TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of March 22, 1998

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
THE STREET LAWYER
John Grisham
Cover of THE STREET LAWYER

THE STREET LAWYER

by John Grisham · Doubleday

9 wks at #1 · 5 on list

A corporate lawyer in Washington goes to war against his own company to defend the homeless. It happens after Michael Brock is abducted by a homeless man and held hostage. The homeless man is killed by a police sharpshooter and the lawyer is rescued, but the experience changes his life. Michael was in a hurry. He was scrambling up the ladder at Drake & Sweeney, a giant D.C. law firm with eight hundred lawyers. The money was good and getting better; a partnership was three years away. He was a rising star with no time to waste, no time to stop, no time to toss a few coins into the cups of panhandlers. No time for a conscience. But a violent encounter with a homeless man stopped him cold. Michael survived; his assailant did not. Who was this man? Michael did some digging, and learned that he was a mentally ill veteran who'd been in and out of shelters for many years. Then Michael dug a little deeper, and found a dirty secret, and the secret involved Drake & Sweeney. The fast track derailed; the ladder collapsed. Michael bolted the firm and took a top-secret file with him. He landed in the streets, an advocate for the homeless, a street lawyer.

2
PARADISE
Toni Morrison
Cover of PARADISE

PARADISE

by Toni Morrison · Knopf

9 wks on list
3
COLD MOUNTAIN
Charles Frazier
Cover of COLD MOUNTAIN

COLD MOUNTAIN

by Charles Frazier · Atlantic Monthly Press

37 wks on list

The impact of the Civil War on lovers. Inman is not the man he used to be, as wounded in battle he slowly makes his way home to North Carolina. His sweetheart, Ada, too has changed, no longer a flighty belle but a hard-working farm woman. Will love be the same?

4
BLACK AND BLUE
Anna Quindlen
Cover of BLACK AND BLUE

BLACK AND BLUE

by Anna Quindlen · Random House

6 wks on list

An ultimately uplifting tale, full of drama and the details of a personal crisis. Oprah Book Club Choice and international bestseller. ‘The first time my husband hit me, I was nineteen years old’ For eighteen years, Fran Benedetto kept her secret. And hit her bruises. And stayed with Bobby because she wanted her son to have a father. And because, in spite of everything, she loved him. Then one night, when she sae the look on her ten-year-old son’s face, Fran finally made a choice – and ran for both their lives. Now she is starting over in a city far from home, far from Bobby. But every day she waits fro him to catch up with her. Because Bobby always said he would never let her go. And despite the flawlessness of her escape, Fran Benedetto is certain of one thing – it’s only a matter of time. ‘The honesty of her storytelling is exemplary’ - Sunday Times ‘Relationships and family life are captured in a beautiful, intelligent way’ - Good Housekeeping

5
2
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
Arthur Golden
6
NEW
THRILL!
Jackie Collins
Cover of THRILL!

THRILL!

by Jackie Collins · Simon & Schuster

Moving from chic New York and the exclusive Hamptons to the hungry heart of Los Angeles, this high-suspense tale pulses with the deadly obsessions of a gorgeous actress who can have any man--yet the one she can't resist is a mysterious lover with a shadowed past.

7
1
THE CAT WHO SANG FOR THE BIRDS
Lilian Jackson Braun
Cover of THE CAT WHO SANG FOR THE BIRDS

THE CAT WHO SANG FOR THE BIRDS

by Lilian Jackson Braun · Putnam

5 wks on list

Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese sleuths, Koko and Yum Yum, investigate the disappearance of a wealthy railroad buff in this mystery in the New York Times bestselling Cat Who series. Floyd Trevelyan’s historic steam locomotive, newly restored, is the newest attraction in Moose County. But the excitement is eclipsed by shock when Trevelyan disappears—along with millions of investors’ dollars. Puzzled and suspicious, Qwill’s trying to make a connection between the missing millionaire and a recent murder at a nearby railroad tavern. Now, with the help of his cats, Koko and Yum Yum, he’s about to prove that the police are on the wrong track.

11
3
FEAR NOTHING
Dean Koontz
Cover of FEAR NOTHING

FEAR NOTHING

by Dean Koontz · Bantam

8 wks on list

I have been one acquainted with the night. Christopher Snow is athletic, handsome enough, intelligent, romantic, funny. But his whole life has been affected by xeroderma pigmentosum, a rare genetic disorder that means his skin and eyes cannot be exposed to sunlight. Like all Xpers, Chris lives at night - and has never ventured beyond his hometown of Moonlight Bay, a place of picturesque beauty and haunting strangeness; he knows it as no one else can possibly know it, is intimate with its shadows and darkest hours. Despite the limitations imposed by nature, he has always been determined to lead the fullest life and, with the help of family and friends, he has on the whole succeeded. But for Chris - and all the inhabitants of Moonlight Bay - a terrible change is about to happen; a change of potentially catastrophic proportions.

13
1
THE WINNER
David Baldacci
Cover of THE WINNER

THE WINNER

by David Baldacci · Warner

14 wks on list

A rags-to-riches deal for single mother LuAnn Tyler is deadlier than she ever could have imagined in The Winner, David Baldacci's pulse-pounding third novel. A New York Times bestseller, it cemented Baldacci as a worldwide bestselling author of non-stop action fiction. With an exclusive new introduction from the author. 'Baldacci is the master' – Jeffrey Archer It's a deadly game . . . LuAnn Tyler is a single parent striving to escape a life of endless poverty. Then a mysterious Mr Jackson makes her an offer he thinks no one can refuse: a guarantee to be the winner of the $100 million lottery. But LuAnn won't do it. Less than twenty-four hours later, she is fighting for her life and running from a false murder charge. Jackson's offer – and its condition that she leave the country forever – seems her only hope. Ten years later, LuAnn secretly returns to the United States to begin a new life with Matthew Riggs, a man whose origins are as murky as her own. But a canny reporter has picked up her trail, as have the FBI – and Jackson. Matt Riggs is the only person who can help her. But is help what Matt intends or is he too closing in for the kill? Perfect for fans of the Atlee Pine and Travis Devine series, The Winner is a novel brimming with suspense-filled roller-coaster action from internationally bestselling author David Baldacci. KILLER TWISTS. HEROES TO BELIEVE IN. TRUST BALDACCI. 'One of the world's thriller masters' – Daily Mail 'Baldacci is still peerless' – Sunday Times 'One of the all-time best thriller authors' – Lisa Gardner, bestselling author of One Step Too Far 'Baldacci delivers, every time!' – Lisa Scottoline, bestselling author of What Happened to the Bennetts 'A master storyteller' – Associated Press 'Baldacci cuts everyone's grass – Grisham's, Ludlum's, even Patricia Cornwell's – and more than gets away with it' – People

14
NEW
THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS
Arundhati Roy
Cover of THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS

by Arundhati Roy · Random House

31 wks on list

The story of an Indian family during the 1969 Communist disturbances in Kerala province. It is told through the eyes of a boy and his sister who are the children of a rich rubber planter. Politics, family drama, illicit love. A debut in fiction.

15
NEW
MIRACLE CURE
Michael Palmer
Cover of MIRACLE CURE

MIRACLE CURE

by Michael Palmer · Bantam

An agonizing sports injury did more than end Brian Holbrook's professional football dreams. It left the skilled cardiologist with an addiction to prescription painkillers that eventually cost him his marriage and his license to practice medicine. But now, at thirty-eight, Brian's cleaned up his act, swallowed his pride, and is ready to start over. The prestigious Boston Heart Institute has offered Brian an opportunity to participate in trials of a new drug that could revolutionize medicine. Vasclear may have the power to reverse arteriosclerosis, the number one killer in the civilized world. The initial results are so dazzling Brian pushes to get his own father, who has a dangerous heart condition, into the scheme. But soon Brian is uneasy. Under close scrutiny because of his past, Brian cannot afford to make waves, but the mysterious disappearance of a colleague and deaths of patients on the scheme compels him to ask questions. However, with billions of dollars at stake, questions could cost him his career - and his father's life. For as Brian is beginning to suspect, knowing too much at the Boston Heart Institute is the quickest way to the morgue.

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