TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of May 27, 2007

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1
NEW
THE 6TH TARGET
James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

THE 6TH TARGET

by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro · Little, Brown

2 wks at #1 · 1 on list

When one member of the Women's Murder Club is brutally attacked, her three companions work to keep her attacker behind bars, while Lindsay Boxer investigates a series of kidnappings in which children and their nannies are being abducted without ransom demands.

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SIMPLE GENIUS
David Baldacci
Cover of SIMPLE GENIUS

SIMPLE GENIUS

by David Baldacci · Warner

3 wks 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.

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THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION
Michael Chabon
Cover of THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION

THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION

by Michael Chabon · HarperCollins

2 wks on list

In The Yiddish Policemen's Union, his first major novel since the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon delivers a gripping whodunit, a love story, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption. This special limited first edition is personally signed by the author and numbered. The jacketed hardcover is packaged in a handcrafted wooden slipcase which is shrinkwrapped. A must-have for collectors.

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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

4 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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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

6 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…

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THE WOODS
Harlan Coben
Cover of THE WOODS

THE WOODS

by Harlan Coben · Dutton

4 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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RANT
Chuck Palahniuk
Cover of RANT

RANT

by Chuck Palahniuk · Doubleday

2 wks on list

TheRant Limited Editionis specially packaged in a one-piece preprinted case, printed black, with the title created in spot gloss; a 4-color slipcase that matches the original jacket of the trade book; a 1/8" ribbon marker; a signed tip-in sheet, speckled edges; and an exclusive 1300-word "Automotive Afterword" entitled "Recipes for Disasters" which is not available in print anywhere but only in this limited edition. “Like most people I didn’t meet Rant Casey until after he was dead. That’s how it works for most celebrities: After they croak, their circle of friends just explodes…” Rantis the mind-bending new novel from Chuck Palahniuk, the literary provocateur responsible for such books as the generation-defining classic Fight Club and the pedal-to-the-metal horrorfest Haunted. It takes the form of an oral history of one Buster “Rant” Casey, who may or may not be the most efficient serial killer of our time. “What ‘Typhoid Mary’ Mallon was to typhoid, what Gaetan Dugas was to AIDS, and Liu Jian Lun was to SARS, Buster Casey would become for rabies.” A high-school rebel who always wins (and a childhood murderer?), Rant Casey escapes from his small hometown of Middleton for the big city. He becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. On appointed nights participants recognize each other by such designated car markings as “Just Married” toothpaste graffiti and then stalk and crash into each other. Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death after which his friends gather testimony needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life. Their collected anecdotes explore the possibility that his saliva caused a silent urban plague of rabies and that he found a way to escape the prison house of linear time… “The future you have, tomorrow, won’t be the same future you had, yesterday.” –Rant Casey Expect hilarity, horror, and blazing insight into the desperate and surreal contemporary human condition as only Chuck Palahniuk can deliver it. He's the postmillennial Jonathan Swift, the visionary to watch to learn what's–uh-oh–coming next.

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

BACK ON BLOSSOM STREET

by Debbie Macomber · Mira

3 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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FOR ONE MORE DAY
Mitch Albom
Cover of FOR ONE MORE DAY

FOR ONE MORE DAY

by Mitch Albom · Hyperion

28 wks on list

This is the story of Charley, a child of divorce who is always forced to choose between his mother and his father. He grows into a man and starts a family of his own. But one fateful weekend, he leaves his mother to secretly be with his fatherand she dies while he is gone. This haunts him for years. It unravels his own young family. It leads him to depression and drunkenness. One night, he decides to take his life. But somewhere between this world and the next, he encounters his mother again, in their hometown, and gets to spend one last day with herthe day he missed and always wished hed had. He asks the questions many of us yearn to ask, the questions we never ask while our parents are alive. By the end of this magical day, Charley discovers how little he really knew about his mother, the secret of how her love saved their family, and how deeply he wants the second chance to save his own.

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BODY SURFING
Anita Shreve
Cover of BODY SURFING

BODY SURFING

by Anita Shreve · Little, Brown

3 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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ALL TOGETHER DEAD
Charlaine Harris
Cover of ALL TOGETHER DEAD

ALL TOGETHER DEAD

by Charlaine Harris · Ace

2 wks on list

Betrayed by her longtime vampire lover, cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse has her hands full dealing with every kind of undead and paranormal creature, as well as the new man in her life, the shapeshifter Quinn, and the upcoming vampire summit, which may involve a power struggle between the vampire queen of Louisiana, weakened by hurricane damage, and some ambitious vamps out to seize control.

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BUDDHA
Deepak Chopra
Cover of BUDDHA

BUDDHA

by Deepak Chopra · HarperSanFrancisco

1 wks on list

A graphic novel adaptation of the life of the Buddha, written for western readers, traces his spiritual journey while explaining how his experiences and teachings have changed the world and continue to influence every facet of life.

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NEW
UP IN HONEY’S ROOM
Elmore Leonard
Cover of UP IN HONEY’S ROOM

UP IN HONEY’S ROOM

by Elmore Leonard · Morrow

1 wks on list

Carl Webster, the hot kid of the marshals service, is polite, respects his elders, and can shoot a man driving away in an Essex at four hundred yards. Carl works out of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, federal courthouse during the 1930s, the period of America's most notorious bank robbers: Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson -- those guys. Carl wants to be America's most famous lawman. He shot his first felon when he was fifteen years old. With a Winchester. Louly Brown loves Carl but wants the world to think she is Pretty Boy Floyd's girlfriend. Tony Antonelli of True Detective magazine wants to write like Richard Harding Davis and wishes cute little Elodie wasn't a whore. She and Heidi and the girls work at Teddy's in Kansas City, where anything goes and the girls wear -- what else -- teddies. Jack Belmont wants to rob banks, become public enemy number one, and show his dad, an oil millionaire, he can make it on his own. With tommy guns, hot cars, speakeasies, cops and robbers, and a former lawman who believes in vigilante justice, all played out against the flapper period of gun molls and Prohibition, The Hot Kid is Elmore Leonard -- a true master -- at his best.

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