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Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of January 8, 2017

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THE WHISTLER
John Grisham
Cover of THE WHISTLER

THE WHISTLER

by John Grisham · Doubleday

6 wks at #1 · 9 on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A high-stakes thrill ride through the darkest corners of the Sunshine State, from the author hailed as “the best thriller writer alive” by Ken Follett “Riveting . . . an elaborate conspiracy.”—The New York Times Book Review We expect our judges to be honest and wise. Their integrity is the bedrock of the entire judicial system. We trust them to ensure fair trials, to protect the rights of all litigants, to punish those who do wrong, and to oversee the flow of justice. But what happens when a judge bends the law or takes a bribe? Lacy Stoltz is an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. It is her job to respond to complaints dealing with judicial misconduct. After nine years with the Board, she knows that most problems are caused by incompetence, not corruption. But a corruption case eventually crosses her desk. A previously disbarred lawyer is back in business, and he claims to know of a Florida judge who has stolen more money than all other crooked judges combined. And not just crooked judges in Florida. All judges, from all states, and throughout United States history. And now he wants to put a stop to it. His only client is a person who knows the truth and wants to blow the whistle and collect millions under Florida law. When the case is assigned to Lacy, she immediately suspects that this one could be dangerous. Dangerous is one thing. Deadly is something else.

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TWO BY TWO
Nicholas Sparks
Cover of TWO BY TWO

TWO BY TWO

by Nicholas Sparks · Grand Central

12 wks on list

'When it comes to tales about love, Nicholas Sparks is one of the undisputed kings' Heat Sometimes the end is just the beginning . . . From the author of The Notebook and See Me comes a beautiful story of heartbreak, strength and unconditional love that will capture your heart. Russell Green has it all: a loving family, a successful career and a beautiful house. But underneath his seemingly perfect world, cracks are beginning to appear . . . and no one is more surprised than Russ when the life he took for granted is turned upside down. Finding himself single-handedly caring for his young daughter, while trying to launch his own business, the only thing Russ knows is that he must shelter his little girl from the consequences of these changes. As Russ embarks on this daunting and unexpected new chapter of his life, a chance encounter will challenge him to find a happiness beyond anything he could ever have imagined. _____________________________ Praise for Nicholas Sparks: 'Pulls at the heartstrings' Sunday Times 'When it comes to tales about love, Nicholas Sparks is one of the undisputed kings' Heat 'An absorbing page-turner' Daily Mail 'A fiercely romantic and touching tale' Heat on The Longest Ride 'An A-grade romantic read' OK! on Safe Haven 'This one won't leave a dry eye' Daily Mirror on The Lucky One

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CROSS THE LINE
James Patterson
Cover of CROSS THE LINE

CROSS THE LINE

by James Patterson · Little, Brown

5 wks on list

NOW THE INSPIRATION FOR THE ORIGINAL SERIES 'CROSS' ON PRIME VIDEO ______________________________________ 'No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades. The Alex Cross series proves it.' LEE CHILD, international bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series ______________________________ A killer with a twisted sense of justice has Washington DC under siege. Only Alex Cross can bring them down. When a police officer is killed, Detective Alex Cross steps up to take command of his force who are scrambling for answers. As a brutal crime wave sweeps the region, an intriguing connection links these deadly scenes. The victims are all criminals. The murderer has appointed themselves as judge, jury, and executioner, and it's up to Alex to take the law back into his hands before the city descends into chaos.

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THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Colson Whitehead
Cover of THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

by Colson Whitehead · Doubleday

20 wks on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • "An American masterpiece" (NPR) that chronicles a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. One of The New York Times’s 10 Best Books of the 21st Century • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century • A Los Angeles Times Best Fiction Book of the Last 30 Years The basis for the acclaimed original Prime Video series directed by Barry Jenkins. Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him. In Colson Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman's will to escape the horrors of bondage—and a powerful meditation on the history we all share.

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NO MAN'S LAND
David Baldacci

NO MAN'S LAND

by David Baldacci · Grand Central

6 wks on list

After his father is accused of murder, combat veteran and Special Agent John Puller must investigate his past and learn the truth about his mother in this New York Times bestselling thriller--but someone hiding in the shadows wants revenge. Two men. Thirty years. John Puller's mother, Jackie, vanished thirty years ago from Fort Monroe, Virginia, when Puller was just a boy. Paul Rogers has been in prison for ten years. But twenty years before that, he was at Fort Monroe. One night three decades ago, Puller's and Rogers' worlds collided with devastating results, and the truth has been buried ever since. Until now. Military investigators, armed with a letter from a friend of Jackie's, arrive in the hospital room of Puller's father-a legendary three-star now sinking into dementia-and reveal that Puller Sr. has been accused of murdering his wife. Aided by his brother Robert Puller, an Air Force major, and Veronica Knox, who works for a shadowy U.S. intelligence organization, Puller begins a journey that will take him into his own past, to find the truth about his mother. Paul Rogers' time is running out. With the clock ticking, he begins his own journey, one that will take him across the country to the place where all his troubles began: a mysterious building on the grounds of Fort Monroe. There, thirty years ago, the man Rogers had once been vanished too, and was replaced with a monster. And now the monster wants revenge. And the only person standing in his way is John Puller.

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SMALL GREAT THINGS
Jodi Picoult
Cover of SMALL GREAT THINGS

SMALL GREAT THINGS

by Jodi Picoult · Ballantine

11 wks on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In “the most important novel Jodi Picoult has ever written” (The Washington Post), the acclaimed author tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassion—and doesn’t offer easy answers. “A gripping courtroom drama . . . Given the current political climate it is quite prescient and worthwhile. . . . This is a writer who understands her characters inside and out.”—Roxane Gay, The New York Times Book Review Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years’ experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she’s been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don’t want Ruth, who is Black, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene? Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy’s counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family—especially her teenage son—as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other’s trust, and come to see that what they’ve been taught their whole lives about others—and themselves—might be wrong.

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TOM CLANCY: TRUE FAITH AND ALLEGIANCE
Mark Greaney
Cover of TOM CLANCY: TRUE FAITH AND ALLEGIANCE

TOM CLANCY: TRUE FAITH AND ALLEGIANCE

by Mark Greaney · Putnam

3 wks on list

President Jack Ryan deals with the worst breach U.S. intelligence has ever suffered in this “compelling and frighteningly realistic”* thriller in Tom Clancy’s #1 New York Times bestselling series. A massive data breach has compromised the personal information of millions of American military officers and intelligence agents. After several deadly attacks on off-duty personnel and their families, President Jack Ryan faces one of the greatest challenges of his career. Can he find the hackers and cap the flow of information before it’s too late?

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TURBO TWENTY-THREE
Janet Evanovich
Cover of TURBO TWENTY-THREE

TURBO TWENTY-THREE

by Janet Evanovich · Bantam

6 wks on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In the heart of Trenton, New Jersey, Stephanie Plum tracks a killer who is out to make sure someone gets his just desserts. “The most popular mystery writer alive.”—The New York Times Larry Virgil skipped out on his latest court date after he was arrested for hijacking an eighteen-wheeler full of premium bourbon. Fortunately for bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, Larry is just stupid enough to attempt almost the exact same crime again. Only this time he flees the scene, leaving behind a freezer truck loaded with Bogart ice cream and a dead body—frozen solid and covered in chocolate and chopped pecans. As fate would have it, Stephanie’s mentor and occasional employer, Ranger, needs her to go undercover at the Bogart factory to find out who’s putting their employees on ice and sabotaging the business. It’s going to be hard for Stephanie to keep her hands off all that ice cream, and even harder for her to keep her hands off Ranger. It’s also going to be hard to explain to Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli, why she is spending late nights with Ranger, late nights with Lula and Randy Briggs—who are naked and afraid—and late nights keeping tabs on Grandma Mazur and her new fella. Stephanie Plum has a lot on her plate, but for a girl who claims to have “virtually no marketable skills,” these are the kinds of sweet assignments she does best.

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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

133 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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MOONGLOW
Michael Chabon
Cover of MOONGLOW

MOONGLOW

by Michael Chabon · Harper/HarperCollins

5 wks on list

Moonglow unfolds as the deathbed confession of a man the narrator refers to only as “my grandfather.” It is a tale of madness, of war and adventure, of sex and marriage and desire, of existential doubt and model rocketry, of the shining aspirations and demonic underpinnings of American technological accomplishment at midcentury, and, above all, of the destructive impact—and the creative power—of keeping secrets and telling lies. It is a portrait of the difficult but passionate love between the narrator’s grandfather and his grandmother, an enigmatic woman broken by her experience growing up in war-torn France. It is also a tour de force of speculative autobiography in which Chabon devises and reveals a secret history of his own imagination.

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THE CHEMIST
Stephenie Meyer
Cover of THE CHEMIST

THE CHEMIST

by Stephenie Meyer · Little, Brown

7 wks on list

In this gripping page-turner, an ex-agent on the run from her former employers must take one more case to clear her name and save her life. She used to work for the U.S. government, but very few people ever knew that. An expert in her field, she was one of the darkest secrets of an agency so clandestine it doesn't even have a name. And when they decided she was a liability, they came for her without warning. Now she rarely stays in the same place or uses the same name for long. They've killed the only other person she trusted, but something she knows still poses a threat. They want her dead, and soon. When her former handler offers her a way out, she realizes it's her only chance to erase the giant target on her back. But it means taking one last job for her ex-employers. To her horror, the information she acquires only makes her situation more dangerous. Resolving to meet the threat head-on, she prepares for the toughest fight of her life but finds herself falling for a man who can only complicate her likelihood of survival. As she sees her choices being rapidly whittled down, she must apply her unique talents in ways she never dreamed of. In this tautly plotted novel, Meyer creates a fierce and fascinating new heroine with a very specialized skill set. And she shows once again why she's one of the world's bestselling authors.

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THE WRONG SIDE OF GOODBYE
Michael Connelly
Cover of THE WRONG SIDE OF GOODBYE

THE WRONG SIDE OF GOODBYE

by Michael Connelly · Little, Brown

8 wks on list

Only Harry Bosch can uncover LA's darkest secrets in this new gripping thriller from global bestseller Michael Connelly. 'What do you want me to do?' Bosch asked again. 'I want you to find someone for me,' Vance said. 'Someone who might not have ever existed.' Harry Bosch is working as a part-time detective in the town of San Fernando outside of Los Angeles, when he gets the invitation to meet with the ageing aviation billionaire Whitney Vance. When he was eighteen Vance had a relationship with a Mexican girl called Vibiana Duarte, but soon after becoming pregnant she disappeared. Now, as he reaches the end of his life, Vance wants to know what happened to Vibiana and whether there is an heir to his vast fortune. And Bosch is the only person he trusts to undertake the assignment. Harry's aware that with such sums of money involved, this could be a dangerous undertaking - not just for himself, but for the person he's looking for - but as he begins to uncover Vibiana's tragic story, and finds uncanny links to his own past, he knows he cannot rest until he finds the truth.

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COMMONWEALTH
Ann Patchett
Cover of COMMONWEALTH

COMMONWEALTH

by Ann Patchett · Harper

11 wks on list

'Dazzling ... life-affirming and compulsively readable' Sunday Times 'Patchett blends wisdom and humanity jointly with the icy forensic gaze of someone not afraid to expose the frailties of human behaviour ... Read it' Jojo Moyes 'An outstanding novel ... a master of her art' Observer It is 1964: Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited and notices a heart stoppingly beautiful woman. When he kisses Beverly Keating, his host's wife, he sets in motion the joining of two families, whose shared fate will be defined on a day seven years later. In 1988, Franny Keating, now twenty-four, is working as a cocktail waitress in Chicago. When she meets the famous author Leon Posen one night at the bar, and tells him about her family, she unwittingly relinquishes control over their story...

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ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY
Alexander Freed
Cover of ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

by Alexander Freed · Del Rey

The Sunday Times Bestseller Go beyond the film with a novelization featuring new scenes and expanded material. As the shadows of the Empire loom ever larger across the galaxy, so do deeply troubling rumors. The Rebellion has learned of a sinister Imperial plot to bring entire worlds to their knees. Deep in Empire-dominated space, a machine of unimaginable destructive power is nearing completion. A weapon too terrifying to contemplate . . . and a threat that may be too great to overcome. If the worlds at the Empire’s mercy stand any chance, it lies with an unlikely band of allies: Jyn Erso, a resourceful young woman seeking vengeance; Cassian Andor, a war-weary rebel commander; Bodhi Rook, a defector from the Empire’s military; Chirrut Ïmwe, a blind holy man and his crack-shot companion, Baze Malbus; and K-2SO, a deadly Imperial droid turned against its former masters. In their hands rests the new hope that could turn the tide toward a crucial Rebellion victory—if only they can capture the plans to the Empire’s new weapon. But even as they race toward their dangerous goal, the specter of their ultimate enemy—a monstrous world unto itself—darkens the skies. Waiting to herald the Empire’s brutal reign with a burst of annihilation worthy of its dreaded name: Death Star.

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