TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of May 13, 2007

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1
NEW
SIMPLE GENIUS
David Baldacci
Cover of SIMPLE GENIUS

SIMPLE GENIUS

by David Baldacci · Warner

2 wks at #1 · 1 on list

Two ex-Secret Service agents must face a dark world of violence, codes, and spies at a secret CIA training camp in this #1 New York Times bestseller about a mystery that could destroy the nation. Near Washington, D.C., there are two clandestine institutions: the world's most unusual laboratory and a secret CIA training camp. Drawn to these sites by a murder, ex-Secret Service agent Sean King encounters a dark world of mathematicians, codes, and spies. His search for answers soon leads him to more shocking violence-and an autistic girl with an extraordinary genius. Now, only by working with his partner, Michelle Maxwell, who is battling her own personal demons, can he catch a killer...and stop a national threat.

2
1
THE CHILDREN OF HÚRIN
J. R. R. Tolkien. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Illustrated by Alan Lee
Cover of THE CHILDREN OF HÚRIN

THE CHILDREN OF HÚRIN

by J. R. R. Tolkien. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Illustrated by Alan Lee · Houghton Mifflin

2 wks on list

One of the three 'Great Tales' of the Elder Days, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Children of Húrin takes place in Middle-earth thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The Children of Húrin is the first complete book by Tolkien since the 1977 publication of The Silmarillion. Six thousand years before the One Ring is destroyed, Middle-earth lies under the shadow of the Dark Lord Morgoth. The greatest warriors among elves and men have perished, and all is in darkness and despair. But a deadly new leader rises, Túrin, son of Húrin, and with his grim band of outlaws begins to turn the tide in the war for Middle-earth—awaiting the day he confronts his destiny and the deadly curse laid upon him.

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1
THE WOODS
Harlan Coben
Cover of THE WOODS

THE WOODS

by Harlan Coben · Dutton

2 wks on list

NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES! The bestselling author and creator of the hit Netflix drama Fool Me Once takes readers into the heart of a family in this twisty page-turner that proves the darkest secrets are often closest to home. Twenty years ago, four teenagers disappeared in the woods. Now, two decades later, everything is changing... Paul Copeland's sister went missing 20 years ago. Now raising a daughter alone, Cope balances family life with a career as a prosecutor. But when a murder victim is found with evidence linking him to Cope, the well-buried secrets of the past are threatening everything. Is this body one of the campers who disappeared with his sister? Could his sister be alive...? Confronting his past, Cope must decide what is better left hidden in the dark and what truths can be brought to light...

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I HEARD THAT SONG BEFORE
Mary Higgins Clark
Cover of I HEARD THAT SONG BEFORE

I HEARD THAT SONG BEFORE

by Mary Higgins Clark · Simon & Schuster

4 wks on list

In a riveting psychological thriller, Queen of Suspense Mary Higgins Clark takes you deep into the mysteries of the human mind, where memories may be the most dangerous things of all. Kay Lansing, who has grown up in Englewood, New Jersey, is the daughter of the landscaper to the wealthy and powerful Carrington family. Their mansion—a historic 17th-century manor house transported stone by stone from Wales in 1848—has a hidden chapel. One day, accompanying her father to work, six-year-old Kay succumbs to curiosity and sneaks into the chapel. There, she overhears a quarrel between a man and a woman who is demanding money from him. When she says that this will be the last time, his caustic response is: “I heard that song before.” That same evening, the Carrington’s hold a formal dinner dance after which Peter Carrington, a student at Princeton, drives home Susan Althorp, the eighteen-year-old daughter of neighbors. While her parents hear her come in, she is not in her room the next morning and is never seen or heard from again. Throughout the years, a cloud of suspicion hangs over Peter Carrington. At age forty-two, head of the family business empire, he is still “a person of interest” in the eyes of the police, not only for Susan Althorp’s disappearance but also for the subsequent drowning death of his own pregnant wife in their swimming pool. Kay, now living in New York and working as a librarian in Englewood, goes to see Peter. Kay sees Peter as maligned and misunderstood, and she soon falls in love with him. Over the objections of her beloved grandmother, she marries him. To her dismay, she soon finds that he is a sleepwalker whose nocturnal wanderings draw him to the spot at the pool where his wife met her end. Kay develops gnawing doubts about her husband. She believes that the key to the truth about his guilt or innocence lies in the scene she witnessed as a child in the chapel and knows she must learn the identity of the man and woman who quarreled there that day. What Kay does not know is that uncovering what lies behind these memories may put her own life in danger…

6
NEW
BODY SURFING
Anita Shreve
Cover of BODY SURFING

BODY SURFING

by Anita Shreve · Little, Brown

1 wks on list

Struggling to start over again after being divorced and widowed while still in her twenties, Sydney tutors the daughter of a wealthy couple during a New Hampshire summer but finds herself caught up in a bitter family squabble involving her charge's two grown brothers. By the author of The Pilot's Wife.

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NEW
BACK ON BLOSSOM STREET
Debbie Macomber
Cover of BACK ON BLOSSOM STREET

BACK ON BLOSSOM STREET

by Debbie Macomber · Mira

1 wks on list

When Susannah, the owner of a new flower store, and her employee, a young widow named Colette Blake, join the knitting class at A Good Yarn, they meet a group of unforgettable women who offer them life-changing advice, support, and friendship.

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NEW
THE RIVER KNOWS
Amanda Quick
Cover of THE RIVER KNOWS

THE RIVER KNOWS

by Amanda Quick · Putnam

1 wks on list

From New York Times bestselling author Amanda Quick comes a delightful romp filled with breathtaking suspense, dazzling wit, and steamy Victorian passion... The first kiss occurred in a dimly-lit hallway on the upper floor of Elwin Hastings’s grand house. Louisa Bryce never saw it coming. Of course, handsome, wealthy Anthony Stalbridge couldn’t possibly have had romantic intentions. The kiss was merely meant to distract the armed guard about to catch the two unlikely sleuths. After all, the only thing these two interlopers have in common is a passionate interest in uncovering the dastardly secrets of Mr. Hastings—a prominent member of Society whom they suspect of murder. Brought together by their desire for the truth, Anthony and Louisa finally discover the incriminating evidence they’re looking for. But bringing Hastings to justice will be more perilous than they anticipate, especially since their thrilling attraction to danger—and, it turns out, to each other—might very well get in the way...

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3
KINGDOM COME
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
Cover of KINGDOM COME

KINGDOM COME

by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins · Tyndale

4 wks on list

In the final chapter of the Left Behind saga, the horrors of the Tribulation are over and Jesus Christ has set up his perfect kingdom on Earth, but as believers enjoy a newly perfected relationship with their Lord, evil still lurks in the hearts of the un

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THE LAND OF MANGO SUNSETS
Dorothea Benton Frank
Cover of THE LAND OF MANGO SUNSETS

THE LAND OF MANGO SUNSETS

by Dorothea Benton Frank · Morrow

3 wks on list

Her despicable husband left her for a lingerie model who's barely more than a teenager, and her kids are busy with their own lives. But before Miriam Elizabeth Swanson can work herself up into a true snit about it all, her newest tenant, Liz, arrives from Birmingham with plenty of troubles of her own. Then Miriam meets a man named Harrison, who makes her laugh, makes her cry, and makes her feel like a brand-new woman. It's almost too much for one Manhattan quasi-socialite to handle—so Miriam's escaping to the enchanted and mysterious land of Sullivans Island, deep in the low country of South Carolina, a place where she can finally get her head on straight—and perhaps figure out that pride is not what's going to keep her warm at night . . .

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NEW
WHITE NIGHT
Jim Butcher
Cover of WHITE NIGHT

WHITE NIGHT

by Jim Butcher · Roc

Assigned to investigate the deaths of several magic practitioners, all of whom lacked the ability to become full-fledged wizards, professional Chicago wizard Harry Dresden is shocked when the evidence points to his half-brother Thomas as the killer.

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