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Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of October 5, 2014

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1
NEW
EDGE OF ETERNITY
Ken Follett
Cover of EDGE OF ETERNITY

EDGE OF ETERNITY

by Ken Follett · Dutton

2 wks at #1 · 1 on list

Ken Follett's extraordinary historical epic, the Century Trilogy, reaches its sweeping, passionate conclusion. In Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, Ken Follett followed the fortunes of five international families—American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh—as they made their way through the twentieth century. Now they come to one of the most tumultuous eras of all: the 1960s through the 1980s, from civil rights, assassinations, mass political movements, and Vietnam to the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, presidential impeachment, revolution—and rock and roll. East German teacher Rebecca Hoffmann discovers she’s been spied on by the Stasi for years and commits an impulsive act that will affect her family for the rest of their lives. . . . George Jakes, the child of a mixed-race couple, bypasses a corporate law career to join Robert F. Kennedy's Justice Department and finds himself in the middle of not only the seminal events of the civil rights battle but a much more personal battle of his own. . . . Cameron Dewar, the grandson of a senator, jumps at the chance to do some official and unofficial espionage for a cause he believes in, only to discover that the world is a much more dangerous place than he'd imagined. . . . Dimka Dvorkin, a young aide to Nikita Khrushchev, becomes an agent both for good and for ill as the United States and the Soviet Union race to the brink of nuclear war, while his twin sister, Tanya, carves out a role that will take her from Moscow to Cuba to Prague to Warsaw—and into history.

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PERSONAL
Lee Child
Cover of PERSONAL

PERSONAL

by Lee Child · Delacorte Press

3 wks on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Don’t miss the hit streaming series Reacher! “The best one yet.”—Stephen King Someone has tried to kill the French president. How many snipers can shoot from three-quarters of a mile with total confidence? John Kott—a U.S. Army marksman gone bad—is one of them. After fifteen years in prison, he’s out . . . and there’s a G8 summit coming up, packed with enough world leaders to tempt any assassin. If anyone can stop Kott, it’s the man who beat him before: Jack Reacher. And though he’d rather work alone, Reacher is teamed with rookie analyst Casey Nice. They’re facing a rough road, full of local thugs, double-crosses, and no backup if things go wrong. Reacher never gets too close. But this time it’s personal.

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SOMEWHERE SAFE WITH SOMEBODY GOOD
Jan Karon
Cover of SOMEWHERE SAFE WITH SOMEBODY GOOD

SOMEWHERE SAFE WITH SOMEBODY GOOD

by Jan Karon · Putnam

3 wks on list

#1 New York Times bestselling author Jan Karon welcomes you back home to Mitford in this inspirational novel that “hits the sweet spot at the intersection of your heart and your funny bone” (USA Today). After five hectic years of retirement from Lord’s Chapel, Father Tim Kavanagh returns with his wife, Cynthia, from the land of his Irish ancestors. While he’s glad to be at home in Mitford, something is definitely missing from his life: a pulpit. But when he’s offered one, he decides he doesn’t want it. For years, he believed he had a few answers. Now he has questions. How can he possibly help Dooley’s younger brother, Sammy, make it through the fallout of a disasterous childhood? Could doing a good deed for the town bookstore be the best thing for his befuddled spirit? And who was riding through town in a limo? Not Edith Mallory. Then an editorial in the weekly Muse poses a question that sets the whole town looking for answers: Does Mitford still take care of its own?

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THE BONE CLOCKS
David Mitchell
Cover of THE BONE CLOCKS

THE BONE CLOCKS

by David Mitchell · Random House

3 wks on list

'ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANTLY INVENTIVE WRITERS OF THIS, OR ANY, COUNTRY' INDEPENDENT Winner of the World Fantasy Award and longlisted for the Booker and Folio Prizes 'A triumph' GUARDIAN 'Fantastical' OBSERVER 'Epic' EVENING STANDARD 'Mind-spinning' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Dazzling' NEW YORK TIMES The internationally bestselling novel from the author of Cloud Atlas, at once the kaleidoscopic story of an unusual woman's life, a metaphysical thriller and a profound meditation on mortality and survival Run away, one drowsy summer's afternoon, with Holly Sykes: wayward teenager, broken-hearted rebel and unwitting pawn in a titanic, hidden conflict. Over six decades, the consequences of a moment's impulse unfold, drawing an ordinary woman into a world far beyond her imagining. And as life in the near future turns perilous, the pledge she made to a stranger may become the key to her family's survival . . . PRAISE FOR DAVID MITCHELL 'A thrilling and gifted writer' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Dizzyingly, dazzlingly good' DAILY MAIL 'Mitchell is, clearly, a genius' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 'An author of extraordinary ambition and skill' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'A superb storyteller' THE NEW YORKER

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FESTIVE IN DEATH
J. D. Robb
Cover of FESTIVE IN DEATH

FESTIVE IN DEATH

by J. D. Robb · Putnam

2 wks on list

It's Christmas, but Lieutenant Eve Dallas is in no mood to celebrate. While her charismatic husband Roarke plans a huge, glittering party, Eve has murder on her mind. The victim - personal trainer Trey Ziegler - was trouble in life and is causing even more problems in death. Vain, unfaithful and vindictive, Trey had cultivated a lot of enemies. Which means Eve has a lot of potential suspects. And when she and Detective Peabody uncover Trey's sinister secret, the case takes a deadly turn. Christmas may be a festival of light, but Eve and Roarke will be forced once more down a very dark path in their hunt for the truth.

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RAGING HEAT
Richard Castle
Cover of RAGING HEAT

RAGING HEAT

by Richard Castle · Kingswell

1 wks on list

In this riveting follow-up to the New York Times bestseller, Deadly Heat, NYPD Homicide detective Nikki Heat risks her life to solve a high-profile murder at the same time her tempestuous relationship with investigative journalist Jameson Rook is put to the test like never before. In New York Times bestselling author Richard Castle's newest novel, an illegal immigrant falls from the sky and NYPD Homicide detective Nikki Heat's investigation into his death quickly captures the imagination of her boyfriend, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jameson Rook. When he decides to work the case with Heat for his next big story, Nikki is at first happy to have him ride along. Yes, she must endure Rook's usual wild conspiracy speculations and adolescent wisecracks, but after their reunion following his recent assignment abroad, she's glad for the entertainment, the chance to bounce ideas off him, and the opportunity just to be close to him again and feel the old spark rekindle. But when Rook's inquiry leads him to conclude that Detective Heat has arrested the wrong man for the murder, everything changes. Balancing her high-stakes job with a complicated romance has been a challenge ever since Nikki fell for the famous reporter. Now her relationship lurches from mere complexity into sharp conflict over the riskiest case of her career. Set against the raging force of Hurricane Sandy as it pounds New York, Heat battles an ambitious power broker, fights a platoon of urban mercenaries, and clashes with the man she loves. Detective Heat knows her job is to solve murders. She just worries that solving this one will be the death of her relationship.

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THE CHILDREN ACT
Ian McEwan
Cover of THE CHILDREN ACT

THE CHILDREN ACT

by Ian McEwan · Nan A. Talese/ Doubleday

2 wks on list

A brilliant, emotionally wrenching new novel from the author of Atonement and Amsterdam. Fiona Maye, a leading High Court judge, renowned for her fierce intelligence and sensitivity is called on to try an urgent case. For religious reasons, a seventeen-year-old boy is refusing the medical treatment that could save his life. Time is running out. She visits the boy in hospital – an encounter which stirs long-buried feelings in her and powerful new emotions in the boy. But it is Fiona who must ultimately decide whether he lives or dies and her judgement will have momentous consequences for them both.

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THE SECRET PLACE
Tana French
Cover of THE SECRET PLACE

THE SECRET PLACE

by Tana French · Viking Press

3 wks on list

The photo shows a boy who was murdered a year ago. The caption says, 'I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM'. Detective Stephen Moran hasn't seen Holly Mackey since she was a 9-year-old witness to the events of Faithful Place. Now she's 16 and she's shown up outside his squad room, with a photograph and a story. Even in her exclusive boarding school, in the graceful golden world that Stephen has always longed for, bad things happen and people have secrets. The previous year, Christopher Harper, from the neighbouring boys' school, was found murdered on the grounds. And today, in the Secret Place - the school noticeboard where girls can pin up their secrets anonymously - Holly found the card.

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WOLF IN WHITE VAN
John Darnielle
Cover of WOLF IN WHITE VAN

WOLF IN WHITE VAN

by John Darnielle · Farrar, Straus & Giroux

1 wks on list

Beautifully written and unexpectedly moving, John Darnielle's audacious and gripping debut novel Wolf in White Van is a marvel of storytelling and genuine literary delicacy. Welcome to Trace Italian, a game of strategy and survival! You may now make your first move. Isolated by a disfiguring injury since the age of seventeen, Sean Phillips crafts imaginary worlds for strangers to play in. From his small apartment in southern California, he orchestrates fantastic adventures where possibilities, both dark and bright, open in the boundaries between the real and the imagined. His primary creation, Trace Italian, is an intricate text-role playing game that enables participants far and wide to explore a dystopian America, seeking refuge amidst the ruin. However, when two high school players, Lance and Carrie, extend the game into their reality, the consequences are horrifying, leaving Sean to account for it. Darnielle’s Wolf in White Van invites us to comprehend the depth and intricacy of Sean's life. Told in reverse, the story draws us back to the moment that fundamentally altered Sean’s life as he knows it.

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ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE
Anthony Doerr
Cover of ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE

by Anthony Doerr · Scribner

20 wks on list

An imaginative and intricate novel inspired by the horrors of World War II and written in short, elegant chapters that explore human nature and the contradictory power of technology.

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THE EYE OF HEAVEN
Clive Cussler and Russell Blake
Cover of THE EYE OF HEAVEN

THE EYE OF HEAVEN

by Clive Cussler and Russell Blake · Putnam

3 wks on list

Baffin Island, North-Western Canada: Husband-and-wife team Sami and Remi Fargo are on an environmental expedition to the Arctic, when to their astonishment they discover a Viking ship in the ice, perfectly preserved - and filled with pre-Columbian artefacts from Mexico. It's a combination history suggests shouldn't be possible. As the couple plunge into their research, tantalizing clues about a link between the Vikings and the legendary Toltec feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl - and a fabled object known as the Eye of Heaven - begin to emerge. But so do many dangerous people. Soon the Fargos find themselves on the run through jungles, temples, and secret tombs, caught between treasure hunters, crime cartels, and those with a far more personal motivation for stopping them. At the end of the road will be the solution to a thousand-year-old mystery - or death.

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THE PAYING GUESTS
Sarah Waters
Cover of THE PAYING GUESTS

THE PAYING GUESTS

by Sarah Waters · Riverhead

1 wks on list

'A page-turning melodrama and a fascinating portrait of London on the verge of great change' Guardian It is 1922, and in a hushed south London villa life is about to be transformed, as genteel widow Mrs Wray and her discontented daughter Frances are obliged to take in lodgers. Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the 'clerk class', bring with them gramophone music, colour, fun - and dangerous desires. The most ordinary of lives, it seems, can explode into passion and drama... A love story that is also a crime story, this is vintage Sarah Waters. 'Another wild ride of a novel... magnetic storytelling' Tracy Chevalier, Observer 'You will be hooked within a page' Charlotte Mendelson, Financial Times 'Sumptuous... the writing is impeccable. A joy in every respect' New Statesman 'An unsurpassed fictional recorder of vanished eras and hidden lives' Sunday Times

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THE GOLDFINCH
Donna Tartt
Cover of THE GOLDFINCH

THE GOLDFINCH

by Donna Tartt · Little, Brown

48 wks on list

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION Theo Decker, aged thirteen, is left alone in the world after surviving a catastrophe that kills his only close relative - his mother - and tears him away from everything he knows. Tormented by grief, drifting from home to home, he grows increasingly obsessed with a small, enchanting work of art which dominates his imagination and ultimately draws him, as an adult, into a much darker life than he could ever have foreseen. 'A masterpiece' The Times 'Astonishing' Guardian 'Superb' Daily Mail 'A gripping page turner' Independent on Sunday 'A triumph' Stephen King 'Dazzling' New York Times

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THE MONOGRAM MURDERS
Sophie Hannah
Cover of THE MONOGRAM MURDERS

THE MONOGRAM MURDERS

by Sophie Hannah · Morrow/HarperCollins

2 wks on list

Hercule Poirot's quiet supper in a London coffee house is interrupted when a young woman confides to him that she is about to be murdered. She is terrified, but begs Poirot not to find and punish her killer. Once she is dead, she insists, justice will have been done. Later that night, Poirot learns that three guests at the fashionable Bloxham Hotel have been murdered, and a cufflink has been placed in each one's mouth. Could there be a connection with the frightened woman? While Poirot struggles to put together the bizarre pieces of the puzzle, the murderer prepares another hotel bedroom for a fourth victim...

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COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE
Haruki Murakami
Cover of COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE

COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE

by Haruki Murakami · Knopf

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • One of the most revered voices in literature today gives us a story of love, friend­ship, and heartbreak for the ages. “Mesmerizing, immersive, hallucinogenic.”—Entertainment Weekly Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the remarkable story of a young man haunted by a great loss; of dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around us; and of a journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Financial Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Slate, Mother Jones, The Daily Beast, BookPage

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