TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of December 18, 2005

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
MARY, MARY
James Patterson
Cover of MARY, MARY

MARY, MARY

by James Patterson · Little, Brown

5 wks at #1 · 3 on list

When he investigates the murder of an actress outside of her Beverly Hills home, FBI agent Alex Cross learns that the attack was the latest in a series of celebrity killings linked to the elusive Mary Smith.

2
AT FIRST SIGHT
Nicholas Sparks
Cover of AT FIRST SIGHT

AT FIRST SIGHT

by Nicholas Sparks · Warner

7 wks on list

There are few things Jeremy Marsh was sure he'd never do: he'd never leave New York City: never give his heart away again after barely surviving one failed marriage: and most of all, never become a parent. Now, Jeremy is living in the tiny town of Boone Creek, North Carolina, married to Lexie Darnell, the love of his life, and anticipating the birth of their daughter. But just as his life seems to be settling into a blissful pattern, an unsettling and mysterious message re-opens old wounds and sets off a chain of events that will forever change the course of this young couple's marriage...

5
3
THE DA VINCI CODE
Dan Brown
Cover of THE DA VINCI CODE

THE DA VINCI CODE

by Dan Brown · Doubleday

141 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)!

6
2
PREDATOR
Patricia Cornwell
Cover of PREDATOR

PREDATOR

by Patricia Cornwell · Putnam

6 wks on list

Dr. Kay Scarpetta, now freelancing with the National Forensic Academy in Florida, takes charge of a case that at first appears as unnerving as any she has ever faced.

7
2
THE LIGHTHOUSE
P. D. James
Cover of THE LIGHTHOUSE

THE LIGHTHOUSE

by P. D. James · Knopf

2 wks on list
8
2
THE CAMEL CLUB
David Baldacci
Cover of THE CAMEL CLUB

THE CAMEL CLUB

by David Baldacci · Warner

6 wks on list

In The Camel Club, bestselling author David Baldacci paints a frighteningly vivid portrait of a world that could be our own very soon, and the few people who have a chance to stop the chaos...

9
2
CHRIST THE LORD: OUT OF EGYPT
Anne Rice
Cover of CHRIST THE LORD: OUT OF EGYPT

CHRIST THE LORD: OUT OF EGYPT

by Anne Rice · Knopf

5 wks on list

Incorporates the latest New Testament scholarship to offer a fictional chronicle of the early years of Jesus Christ.

10
1
A FEAST FOR CROWS
George R. R. Martin
Cover of A FEAST FOR CROWS

A FEAST FOR CROWS

by George R. R. Martin · Bantam

4 wks on list

With the war of the five kings ground to an uneasy halt, the different sides and factions begin to formulate new plots and dangerous new alliances.

11
DARK LORD: THE RISE OF DARTH VADER
James Luceno
Cover of DARK LORD: THE RISE OF DARTH VADER

DARK LORD: THE RISE OF DARTH VADER

by James Luceno · Lucas/Del Rey/Ballantine

2 wks on list

Darth Vader, the evil emperor's powerful enforcer, sets out to eliminate all resistance to the Empire, a mission that reveals his true strength and role as the Emperor's iron fist.

12
1
SON OF A WITCH
Gregory Maguire
Cover of SON OF A WITCH

SON OF A WITCH

by Gregory Maguire · ReganBooks/HarperCollins

10 wks on list

Ten years after the publication of Wicked, beloved novelist Gregory Maguire returns at last to the land of Oz. There he introduces us to Liir, an adolescent boy last seen hiding in the shadows of the castle after Dorothy did in the Witch. Bruised, comatose, and left for dead in a gully, Liir is shattered in spirit as well as in form. But he is tended to at the Cloister of Saint Glinda by the silent novice called Candle, who wills him back to life with her musical gifts. What dark force left Liir in this condition?

15
NEW
ORDINARY HEROES
Scott Turow
Cover of ORDINARY HEROES

ORDINARY HEROES

by Scott Turow · Farrar, Straus & Giroux

From bestselling author Scott Turow's Ordinary Heroes comes a breathtaking story of courage, betrayal, passion, and the mystery of a father's hidden war Stewart Dubinsky knew his father had served in World War II. And he'd been told how David Dubin (as his father had Americanized the name that Stewart later reclaimed) had rescued Stewart's mother from the horror of the Balingen concentration camp. But when he discovers, after his father's death, a packet of wartime letters to a former fiancée, and learns of his father's court-martial and imprisonment, he is plunged into the mystery of his family's secret history and driven to uncover the truth about this enigmatic, distant man who'd always refused to talk about his war. As he pieces together his father's past through military archives, letters, and, finally, notes from a memoir his father wrote while in prison, secretly preserved by the officer who defended him, Stewart starts to assemble a dramatic and baffling chain of events. He learns how Dubin, a JAG lawyer attached to Patton's Third Army and desperate for combat experience, got more than he bargained for when he was ordered to arrest Robert Martin, a wayward OSS officer who, despite his spectacular bravery with the French Resistance, appeared to be acting on orders other than his commanders'. In pursuit of Martin, Dubin and his sergeant are parachuted into Bastogne just as the Battle of the Bulge reaches its apex. Pressed into the leadership of a desperately depleted rifle company, the men are forced to abandon their quest for Martin and his fiery, maddeningly elusive comrade, Gita, as they fight for their lives through carnage and chaos the likes of which Dubin could never have imagined. In reconstructing the terrible events and agonizing choices his father faced on the battlefield, in the courtroom, and in love, Stewart gains a closer understanding of his past, of his father's character, and of the brutal nature of war itself.

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