TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of August 5, 2012

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1
NEW
THE FALLEN ANGEL
Daniel Silva
Cover of THE FALLEN ANGEL

THE FALLEN ANGEL

by Daniel Silva · Harper/HarperCollins

1 wks at #1 · 1 on list

Gabriel Allon, master art restorer and assassin, returns in a spellbinding #1 New York Times bestselling novel ‘Allon is the 21st century Bond’ Daily Mail

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GONE GIRL
Gillian Flynn
Cover of GONE GIRL

GONE GIRL

by Gillian Flynn · Crown

7 wks on list

THE ADDICTIVE No.1 BESTSELLER AND INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON OVER 20 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE THE BOOK THAT DEFINES PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER Who are you? What have we done to each other? These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife? 'Flynn is a brilliantly accomplished psychological crime writer and this latest book is so dark, so twisted and so utterly compelling that it actually messes with your mind' DAILY MAIL 'A near-masterpiece. Flynn is an extraordinary writer who, with every sentence, makes words do things that other writers merely dream of' SOPHIE HANNAH, Sunday Express 'You think you're reading a good, conventional thriller and then it grows into a fascinating portrait of one averagely mismatched relationship...Nothing's as it seems - Flynn is a fabulous plotter, and a very sharp observer of modern life in the aftermath of the credit crunch' THE TIMES 'One of the most popular thrillers of the year is also one of the smartest... Flynn's book cleverly outpaces its neo-noir trappings and consistently surprises the reader.' FINANCIAL TIMES

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I, MICHAEL BENNETT
James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
Cover of I, MICHAEL BENNETT

I, MICHAEL BENNETT

by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge · Little, Brown

2 wks on list

Police officers shot Detective Michael Bennett arrests an infamous Mexican crime lord in a deadly chase that leaves Bennett's lifelong friend Hughie McDonough dead. From jail, the prisoner vows to rain epic violence down upon New York City-and to get revenge on Michael Bennett. Judges murdered To escape the chaos, Bennett takes his ten kids and their beautiful nanny, Mary Catherine, on a much-needed vacation to his family's cabin near Newburgh, New York. But instead of the calm and happy town he remembers from growing up, they step into a nightmare worse than they could have ever imagined. Newburgh is an inferno of warring gangs, and there's little the police-or Bennett-can do to keep the children safe. Target: Michael Bennett As violence overwhelms the state, Bennett is torn between protecting his hometown and saving New York City. A partner in his investigations, federal prosecutor Tara McLellan, brings him new weapons for the battle-and an attraction that endangers his relationship with Mary Catherine. A no-holds-barred, pedal-to-the-floor, action-packed novel, I, Michael Bennett is James Patterson at his most personal and most thrilling best.

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SHADOW OF NIGHT
Deborah Harkness
Cover of SHADOW OF NIGHT

SHADOW OF NIGHT

by Deborah Harkness · Viking Press

2 wks on list

The #1 New York Times bestselling second installment in the All Souls series, from the author of The Discovery of Witches and The Black Bird Oracle. Look for the hit series “A Discovery of Witches,” now streaming on AMC+, Sundance Now, and Shudder! Picking up from A Discovery of Witches’ cliffhanger ending, Shadow of Night takes reluctant witch Diana Bishop and vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont on a trip through time to Elizabethan London, where they are plunged into a world of spies, magic, and a coterie of Matthew's old friends, the School of Night. As the search for Ashmole 782—the lost and enchanted manuscript whose mystery first pulled Diana and Matthew into one another's orbit—deepens and Diana seeks out a witch to tutor her in magic, the net of Matthew's past tightens around them. Together they find they must embark on a very different—and vastly more dangerous—journey. “A captivating and romantic ripping yarn,”* Shadow of Night confirms Deborah Harkness as a master storyteller, able to cast an “addictive tale of magic, mayhem and two lovers”(Chicago Tribune).

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BACKFIRE
Catherine Coulter
Cover of BACKFIRE

BACKFIRE

by Catherine Coulter · Putnam

2 wks on list

Savich are Sherlock take on an assassin in this novel in Catherine Coulter's FBI Thriller series. For what you did you deserve this. The mysterious note delivered to FBI agent Dillon Savich has him and his partner, Lacey Sherlock, on edge, just as they’re starting an investigation into the shooting of their longtime friend Ramsey Hunt. The San Francisco judge was shot in the back during a high-profile murder trial—and now Sherlock's and Savich’s search for the truth will take a shocking turn that no one could have seen coming…

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THE SANDCASTLE GIRLS
Chris Bohjalian
Cover of THE SANDCASTLE GIRLS

THE SANDCASTLE GIRLS

by Chris Bohjalian · Doubleday

1 wks on list

A haunting love story set during the First World War amidst the horrors of the Armenian Genocide One woman's journey into her family's past reveals a shocking story that has never been told. 1915, Aleppo, Syria.When Elizabeth Endicott steps off the boat from Boston, armed only with a crash course in nursing, nothing could have prepared her for the atrocities she is about to face. For Aleppo is the arrival point for the hundreds of thousands of Armenians who have been forced to march out of Turkey and through the desert to die. There Elizabeth gets to know Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife and infant daughter in the Genocide. When Armen travels to Egypt to join the British army, he begins to write to Elizabeth, and slowly realizes that, unless he can find his way back to her, he risks becoming lost forever. Present day, New York.Laura Petrosian has never really given her Armenian heritage much thought until an old friend calls, claiming to have seen a photo of Laura's grandmother advertising a museum exhibition. As Laura embarks on a journey back through her family's history she'll find a tale of love, loss - and the hidden story of a nation in mourning. 'Chris Bohjalian is at his very finest in this searing story of love and war. I was mesmerized from page one. Bravo!' Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife 'The Sandcastle Girlsis deft, layered, eye-opening, and riveting. I was deeply moved." Wally Lamb, author of The Hour I First Believed 'Powerful . . . Bohjalian's storytelling makes this a beautiful, frightening, and unforgettable read' Publishers' Weekly

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A DANCE WITH DRAGONS
George R. R. Martin
Cover of A DANCE WITH DRAGONS

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS

by George R. R. Martin · Bantam

50 wks on list

A latest installment of the popular series follows a showdown set in the north of the Seven Kingdoms and reveals the circumstances that shaped southern-region events. By the best-selling author of A Feast for Crows.

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THE NEXT BEST THING
Jennifer Weiner
Cover of THE NEXT BEST THING

THE NEXT BEST THING

by Jennifer Weiner · Atria

3 wks on list

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner, an “utterly engaging story” (Time) about a young woman trying to make it as a writer in Hollywood. At three years old, Ruth Saunders miraculously survives the car crash that takes her parents’ lives on the icy Massachusetts Turnpike. Her eccentric grandmother nurtures her through years of surgeries, feeding her home-cooked meals, dispensing irreverent wisdom, and telling Ruth she’s beautiful, even though her scars will stay with her forever. After college, Ruth pursues her dream of writing to Hollywood, heading west with her grandmother in tow, hoping to make it big in the world of TV. After years of failure and a badly broken heart, Ruth gets The Call—her show has been green-lit. But Ruth’s happy ending is only the beginning, as she struggles with how television gets made: terrified (and terrifying) executives and actresses with their eyes on bigger prizes than Ruthie’s show. Add in an unrequited crush on the man who has been her mentor. Add to that her grandmother’s impending nuptials, and Ruth’s big break might just break her. A rollicking ride on the Hollywood roller coaster, The Next Best Thing is a heartfelt story about a young woman searching for her own happily-ever-after in the land where dreams come true.

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CLOSE YOUR EYES
Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen
Cover of CLOSE YOUR EYES

CLOSE YOUR EYES

by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen · St. Martin's

1 wks on list

In Close Your Eyes, The New York Times bestselling duo Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen are back with a suspenseful novel about a once-blind woman with a talent for tracking serial killers The FBI doesn't usually consult with music therapists to solve their cases. But Kendra Michael's astonishing powers of observation and analysis have made her a favorite of law enforcement agencies all across the country. Blind for the first twenty years of her life, she cares little for investigative work but can't deny her unique skill, or the results she's been able to facilitate. Kendra learned at an early age to become hyper-aware of her surroundings, perfecting the art of picking up the most subtle audio, olfactory, and tactile cues in the world around her. Like a secret weapon, she is in high demand. Former FBI agent Adam Lynch, known as The Puppetmaster, has weapons of his own. He's a notorious master manipulator, skillfully handling criminals and colleagues alike to get the results he wants. Now he needs Kendra's special brand of help, but she's not interested until Lynch reveals that Agent Jeff Stedler—Kendra's ex—is missing and may have run directly into the path of a serial killer. What began as a heinous murder investigation escalates into something even larger and more frightening: a multi-million dollar conspiracy to hide a secret that's worth killing for, again and again and again.

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WICKED BUSINESS
Janet Evanovich
Cover of WICKED BUSINESS

WICKED BUSINESS

by Janet Evanovich · Bantam

5 wks on list

Lizzy Tucker's once normal life as a pastry chef in Salem, Massachusets, turns upside down as she battles both sinister forces and an inconvenient attraction to unnaturally talented but off-limits partner Diesel.

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BEAUTIFUL RUINS
Jess Walter
Cover of BEAUTIFUL RUINS

BEAUTIFUL RUINS

by Jess Walter · Harper/HarperCollins

4 wks on list

The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying. And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot—searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier. What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion—along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow. Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

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CALICO JOE
John Grisham
Cover of CALICO JOE

CALICO JOE

by John Grisham · Doubleday

15 wks on list

This story, based on the Cubs and Mets 1973 season follows the divergent paths of Joe Castle, a rookie hitter for the Chicago Cubs, and Warren Tracey, a hard-throwing Mets pitcher.

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EARTH UNAWARE
Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston
Cover of EARTH UNAWARE

EARTH UNAWARE

by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston · Tor/Tom Doherty

1 wks on list

A hundred years before Ender's Game, humans thought they were alone in the galaxy. Humanity was slowly making their way out from Earth to the planets and asteroids of the Solar System, exploring and mining and founding colonies. The mining ship El Cavador is far out from Earth, in the deeps of the Kuiper Belt, beyond Pluto. Other mining ships, and the families that live on them, are few and far between this far out. So when El Cavador's telescopes pick up a fast-moving object coming in-system, it's hard to know what to make of it. It's massive and moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light. But the ship has other problems. Their systems are old and failing. The family is getting too big. There are claim-jumping corporates bringing Asteroid Belt tactics to the Kuiper Belt. Worrying about a distant object that might or might not be an alien ship seems...not important. They're wrong. It's the most important thing that has happened to the human race in a million years. This is humanity's first contact with an alien race. The First Formic War is about to begin. Earth Unaware is the first novel in The First Formic War series by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston. THE ENDER UNIVERSE Ender series Ender’s Game / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the Mind / Ender in Exile / Children of the Fleet Ender’s Shadow series Ender’s Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in Flight The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston) Earth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth Awakens The Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston) The Swarm / The Hive Ender novellas A War of Gifts / First Meetings At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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MISSION TO PARIS
Alan Furst
Cover of MISSION TO PARIS

MISSION TO PARIS

by Alan Furst · Random House

6 wks on list

“A master spy novelist.”—The Wall Street Journal “Page after page is dazzling.”—James Patterson NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Late summer, 1938. Hollywood film star Fredric Stahl is on his way to Paris to make a movie. The Nazis know he’s coming—a secret bureau within the Reich has been waging political warfare against France, and for their purposes, Fredric Stahl is a perfect agent of influence. What they don’t know is that Stahl, horrified by the Nazi war on Jews and intellectuals, has become part of an informal spy service run out of the American embassy. Mission to Paris is filled with heart-stopping tension, beautifully drawn scenes of romance, and extraordinarily alive characters: foreign assassins; a glamorous Russian actress-turned-spy; and the women in Stahl’s life. At the center of the novel is the city of Paris—its bistros, hotels grand and anonymous, and the Parisians, living every night as though it were their last. Alan Furst brings to life both a dark time in history and the passion of the human hearts that fought to survive it. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Alan Furst's Midnight in Europe. Praise for Mission to Paris “The most talented espionage novelist of our generation.”—Vince Flynn “Vividly re-creates the excitement and growing gloom of the City of Light in 1938–39 . . . It doesn’t get more action-packed and grippingly atmospheric than this.”—The Boston Globe “One of [Furst’s] best . . . This is the romantic Paris to make a tourist weep. . . . In Furst’s densely populated books, hundreds of minor characters—clerks, chauffeurs, soldiers, whores—all whirl around his heroes in perfect focus for a page or two, then dot by dot, face by face, they vanish, leaving a heartbreaking sense of the vast Homeric epic that was World War II and the smallness of almost every life that was caught up in it.”—The New York Times Book Review “A book no reader will put down until the final page . . . Critics compare [Alan] Furst to Graham Greene and John le Carré [as] a master of historical espionage.”—Library Journal (starred review) “Alan Furst’s writing reminds me of a swim in perfect water on a perfect day, fluid and exquisite. One wants the feeling to go on forever, the book to never end. . . . Furst is one of the finest spy novelists working today.”—Publishers Weekly

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CRIMINAL
Karin Slaughter
Cover of CRIMINAL

CRIMINAL

by Karin Slaughter · Delacorte Press

'One of the boldest thriller writers working today' TESS GERRITSEN 'Her characters, plot, and pacing are unrivalled' MICHAEL CONNELLY _________________________________________ Watch Will Trent now on Disney+ The sixth Will Trent novel, from the #1 bestselling author. A woman is found brutally murdered in a sordid Atlanta apartment. But there's something strange about this particular slaying. Her blood-soaked body bears a chilling similarity to a woman found dead almost 40 years earlier. Could it be the work of a long-dormant serial killer? Soon Special Agent Will Trent finds himself returning to the home he grew up in, and a past that could hold the clue to the killings... _________________________________________ Crime and thriller masters know there's nothing better than a little Slaughter: 'I'd follow her anywhere' GILLIAN FLYNN 'Passion, intensity, and humanity' LEE CHILD 'A writer of extraordinary talents' KATHY REICHS 'Fiction doesn't get any better than this' JEFFERY DEAVER 'A great writer at the peak of her powers' PETER JAMES 'Raw, powerful and utterly gripping' KATHRYN STOCKETT 'With heart and skill Karin Slaughter keeps you hooked from the first page until the last' CAMILLA LACKBERG 'Amongst the world's greatest and finest crime writers' YRSA SIGURÐARDÓTTIR

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