TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of July 8, 2001

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
NEW
SEVEN UP
Janet Evanovich
Cover of SEVEN UP

SEVEN UP

by Janet Evanovich · St. Martin's

1 wks at #1 · 1 on list
4
1
A PAINTED HOUSE
John Grisham
Cover of A PAINTED HOUSE

A PAINTED HOUSE

by John Grisham · Doubleday

20 wks on list

Racial tension, a forbidden love affair, and murder are seen through the eyes of a seven-year-old boy in a 1950s southern cotton-farming community.

5
NEW
CANE RIVER
Lalita Tademy

CANE RIVER

by Lalita Tademy · Warner

1 wks on list
8
3
BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS
Anne Tyler
Cover of BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS

BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS

by Anne Tyler · Knopf

8 wks on list

"Rebecca Davitch is a fifty-three-year-old grandmother. On the surface, Beck, as she is known to the Davitch clan, is outgoing, joyous, a natural celebrator. Giving parties, is after all, her vocation, something she slipped into even before finishing college, when Joe Davitch spotted her at an engagement party in his family's crumbling nineteenth-century Baltimore row house, where giving parties was the family business. Now, some thirty years later, after presiding over a disastrous family picnic, Rebecca is caught unawares by the question of who she really is."--Jacket.

9
1
FINAL TARGET
Iris Johansen
Cover of FINAL TARGET

FINAL TARGET

by Iris Johansen · Bantam

4 wks on list

The President’s daughter... The women determined to save her... The man with the power to betray a nation... Melissa Riley arrives at her sister’s isolated Virginia country home to find herself plunged into a deadly drama. There the renowned Dr. Jessica Riley is attempting to draw the daughter of the President of the United States out of a severe catatonic trauma. The last thing young Cassie Andreas saw was an organized team ruthlessly murder her nanny and the Secret Service agents sworn to protect her. But to free Cassie, Melissa and Jessica must trust a mysterious, charismatic man. Michael Travis made his fortune in the international underworld. He risked everything to save Cassie during that terrible night of bloodshed. And he has entered into a secret bargain with the President. But is his show of concern all a treacherous charade? Melissa and Jessica have no choice but to accept Travis as their ally—and to follow a dangerous plan that will lead them into the world of a killer who’ll destroy anyone standing between him and the...Final Target.

10
NEW
AMERICAN GODS
Neil Gaiman
Cover of AMERICAN GODS

AMERICAN GODS

by Neil Gaiman · Morrow

1 wks on list

AN ACCLAIMED, EMMY-NOMINATED TV SERIES ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO WINNER OF THE HUGO, LOCUS AND BRAM STOKER AWARDS 'To give him his full title: Neil Gaiman, Architect of Worlds, Svengali of Plot, Shaman of Character, Exploder of Cliché, Master Craftsman of Style, Dreamer Laureate of the Republic of Letters' DAVID MITCHELL 'Original, engrossing, and endlessly inventive' GEORGE R.R. MARTIN 'Brilliant and unique' GUARDIAN --- 'This is about the soul of America, the idea that everyone came here from somewhere' NEIL GAIMAN --- After three years in prison, Shadow Moon is free to go home. But hours before his release, his beloved wife is killed in a freak accident. Numbly, he boards a plane where he meets an enigmatic stranger who seems to know Shadow and claims to be an ancient god - and king of America. Together they embark on a profoundly strange road trip across the USA, encountering a kaleidoscopic cast of characters along the way. But all around them a storm of unnatural proportions is gathering. War is coming, an epic struggle for the very soul of America. And Shadow is standing squarely in its path. NEIL GAIMAN. WITH STORIES COME POSSIBILITIES.

11
4
BITTERROOT
James Lee Burke
Cover of BITTERROOT

BITTERROOT

by James Lee Burke · Simon & Schuster

2 wks on list

Following his acclaimed bestseller Purple Cane Road, James Lee Burke returns with this gripping tale of justice and danger as Billy Bob Holland battles his tormented past and a vengeful foe. Set in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, home to celebrities seeking to escape the pressures of public life, as well as to xenophobes dedicated to establishing a bulkhead of patriotic paranoia, Burke’s novel features Billy Bob Holland, former Texas Ranger and now a Texas-based lawyer, who has come to Big Sky Country for some fishing and ends up helping out an old friend in trouble. And big trouble it is, not just for his friend but for Billy Bob himself—in the form of Wyatt Dixon, a recent prison parolee sworn to kill Billy Bob as revenge for both his imprisonment and his sister's death, both of which he blames on the former Texas lawman. As the mysteries multiply and the body count mounts, the reader is drawn deeper into the tortured mind of Billy Bob Holland, a complex hero tormented by the mistakes of his past and driven to make things—all things—right. But beneath the guise of justice for the weak and downtrodden lies a tendency for violence that at times becomes more terrifying than the danger he is trying to eradicate. As USA TODAY noted in discussing the parallels between Billy Bob Holland and Burke’s other popular series hero, David Robicheaux, “Robicheaux and Holland are two of a kind, white-hat heroes whose essential goodness doesn’t keep them from fighting back. The two series describe different landscapes, but one theme remains constant: the inner conflict when upright men are provoked into violence in defense of hearth, home, women, and children. There are plenty of parallels. Billy Bob is an ex-Texas Ranger; Dave is an ex-New Orleans cop. Dave battles alcoholism and the ghosts of Vietnam; Billy Bob actually sees ghosts, including the Ranger he accidentally gunned down....But most of all, both protagonists hold a vision of a pure and simple life.” In Bitterroot, with its rugged and vivid setting, its intricate plot, and a set of remarkable, unforgettable characters, and crafted with the lyrical prose and the elegiac tone that have inspired many critics to compare him to William Faulkner, James Lee Burke has written a thriller destined to surpass the success of his previous novels.

13
9
CHOSEN PREY
John Sandford
Cover of CHOSEN PREY

CHOSEN PREY

by John Sandford · Putnam

7 wks on list

Hoping to use a supposedly straightforward case of murder to clear his mind, Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport finds himself matching wits with an ever-escalating serial killer, art history professor, congenial pervert, and sexual predator James Qatar.

14
5
MOVING TARGET
Elizabeth Lowell
Cover of MOVING TARGET

MOVING TARGET

by Elizabeth Lowell · Morrow

2 wks on list

The troubling message from Serena Charters's late grandmother appears in a package containing four pages of a centuries-old illuminated manuscript -- a strange inheritance that hides many secrets...and has already cost many lives. Seeking answers, Serena turns to Erik North of Rarities Unlimited, a reclusive manuscript appraiser with a passion for the past. Without warning, they are thrust together into the center of a lethal firestorm that rages between two worlds -- one long dead, yet living on in an ancient text, the other chillingly alive and fraught with peril. In the blink of an eye, Serena and Erik have become targets of an unseen and determined stalker as they get closer to shocking revelations about Serena's legacy, the cold murder of an eccentric old woman in the heat of the Mojave Desert...and just how far a remorseless killer is willing to go. And now their only slim hope of survival is to keep moving.

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