TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of July 15, 2007

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A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
Khaled Hosseini
Cover of A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

by Khaled Hosseini · Riverhead

15 wks at #1 · 6 on list

1 New York Times bestselling author. Main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and Literary Guild. Both born in Afghanistan a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family Mariam and Laila are brought together by war by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them - in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul - they form a bond that will ultimately alter the course of their lives and the lives of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice and that in the end it is love or even the memory of love that is often the key to survival. "Searing ... forceful ... harrowing." - Publishers Weekly starred. "Unimaginably tragic Hosseini's magnificent second novel is a sad and beautiful testament to both Afghani suffering and strength. Readers who lost themselves in The Kite Runner will not want to miss this unforgettable follow-up." - Booklist starred

4
DOUBLE TAKE
Catherine Coulter
Cover of DOUBLE TAKE

DOUBLE TAKE

by Catherine Coulter · Putnam

3 wks on list

It's been more than six months since her husband's brutal death, and Julia Ransom is just beginning to breathe again. She loved her husband, renowned psychic August Ransom, but the media frenzy that followed his murder sapped what little strength she had left. Standing at the railing along San Francisco's Pier 39, a respectable-looking man distracts her with conversation before violently attacking her and throwing her over the railing. Special Agent Cheney Stone saves her from a watery grave, but he senses a connection between her assault and her husband's death, and sets out to serve as her protector while reopening August Ransom's murder investigation.

5
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DROP DEAD BEAUTIFUL
Jackie Collins
Cover of DROP DEAD BEAUTIFUL

DROP DEAD BEAUTIFUL

by Jackie Collins · St. Martin’s Press

1 wks on list

Determined to reclaim her position of power in Las Vegas, Lucky Santangelo works to outmaneuver a deadly enemy who would steal away Lucky's two beloved sons and out-of-control teenage daughter.

6
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THE NAVIGATOR
Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos
Cover of THE NAVIGATOR

THE NAVIGATOR

by Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos · Putnam

4 wks on list

Turn-of-the-century detective Isaac Bell pursues a blood-thirsty bank robber—and perhaps one of the world’s first sociopaths—in the first novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series. In 1906, the western states of America suffer a string of bank robberies by a single man who then cold-bloodedly murders any and all witnesses, and vanishes without a trace. Fed up by the depredations of “The Butcher Bandit,” the U.S. government brings in the best man it can find: a tall, lean, no-nonsense detective named Isaac Bell, who has caught thieves and killers from coast to coast. But Bell has never had a challenge like this one. From Arizona to Colorado to the streets of San Francisco during its calamitous earthquake and fire, he pursues a fiend who seems to draw pleasure from the challenge and a woman who may to hold the key to the man’s identity. As Bell begins to suspect a new term used among top psychologists, sociopath, may describe his target, the Butcher Bandit turns the chase around on him. The hunter becomes the hunted. And soon, it will take all of Bell’s skills not merely to prevail . . . but to survive. Filled with intricate plotting, Cussler’s signature dazzling set pieces, and not one but two extraordinary villains, The Chase is the master working at the height of his powers.

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BLAZE
Richard Bachman
Cover of BLAZE

BLAZE

by Richard Bachman · Scribner

3 wks on list

Master storyteller Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) presents this gripping and remarkable New York Times bestselling crime novel about a damaged young man who embarks on an ill-advised kidnapping plot—a work as taut and riveting as anything he has ever written. Once upon a time, a fellow named Richard Bachman wrote Blaze on an Olivetti typewriter, then turned the machine over to Stephen King, who used it to write Carrie. Bachman died in 1985 (“cancer of the pseudonym”), but this last gripping Bachman novel resurfaced after being hidden away for decades—an unforgettable crime story tinged with sadness and suspense. Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., was always a small-time delinquent. None too bright either, thanks to the beatings he got as a kid. Then Blaze met George Rackley, a seasoned pro with a hundred cons and one big idea. The kidnapping should go off without a hitch, with George as the brains behind their dangerous scheme. But there's only one problem: by the time the deal goes down, Blaze's partner in crime is dead. Or is he?

8
NEW
THE DOUBLE AGENTS
W. E. B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV
Cover of THE DOUBLE AGENTS

THE DOUBLE AGENTS

by W. E. B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV · Putnam

1 wks on list

W.E.B. Griffin’s iconoclastic OSS heroes face an historic challenge in the brand-new volume of the New York Times-bestselling series. Critics and fans alike welcomed the return of the “shrewd, sharp, rousing” (Kirkus Reviews) Men at War series: “The Saboteurs is good entertainment and the fast-paced and exciting novel Griffin’s readers have come to expect. This is Griffin’s 36th novel and his son’s first; one wonders how prolific a force Griffin & Son will be!” (Library Journal) Now, Dick Canidy and colleagues in the Office of Strategic Services face an even greater task—to convince Hitler and the Axis powers that the invasion of the European continent will take place anywhere but on the beaches of Nazi-occupied France. “Wild Bill” Donovan’s men have several tactics in mind, but some of the people they must use are not the most reliable—are, in fact, most likely spying for both sides – so the deceptions require layer upon layer of intrigue, and all it will take is one slip to send the whole thing tumbling down like a house of cards. Are the OSS agents up to it? They certainly think so. And then the body is found floating off the coast of Spain. . . . Filled to the brim with action, character, and the deep understanding of the military heart and mind that have made Griffin’s books so outstanding, The Double Agents is irresistible storyteller from a master of the craft.

10
THE 6TH TARGET
James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

THE 6TH TARGET

by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro · Little, Brown

8 wks 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.

11
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PEONY IN LOVE
Lisa See
Cover of PEONY IN LOVE

PEONY IN LOVE

by Lisa See · Random House

1 wks on list

In seventeenth-century China, three women become emotionally involved with "The Peony Pavilion," a famed opera rumored to cause lovesickness and even death.

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THE GOOD GUY
Dean Koontz
Cover of THE GOOD GUY

THE GOOD GUY

by Dean Koontz · Bantam

5 wks on list

Timothy Carrier is an ordinary guy who enjoys a beer after work. But tonight is no ordinary night. Instead, Tim will face a terrifying decision: Help or run. For the jittery stranger sitting beside him at the bar has mistaken Tim for someone else—and passes him a manila envelope stuffed with cash and the photo of a pretty woman. “Ten thousand. The rest when she’s gone.” Now everything Tim thinks he knows—even about himself—will be challenged. For Tim Carrier is the one man who can save an innocent life and stop a killer as relentless as evil incarnate. But first he must discover resources within himself that will transform his idea of who he is and what it takes to be the good guy. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Dean Koontz's The City.

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ON CHESIL BEACH
Ian McEwan
Cover of ON CHESIL BEACH

ON CHESIL BEACH

by Ian McEwan · Nan A. Talese

4 wks on list

"It is July 1962. Edward and Florence, young innocents married that morning, arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their private fears of the wedding night to come..." - Back cover.

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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

11 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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THE OVERLOOK
Michael Connelly
Cover of THE OVERLOOK

THE OVERLOOK

by Michael Connelly · Little, Brown

6 wks on list

In his first case since he left the LAPDs Open Unsolved Unit for the prestigious Homicide Special squad, Harry Bosch is called out to investigate a murder that may have chilling consequences for national security.

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