ashes a stranger appears. Who is Silver? And why has he chosen her in the desparate race to find a killer determined to ignite hell on earth? Kerry and Silver may not have a chance against a psychopath as coldhearted as his method is red-hot. To save themselves and the innocent lives at stake, Kerry will have to do what she hoped she'd never have to do: fight fire with fire.

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2
ANGELS & DEMONS
Dan Brown
Cover of ANGELS & DEMONS

ANGELS & DEMONS

by Dan Brown · Atria

14 wks on list

World renowned harvard symbologist Robert Langdon must uncover clues that point to the resurgance of an ancient secret society.

8
NEW
CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?
Sophie Kinsella
Cover of CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?

CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?

by Sophie Kinsella · Dial Press

The hilarious romantic comedy from NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR Sophie Kinsella . . . soon to be a major motion picture! Emma is like every girl in the world. She has a few little secrets. Secrets from her mother: 1. I lost my virginity in the spare bedroom to Danny Nussbaum while Mum and Dad were downstairs watching TV. ... From her boyfriend: 2. I’m a size twelve. Not a size eight, like Connor thinks. 3. I’ve always thought Connor looks a bit like Ken. As in Barbie and Ken. ... From her colleagues: 4. When Artemis really annoys me (which is pretty much every day), I feed her plant orange juice. 5. It was me who jammed the copier that time. In fact, all the times. ...Secrets she wouldn’t share with anyone in the world: 6. My G string is hurting me. 7. I faked my Maths GCSE grade on my CV. 8. I have no idea what NATO stands for. Or even what it is... ...until she spills them all to a handsome stranger on a plane. After all, she’ll never see him again. But on Monday morning, Emma’s office is abuzz about the arrival of Jack Harper, the company’s elusive CEO. Suddenly Emma is face-to-face with the stranger from the plane, a man who knows every single humiliating detail about her. Things couldn’t possibly get worse... Until they do. ***** EVERYBODY LOVES SOPHIE KINSELLA: ***** 'Funny, fast and farcical. I loved it' JOJO MOYES 'I couldn’t put it down.' LOUISE PENTLAND (SprinkleofGlitter) 'I almost cried with laughter' DAILY MAIL 'Life doesn't get much better than a new Sophie Kinsella novel' RED 'Hilarious . . . you'll laugh and gasp on every page' JENNY COLGAN

9
NEW
FLASHPOINT
Suzanne Brockmann
Cover of FLASHPOINT

FLASHPOINT

by Suzanne Brockmann · Ballantine

1 wks on list

From unrelenting action to intense emotion, from high-stakes drama to break-neck pacing, bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann is a novelist who does it all. Now Brockmann delivers an exciting thriller about men and women operating where agents of the U.S. government cannot, where America’s most ruthless enemies thrive—and where every step you take just might be your last. . . . Jimmy Nash has already lived two lives—and he can’ t talk about either of them. Formerly an operative of a top secret government agency, he has found a new job with a shadowy company called Troubleshooters Inc. Created by a former Navy SEAL, Troubleshooters Inc. helps anyone in desperate need—which provides a perfect cover for its other, more perilous objective: covert special operations. Now Nash and a quickly assembled team of expert operators have come to the earthquake-ravaged country of Kazbekistan in the guise of relief workers. There, amid the dust and death, in a land of blood red sunsets and ancient blood feuds, they must track down a missing laptop computer that may hold secrets vital to national security. To get it done, Nash does what he does best: break every rule in the book and manipulate those who can help him get what he needs. But this time, Nash may have met his match in Tess Bailey, an Troubleshooters operative with all the right instincts—and zero field experience. The deep attraction between them is immediate . . . and potentially explosive, with risk at every turn. Now these two professionals must play out their dangerous games in the world’s most dangerous place—cut off from their own government, cutting deals with people they can’t trust, and guarding forbidden passions that threaten to compromise their crucial mission. A full throttle adventure teamed with heated emotion, Flashpoint proves that Suzanne Brockmann can spin suspense unlike any other author working today.

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THE BIRTH OF VENUS
Sarah Dunant
Cover of THE BIRTH OF VENUS

THE BIRTH OF VENUS

by Sarah Dunant · Random House

7 wks on list

Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter’s abilities. But their burgeoning relationship is interrupted when Alessandra’s parents arrange her marriage to a wealthy, much older man. Meanwhile, Florence is changing, increasingly subject to the growing suppression imposed by the fundamentalist monk Savonarola, who is seizing religious and political control. Alessandra and her native city are caught between the Medici state, with its love of luxury, learning, and dazzling art, and the hellfire preaching and increasing violence of Savonarola’s reactionary followers. Played out against this turbulent backdrop, Alessandra’s married life is a misery, except for the surprising freedom it allows her to pursue her powerful attraction to the young painter and his art. The Birth of Venus is a tour de force, the first historical novel from one of Britain’s most innovative writers of literary suspense. It brings alive the history of Florence at its most dramatic period, telling a compulsively absorbing story of love, art, religion, and power through the passionate voice of Alessandra, a heroine with the same vibrancy of spirit as her beloved city.

14
NEW
WHISKER OF EVIL
Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown
Cover of WHISKER OF EVIL

WHISKER OF EVIL

by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown · Bantam

1 wks on list

A mysterious death in a Virginia farm town has the locals scratching their heads—while frisky feline Mrs. Murphy and her friends, fat-cat Pewter and corgi Tee Tucker, uncover clues as they curl their way around a cold-blooded killer. This balmy summer in Crozet, Virginia, postmistress Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen has a lot to think about. Things have been pretty cozy between her and her ex-husband, Fair and her beloved old post office is in danger of being replaced with a modern building—and modern rules. Harry’s thoughtful contemplation is shattered the day she stumbles over a dead body near Potlicker Creek. Barry Monteith, the handsome local horse breeder, has been savagely murdered. A true ladies’ man, Barry was known to have left a string of broken hearts behind him. But could a spurned lover be responsible for his untimely demise? The plot only thickens when an autopsy reveals that Barry was infected with rabies weeks before he was killed. As usual, Harry can’t resist doing a little digging—with Mrs. Murphy close by to warn of approaching danger. Harry makes a remarkable discovery in the creek—the class ring of Mary Pat Reines, a local woman who disappeared thirty years earlier along with her prized Thoroughbred stallion. Like Barry, Mary Pat was a successful horse breeder—and now all of Crozet is wondering if the two cases are linked. As the police struggle with the evidence, the pressure gets hotter than a June afternoon—especially when another person is found dead of less-than-natural causes. As usual, Mrs. Murphy and her crew are the first to sniff out the truth. But if they don’t find a way to help Harry piece together the puzzle, she could become the killer’s next target—and even Mrs. Murphy’s slinkiest moves won’t be able to save her.

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