TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of January 23, 2005

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

THE DA VINCI CODE

by Dan Brown · Doubleday

59 wks at #1 · 95 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)!

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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

68 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

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CHAINFIRE
Terry Goodkind
Cover of CHAINFIRE

CHAINFIRE

by Terry Goodkind · Tor/Tom Doherty

1 wks on list

Richard struggles to find his missing wife Kahlan in spite of the bizarre fact that no one else seems to believe she actually exists or that he is married to her.

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BY ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT
W. E. B. Griffin
Cover of BY ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT

BY ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT

by W. E. B. Griffin · Putnam

2 wks on list

When a leased Boeing 727 mysteriously vanishes after two passengers murder the pilot, Army intelligence officer Major Carlos Guillermo Castillo, a veteran of the Special Forces, is called in by the president of the United States to uncover the truth and embarks on an undercover investigation into a case with frightening implications.

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NIGHT FALL
Nelson DeMille
Cover of NIGHT FALL

NIGHT FALL

by Nelson DeMille · Warner

7 wks on list

New York Times bestselling author Nelson DeMille does it again with Elite Anti-terrorist Task Force Agents John Corey and Kate Mayfield discovering corruption deep in the FBI and they set out to find the truth. On a Long Island beach at dusk, Bob Mitchell and JanetWhitney conduct their illicit love affair in front of a video camera, set to record each steamy moment. Suddenly a terrible explosion lights up the sky. Grabbing the camera, the couple flees as approaching police cars speed toward the scene. Five years later, the crash of Flight 800 has been attributed to a mechanical mal-function. But for John Corey and Kate Mayfield, both members of the Elite Anti-terrorist Task Force, the case is not closed. Suspecting a cover-up at the highest levels and disobeying orders, they set out to find the one piece of evidence that will prove the truth about what really happened to Flight 800-the videotape that shows a couple making love on the beach and the last moments of the doomed airliner.

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BLACK WIND
Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler
Cover of BLACK WIND

BLACK WIND

by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler · Putnam

6 wks on list

National Underwater and Marine Agency head Dirk Pitt, his marine engineer son, Dirk, and his marine biologist daughter, Summer, struggle to prevent two World War II-era Japanese submarines carrying biological weapons from getting into the wrong hands.

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ENTOMBED
Linda Fairstein
Cover of ENTOMBED

ENTOMBED

by Linda Fairstein · Scribner

1 wks on list

From New York Times bestselling author and famed former Manhattan prosecutor Linda Fairstein comes a chilling new Alexandra Cooper novel in which Alex matches wits with the master of detective fiction himself—Edgar Allan Poe... Workers demolishing a nineteenth-century brownstone where Edgar Allan Poe once lived discover a human skeleton entombed -- standing -- behind a brick wall. When sex crimes prosecutor Alexandra Cooper hears about the case, it strikes her as a classic Poe scene...except that forensic evidence shows that this young woman died within the last twenty-five years. Meanwhile, Alex's old nemesis the Silk Stocking Rapist is once again terrorizing Manhattan's Upper East Side. The attacks soon escalate to murder, and the search leads Alex and detectives Mercer Wallace and Mike Chapman to the city's stunning Bronx Botanical Gardens. There, an enigmatic librarian presides over the Raven Society, a group devoted to the work of Poe. In exploring the fabled writer's tormented life for clues, Alex will cross paths with a cunning killer and face some of the greatest challenges of her career. Entombed is masterful, exhilarating crime fiction from one of crime writing's most dazzling stars.

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A SALTY PIECE OF LAND
Jimmy Buffett
Cover of A SALTY PIECE OF LAND

A SALTY PIECE OF LAND

by Jimmy Buffett · Little, Brown

6 wks on list

Wander to "where the song of the ocean / Meets the salty piece of land" with Tully Mars, washed up from Margaritaville and in the mood for monkeyshines, in a shimmering Caribbean epic by the late king of tropical rock, Jimmy Buffett. It's not on any chart, but the tropical island of Cayo Loco is the perfect place to run away from all your problems. Waking from a ganja buzz on the beach in Tulum, Tully can't believe his eyes when a 142-foot schooner emerges out of the ocean mist. At its helm is Cleopatra Highbourne, the eccentric 101-year-old sea captain who will take him to a lighthouse on a salty piece of land that will change his life forever. From a lovely sunset sail in Punta Margarita to a wild spring-break foam party in San Pedro, Tully encounters an assortment of treasure hunters, rock stars, sailors, seaplane pilots, pirates, and even a ghost or two.

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AFTERBURN
Zane
Cover of AFTERBURN

AFTERBURN

by Zane · Atria

1 wks on list

In the latest romantic romp from New York Times bestselling author Zane, two hapless lovers get lost in a dating game gone awry. When Washington, D.C., chiropractor Yardley Brown goes to his local bank, it isn't only to make deposits into his account. He has long since accrued some interest in Rayne Waters, a bank employee who's too beautiful to be true -- and too beautiful to be single. At least that's what Yardley believes, which is why he has never approached her. Little does he know that Rayne is anything but taken. Not for want of trying, of course. But after barely surviving a dating disaster with her hairdresser's brother and then falling for a member of her church band who, it turns out, is celibate, she's on the verge of giving up. That is, until Yardley -- discouraged by his own slew of dead-end romances -- finally works up the courage to give her a try. The true craziness, however, is just beginning, thanks to a cast of characters who seem bent on botching the young couple's relationship. There's Rayne's erratic mother, who constantly boasts about being a "good whore"; Yardley's playboy buddies, always trolling for sex; and, worst of all, past lovers who make a habit of popping up and ruining things as only old flames (or previous mistakes) can. Weaving the carnal and the comical in true Zane fashion, Rayne and Yardley's struggle to find love in a world gone mad is a timeless talk about everything that can go wrong in the dating game -- and a few things that can go right.

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LONDON BRIDGES
James Patterson
Cover of LONDON BRIDGES

LONDON BRIDGES

by James Patterson · Little, Brown

9 wks on list

When the world's largest cities are seized by terrorists who threaten to set off deadly bombs unless their demands are met, Alex Cross heads a joint investigation by the FBI, CIA, and Interpol to outmaneuver two vicious criminals known as the Weasel and the Wolf. By the author of The Big Bad Wolf.

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LIFE EXPECTANCY
Dean Koontz
Cover of LIFE EXPECTANCY

LIFE EXPECTANCY

by Dean Koontz · Bantam

5 wks on list

A dying man's clairvoyant prophesies about his grandson, Jimmy Tock, reveal five terrifying and horrific events, occuring on five different days at different periods in his life, that will turn the young man's world upside down.

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THE CAT WHO WENT BANANAS
Lilian Jackson Braun
Cover of THE CAT WHO WENT BANANAS

THE CAT WHO WENT BANANAS

by Lilian Jackson Braun · Putnam

James Qwilleran and his talented team of feline sleuths, Koko and Yum Yum, investigate the supposedly accidental death of a cast member in a car crash on the eve of the Theatre Club's performance of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest."

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