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Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of January 29, 2012

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1
NEW
BELIEVING THE LIE
Elizabeth George
Cover of BELIEVING THE LIE

BELIEVING THE LIE

by Elizabeth George · Dutton

1 wks at #1 · 1 on list

#1 New York Times bestselling author of The Punishment She Deserves Elizabeth George has millions of fans following her Inspector Lynley series. As USA Today put it, "It's tough to resist George's storytelling, once hooked." With Believing the Lie, she's poised to hook countless more. Inspector Thomas Lynley is mystified when he's sent undercover to investigate the death of Ian Cresswell at the request of the man's uncle, the wealthy and influential Bernard Fairclough. The death has been ruled an accidental drowning, and nothing on the surface indicates otherwise. But when Lynley enlists the help of his friends Simon and Deborah St. James, the trio's digging soon reveals that the Fairclough clan is awash in secrets, lies, and motives. Deborah's investigation of the prime suspect--Bernard's prodigal son Nicholas, a recovering drug addict--leads her to Nicholas's wife, a woman with whom she feels a kinship, a woman as fiercely protective as she is beautiful. Lynley and Simon delve for information from the rest of the family, including the victim's bitter ex-wife and the man he left her for, and Bernard himself. As the investigation escalates, the Fairclough family's veneer cracks, with deception and self-delusion threatening to destroy everyone from the Fairclough patriarch to Tim, the troubled son Ian left behind.

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PRIVATE: #1 SUSPECT
James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Cover of PRIVATE: #1 SUSPECT

PRIVATE: #1 SUSPECT

by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro · Little, Brown

2 wks on list

Former Marine Jack Morgan always uncovers the truth. But in James Patterson's unforgettable thriller, he faces his most shocking case yet. Since former Marine Jack Morgan started Private, it has become the world's most effective investigation firm--sought out by the famous and the powerful to discreetly handle their most intimate problems. Private's investigators are the smartest, the fastest, and the most technologically advanced in the world-and they always uncover the truth. When his former lover is found murdered in his bed, Jack Morgan is instantly the number one suspect. While Jack is under police investigation, the mob strong-arms him into recovering $30 million in stolen pharmaceuticals for them. And the beautiful manager of a luxury hotel chain persuades him to quietly investigate a string of murders at her properties. While Jack is fighting for his life, one of his most trusted colleagues threatens to leave Private, and Jack realizes he is confronting his cleverest and most powerful enemies ever. With more action, more intrigue, and more twists than ever before, Private: #1 Suspect is James Patterson at his unstoppable best.

3
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GIDEON'S CORPSE
Douglas Preston
Cover of GIDEON'S CORPSE

GIDEON'S CORPSE

by Douglas Preston · Grand Central

1 wks on list

Join Gideon Crew in his second adventure in this high-octane new thriller series from the NEW YORK TIMES bestselling authors. A top nuclear scientist goes mad and takes an innocent family hostage at gunpoint, killing one and causing a massive standoff. A plume of radiation above New York City leads to a warehouse where, it seems, a powerful nuclear bomb was assembled just hours before. Sifting through the evidence, authorities determine that the unthinkable is about to happen: In ten days, a major American city will be vaporized by a terrorist attack. Ten days. And Gideon Crew, tracking the mysterious terrorist cell from the suburbs of New York to the mountains of New Mexico, learns the end may be something worse - far worse - than mere Armageddon.

4
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DARTH PLAGUEIS
James Luceno
Cover of DARTH PLAGUEIS

DARTH PLAGUEIS

by James Luceno · LucasBooks

1 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This essential Star Wars Legends novel chronicles the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise, and the origins of the saga’s most enduring evil—the malevolent Sith master Palpatine. “The best Star Wars publication to date . . . [James] Luceno takes Darth Plagueis down the dark path and never looks back.”—Newsday Darth Plagueis: one of the most brilliant Sith Lords who ever lived. Possessing power is all he desires; losing it is the only thing he fears. As an apprentice, he embraces the ruthless ways of the Sith. When the time is right, he destroys his Master—and vows never to suffer the same fate. For like no other disciple of the dark side, Darth Plagueis learns to command the ultimate power . . . over life and death. Darth Sidious: Plagueis’s chosen apprentice. Under the guidance of his Master, he secretly studies the ways of the Sith while publicly rising to power in the galactic government, first as Senator, then as Chancellor, and eventually as Emperor. Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious, Master and acolyte, target the galaxy for domination—and the Jedi Order for annihilation. But can they defy the merciless Sith tradition? Or will the desire of one to rule supreme, and the dream of the other to live forever, sow the seeds of their destruction? “Luceno draws on his storytelling skill and prodigious knowledge of the [Star Wars] world . . . to craft a complex tale of ambition and desire.”—Library Journal

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DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY
P. D. James
Cover of DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY

DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY

by P. D. James · Knopf

10 wks on list

The world is classic Jane Austen. The mystery is vintage P.D. James. This enhanced ebook of Death Comes to Pemberley contains video and audio that can be viewed and heard on a tablet device such as the iPad. There is a video interview with P. D. James, a longer audio interview, and an audio author reading. The year is 1803, and Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet have been married for six years. There are now two handsome and healthy sons in the nursery, Elizabeth's beloved sister Jane and her husband Bingley live nearby and the orderly world of Pemberley seems unassailable. But all this is threatened when, on the eve of the annual autumn ball, the guests are preparing to retire for the night when a chaise appears, rocking down the path from Pemberley's wild woodland. As it pulls up, Lydia Wickham - Elizabeth Bennet's younger, unreliable sister - stumbles out screaming that her husband has been murdered. Two great literary minds - master of suspense P.D. James and literary icon Jane Austen - come together in Death Comes to Pemberley, a bestselling historical crime fiction tribute to Pride and Prejudice. Conjuring the world of Elizabeth Bennet and Mark Darcy and combining the trappings of Regency British society with a classic murder mystery, James creates a delightful mash-up that will intrigue any Janeite. From the bestselling author of The Murder Room, Children of Men and A Certain Justice, comes a wonderful mixture of the nation's greatest romance and best-loved crime fiction. In 2013, this novel was adapted as a miniseries by the BBC, starring Matthew Rhys as Darcy, Anna Maxwell Martin as Elizabeth Bennet and Jenna Coleman as Lydia Wickham.

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11/22/63
Stephen King
Cover of 11/22/63

11/22/63

by Stephen King · Scribner

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? Stephen King’s heart-stoppingly dramatic new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination—a tour de force. Following his massively successful novel Under the Dome, King sweeps readers back in time to another moment—a real life moment—when everything went wrong: the JFK assassination. And he introduces readers to a character who has the power to change the course of history. Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night fifty years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk. Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time. A tribute to a simpler era and a devastating exercise in escalating suspense, 11/22/63 is Stephen King at his epic best.

8
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COPPER BEACH
Jayne Ann Krentz
Cover of COPPER BEACH

COPPER BEACH

by Jayne Ann Krentz · Putnam

1 wks on list

A rare book. An ancient code. A new trilogy that “starts off with promise” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) from the New York Times bestselling master of passion and the paranormal. Within the pages of very rare books some centuries old lie the secrets of the paranormal. Abby Radwell’s unusual psychic talent has made her an expert in such volumes—and has sometimes taken her into dangerous territory. After a deadly incident in the private library of an obsessive collector, Abby receives a blackmail threat, and rumors swirl that an old alchemical text known as The Keyhas reappeared on the black market. Convinced that she needs an investigator who can also play bodyguard, she hires Sam Coppersmith, a specialist in paranormal crystals and amber—“hot rocks.” Passion flares immediately between them, but neither entirely trusts the other. When it comes to dealing with a killer who has paranormal abilities, and a blackmailer who will stop at nothing to obtain an ancient alchemical code, no one is safe.

9
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LOTHAIRE
Kresley Cole
Cover of LOTHAIRE

LOTHAIRE

by Kresley Cole · Gallery

1 wks on list

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole continues her electrifying Immortals After Dark series with this thrilling tale, revealing secrets of the Lore, fierce realm of the immortals… Driven by his insatiable need for revenge, Lothaire, the Lore’s most ruthless vampire, plots to seize the Horde’s crown by offering up the soul of his lovely new captive, Elizabeth Peirce. Yet the young human soon tempts him beyond reason. Ellie Peirce’s life was a living hell—even before an evil immortal abducted her. Though he plans to sacrifice her, the vampire seems to ache for her touch, showering her with sexual pleasure. In a bid to save her soul, she surrenders her body, while vowing to protect her heart. In one month, Lothaire must choose between a millennia-old blood vendetta and his irresistible prisoner. Will he succumb to the miseries of his past...or risk everything for a future with her?

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THE LITIGATORS
John Grisham
Cover of THE LITIGATORS

THE LITIGATORS

by John Grisham · Doubleday

12 wks on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • After leaving a fast-track legal career and going on a serious bender, David Zinc is sober, unemployed, and desperate enough to take a job at Finley & Figg, a self-described “boutique law firm” that is anything but. What they are is a two-bit operation always in search of their big break, ambulance chasers who’ve been in the trenches much too long making way too little. Their specialties, so to speak, are quickie divorces and DUIs, with the occasional jackpot of an actual car wreck thrown in. After twenty plus years together, Oscar Finley and Wally Figg bicker like an old married couple but somehow continue to scratch out a half-decent living from their seedy bungalow offices in southwest Chicago. And then change comes their way. More accurately, it stumbles in. David Zinc, a young but already burned-out attorney, walks away from his fast-track career at a fancy downtown firm, goes on a serious bender, and finds himself literally at the doorstep of our boutique firm. Once David sobers up and comes to grips with the fact that he’s suddenly unemployed, any job—even one with Finley & Figg—looks okay to him. With their new associate on board, F&F is ready to tackle a really big case, a case that could make the partners rich without requiring them to actually practice much law. An extremely popular drug, Krayoxx, the number one cholesterol reducer for the dangerously overweight, produced by Varrick Labs, a giant pharmaceutical company with annual sales of $25 billion, has recently come under fire after several patients taking it have suffered heart attacks. Wally smells money. A little online research confirms Wally’s suspicions—a huge plaintiffs’ firm in Florida is putting together a class action suit against Varrick. All Finley & Figg has to do is find a handful of people who have had heart attacks while taking Krayoxx, convince them to become clients, join the class action, and ride along to fame and fortune. With any luck, they won’t even have to enter a courtroom! It almost seems too good to be true. And it is. The Litigators is a tremendously entertaining romp, filled with the kind of courtroom strategies, theatrics, and suspense that have made John Grisham America’s favorite storyteller.

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LOCKED ON
Tom Clancy with Mark Greaney
Cover of LOCKED ON

LOCKED ON

by Tom Clancy with Mark Greaney · Putnam

5 wks on list

Jack Ryan Jr.—along with the covert warriors of the Campus—continues to uphold his legendary father’s legacy of courage and honor in this thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Tom Clancy. Privately training with special forces, he’s honing his combat skills to continue his work within the Campus, hunting down and eliminating terrorists wherever he can—even as Jack Ryan Sr. campaigns to become President of the United States again. But what neither father nor son knows is that the political and personal have just become equally dangerous. A devout enemy of Jack Sr. launches a privately-funded vendetta to discredit him and connect him to a mysterious killing in his longtime ally John Clark’s past. All they have to do is catch him. With Clark on the run, it’s up to Jack Jr. to stop a growing threat emerging in the Middle East, where a corrupt Pakistani general has entered into a deadly pact with a fanatical terrorist to procure four nuclear warheads they can use to blackmail any world power into submission—or face annihilation.

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THE BEST OF ME
Nicholas Sparks
Cover of THE BEST OF ME

THE BEST OF ME

by Nicholas Sparks · Grand Central

14 wks on list

The bestselling love story behind the massive Hollywood film starring James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan. They were teenage sweethearts from opposite sides of the tracks - with a passion that would change their lives for ever. But life would force them apart. Years later, the lines they had drawn between past and present are about to slip . . . Called back to their hometown for the funeral of the mentor who once gave them shelter when they needed it most, they are faced with each other once again, and forced to confront the paths they chose. Can true love ever rewrite the past? This is the new epic love story from the multi-million-copy bestselling author of The Notebook, The Lucky One and The Last Song. Nicholas Sparks is one of the world's most beloved authors.

15
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KILL ALEX CROSS
James Patterson
Cover of KILL ALEX CROSS

KILL ALEX CROSS

by James Patterson · Little, Brown

Detective Alex Cross is thwarted at every turn while he attempts to investigate the abduction of the President's son and daughter and also discovers a deadly contagion released in the Capitol's water supply that foreshadows of a larger, more devastating attack. Simultaneous. (suspense).

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