TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of March 29, 1998

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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 · 6 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

10 wks on list
3
NEW
PANDORA
Anne Rice
Cover of PANDORA

PANDORA

by Anne Rice · Knopf

1 wks on list

Anne Rice iniciaba con Pandora la serie «Nuevas Historias de Vampiros», integrada por la presente novela y por Vittorio el vampiro, recuperando así el universo y algunos de los personajes de sus míticas «Crónicas Vampíricas». En este primer volumen de las «Nuevas Historias de Vampiros», el vampiro novel David Talbot invita a Pandora, su igual, a rememorara sus casi dos mil años de existencia. « No han pasado veinte minutos desde que me dejaste aquí, en el café, desde que respondí "no" a tu petición; jamás escribiría para ti la historia de mi vida mortal, jamás te contaría cómo me había convertido en un vampiro, cómo había conocido a Marius pocos años después de que él hubiera perdido su vida mortal. Ahora estoy aquí con tu libreta ante mí, utilizando una de las plumas afiladas y eternamente cargadas de tinta que me dejaste, deleitándome con la sensual sensación que me produce contemplar cómo la tinta negra se fija sobre el costoso papel inmaculadamente blanco. »

4
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COLD MOUNTAIN
Charles Frazier
Cover of COLD MOUNTAIN

COLD MOUNTAIN

by Charles Frazier · Atlantic Monthly Press

38 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?

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MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
Arthur Golden
7
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BLACK AND BLUE
Anna Quindlen
Cover of BLACK AND BLUE

BLACK AND BLUE

by Anna Quindlen · Random House

7 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

8
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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.

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MIRACLE CURE
Michael Palmer
Cover of MIRACLE CURE

MIRACLE CURE

by Michael Palmer · Bantam

2 wks on list

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.

11
NEW
SUDDEN MISCHIEF
Robert B. Parker
Cover of SUDDEN MISCHIEF

SUDDEN MISCHIEF

by Robert B. Parker · Putnam

1 wks on list

Susan Silverman's ex isn't your average ex... he's someone much more suspicious Susan's ex doesn't call himself "Silverman" anymore—he's changed his name to "Sterling." And that's not the only thing that's phony about him. A do-gooding charity fundraiser, he's been accused of sexual harassment by no less than four different women. And not long after Spenser starts investigating, Sterling is wanted for a bigger charge: murder...

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FEAR NOTHING
Dean Koontz
Cover of FEAR NOTHING

FEAR NOTHING

by Dean Koontz · Bantam

9 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.

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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

6 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.

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