TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of May 31, 2015

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THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
Paula Hawkins
Cover of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

by Paula Hawkins · Riverhead

19 wks at #1 · 18 on list

THE RUNAWAY GLOBAL BESTSELLER 'Gripping, enthralling - a top-notch thriller and a compulsive read.' SJ Watson, bestselling author of BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She's even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. 'Jess and Jason', she calls them. Their life - as she sees it - is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And then she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but it's enough. Now everything's changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she's only watched from afar. Now they'll see; she's much more than just the girl on the train... ***PAULA HAWKINS' NEW ADDICTIVE THRILLER, THE BLUE HOUR IS AVAILABLE NOW***

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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

2 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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14TH DEADLY SIN
James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Cover of 14TH DEADLY SIN

14TH DEADLY SIN

by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro · Little, Brown

'Smart characters, shocking twists' Lisa Gardner 'I couldn't turn the pages quick enough' Heidi Perks 'Terrific, high-octane, really pacy' Jo Spain 'A compelling read with great set pieces and, most of all, that charismatic cast of characters' Sun ______________ The Sunday Times bestseller A new terror is sweeping the streets of San Francisco. And the killers look a lot like cops... As Detective Lindsay Boxer investigates whether the perpetrators are brilliant impostors or police officers gone rogue, she receives a chilling warning to back off. On the other side of the city, an innocent woman is murdered in broad daylight in front of dozens of witnesses. But there are no clues and no apparent motive. With killers in disguise, a maniac murderer on the loose, and danger getting ever closer to Lindsay's door, could this be one case too many for the Women's Murder Club? ______________ More praise for the Women's Murder Club 'Fast-moving, intricately plotted . . . Boxer steals the show as the tough cop with a good heart' Mirror 'I have never begun a Patterson book and been able to put it down' Larry King 'Patterson and Paetro at their best.... A series that shows no signs of fatigue or flagging' BookReporter.com

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MEMORY MAN
David Baldacci
Cover of MEMORY MAN

MEMORY MAN

by David Baldacci · Grand Central

4 wks on list

With over 110 million copies of his novels in print, David Baldacci is one of the most widely read storytellers in the world. Now he introduces a startling, original new character: a man with perfect memory who must solve his own family's murder. MEMORY MAN Amos Decker's life changed forever--twice. The first time was on the gridiron. A big, towering athlete, he was the only person from his hometown of Burlington ever to go pro. But his career ended before it had a chance to begin. On his very first play, a violent helmet-to-helmet collision knocked him off the field for good, and left him with an improbable side effect--he can never forget anything. The second time was at home nearly two decades later. Now a police detective, Decker returned from a stakeout one evening and entered a nightmare--his wife, young daughter, and brother-in-law had been murdered.His family destroyed, their killer's identity as mysterious as the motive behind the crime, and unable to forget a single detail from that horrible night, Decker finds his world collapsing around him. He leaves the police force, loses his home, and winds up on the street, taking piecemeal jobs as a private investigator when he can. But over a year later, a man turns himself in to the police and confesses to the murders. At the same time a horrific event nearly brings Burlington to its knees, and Decker is called back in to help with this investigation. Decker also seizes his chance to learn what really happened to his family that night. To uncover the stunning truth, he must use his remarkable gifts and confront the burdens that go along with them. He must endure the memories he would much rather forget. And he may have to make the ultimate sacrifice. MEMORY MAN will stay with you long after the turn of the final page.

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DRY BONES
Craig Johnson
Cover of DRY BONES

DRY BONES

by Craig Johnson · Viking Press

1 wks on list

Wyoming's beloved lawman must solve his coldest case yet when a T. rex skeleton surfaces?along with a dead rancher?in Absaroka County Longmire, the TV adaptation of Craig Johnson's New York Times bestselling Longmire Mystery series, has ratcheted up demand for the Wyoming sheriff's written adventures. Dry Bones is certain to join Johnson's most recent Longmire novels when it shoots onto the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. When the largest, most complete fossil of a Tyrannosaurus rex ever found is discovered in Absaroka County, it appears to have nothing to do with Walt?that is, until the Cheyenne rancher who claims her is found face down in a turtle pond. As a number of parties dispute the ownership of the priceless remains, including the family of dead rancher Danny Lone Elk, the Cheyenne tribe, Wyoming's Deputy Attorney General, and a cadre of FBI men, Walt must recruit undersheriff Victoria Moretti, Henry Standing Bear, and Dog to investigate a sixty-six-million year-old cold case that's heating up fast.

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GATHERING PREY
John Sandford
Cover of GATHERING PREY

GATHERING PREY

by John Sandford · Putnam

3 wks on list

A Lucas Davenport thriller by internationally bestselling novelist John Sandford They call them Travelers. They move from city to city, panhandling, committing no crimes - they just like to stay on the move. And now somebody is killing them. Lucas Davenport's adopted daughter, Letty, is home from college when she gets a phone call from a woman Traveler she'd befriended in San Francisco. The woman thinks somebody's killing her friends, she's afraid she knows who it is, and now her male companion has gone missing. She's hiding out in North Dakota, and she doesn't know what to do. Letty tells Lucas she's going to get her, and, though he suspects Letty's getting played, he volunteers to go with her. When he hears the woman's story, though, he begins to think there's something in it. Little does he know. In the days to come, he will embark upon an odyssey through a subculture unlike any he has ever seen, a trip that will not only put the two of them in danger-but just may change the course of his life. ***READERS LOVE THE PREY SERIES*** 'John Sandford knows all there is to know about detonating the gut-level shocks of a good thriller' The New York Times Book Review ​ 'The best Lucas Davenport story so far. The man has a fine touch for outlaws' Stephen King on Golden Prey 'Sandford’s trademark blend of rough humor and deadly action keeps the pages turning until the smile-inducing wrap-up, which reveals the fates of a number of his quirky, memorable characters' Publishers Weekly on Golden Prey 'It appears there is no limit to John Sandford’s ability to keep new breath and blood flowing into his Lucas Davenport series. This is a series you must be reading if you are not already' Bookreporter.com 'Sandford has always been at the top of any list of great mystery writers. His writing and the appeal of his lead character are as fresh as ever' The Huffington Post 'Sandford is consistently brilliant' Cleveland Plain Dealer

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A GOD IN RUINS
Kate Atkinson
Cover of A GOD IN RUINS

A GOD IN RUINS

by Kate Atkinson · Little, Brown

2 wks on list

WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA NOVEL AWARD AND BESTSELLING LITERARY PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 'Atkinson's finest work, and confirmation that her genre-defying writing continues to surprise and dazzle' Observer A God in Ruins relates the life of Teddy Todd – would-be poet, heroic World War II bomber pilot, husband, father, and grandfather – as he navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have. This gripping, often deliriously funny yet emotionally devastating book looks at war – that great fall of Man from grace – and the effect it has, not only on those who live through it, but on the lives of the subsequent generations. It is also about the infinite magic of fiction. Few will dispute that it proves once again that Kate Atkinson is one of the most exceptional novelists of our age. 'A dazzling read...ends on one of the most devastating twists in recent fiction' DAILY TELEGRAPH

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THE NIGHTINGALE
Kristin Hannah
Cover of THE NIGHTINGALE

THE NIGHTINGALE

by Kristin Hannah · St. Martin's

15 wks on list

The bestselling Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick 'One of the greatest storytellers of our time' – Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Soon to be a major motion picture, The Nightingale is a multi-million copy bestseller across the world. It is a heart-breakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the endurance of women. 'I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I’d like to be known' This story is about what it was like to be a woman during World War II when women’s stories were all too often forgotten or overlooked . . . Vianne and Isabelle Mauriac are two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals and passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path towards survival, love and freedom in war-torn France. Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime. ‘A rich, compelling novel of love, sacrifice and survival’ - Kate Morton ‘Movingly written and plotted with the heartless skill of a Greek tragedy, you’ll keep turning the pages until the last racking sob’ - Daily Mail ‘I loved The Nightingale . . . great characters, great plots, great emotions, who could ask for more in a novel?’ - Isabel Allende, bestselling author of The House of the Spirits ‘A gripping tale of family, love, grief and forgiveness’ - Sunday Express The Nightingale has sold more than 4 million copies globally, TIME, February 2021

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GOD HELP THE CHILD
Toni Morrison
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LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE
Jessica Knoll
Cover of LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE

LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE

by Jessica Knoll · Simon & Schuster

1 wks on list

"In a riveting debut novel that reads like Prep meets Gone Girl, a young woman is determined to create the perfect life--husband, home, and career--until a violent incident from her past threatens to unravel everything and expose her most shocking secret of all. Twenty-eight-year-old New Yorker Ani FaNelli seems to have it all: she's a rising star at The Women's Magazine, impossibly fit, perfectly groomed, and about to marry Luke Harrison, a handsome blueblood. But behind that veneer of perfection lies a vulnerability that Ani holds close and buries deep--a very violent and public trauma from her past that has left her constantly trying to reinvent herself. And only she knows how far she would go to keep her secrets safe. When a documentary producer invites Ani to tell her side of the chilling incident that took place when she was a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, she hopes it will be an opportunity for public vindication. Armed with the trappings of success--expensive clothes, high-powered byline, a massive engagement ring--she is determined to silence the whispers of suspicion and blame from her past, and prove once and for all how far she's come since Bradley. She'll even let them film her lavish wedding on Nantucket, the final step in her transformation. But perfection doesn't come without cost. As the wedding and filming converge, Ani's meticulously crafted facade begins to buckle and crack--until an explosive revelation offers her a final chance at redemption, even as it rocks her picture-perfect world. Equal parts glitz and darkness, and with a singular voice and twisting plot, Luckiest Girl Alive reads like Sex & the City--if Carrie Bradshaw had a closet full of skeletons instead of shoes. In Ani FaNelli, Jessica Knoll has created a complex and vulnerable heroine who you'll be rooting for to the very last page"--

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AT THE WATER'S EDGE
Sara Gruen
Cover of AT THE WATER'S EDGE

AT THE WATER'S EDGE

by Sara Gruen · Spiegel & Grau

7 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A daring story of adventure, friendship, and love in the shadow of WWII” (Harper’s Bazaar) from the renowned author of Ape House and Water for Elephants “Gripping, compelling . . . Gruen’s characters are vividly drawn and her scenes are perfectly paced.”—The Boston Globe In January 1945, when Madeline Hyde and her husband, Ellis, are cut off financially by his father, a retired army colonel who is ashamed of his son’s inability to serve, Ellis decides that the only way to regain his father’s favor is to succeed where the Colonel very publicly failed—by hunting down the famous Loch Ness monster. Leaving her sheltered world behind, Maddie reluctantly follows Ellis and his best friend, Hank, to a remote village in the Scottish Highlands. Gradually, the friendships Maddie forms with the townspeople open her up to a larger world than she knew existed. Maddie begins to see that nothing is as it first appears, and as she embraces a fuller sense of who she might be, she becomes aware not only of darker forces around her but of life’s surprising possibilities.

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THE LIAR
Nora Roberts
Cover of THE LIAR

THE LIAR

by Nora Roberts · Putnam

In a “sexy, suspenseful read,” #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts delivers “a slow-burning fuse of a plot that ultimately explodes in a nail-biting conclusion.”* Shelby Foxworth lost her husband. Then she lost her illusions… The man who took her from Tennessee to an exclusive Philadelphia suburb left her in crippling debt. He was an adulterer and a liar, and when Shelby tracks down his safe-deposit box, she finds multiple IDs. The man she loved wasn’t just dead. He never really existed. Shelby takes her three-year-old daughter and heads south to seek comfort in her hometown, where she meets someone new: Griff Lott, a successful contractor. But her husband had secrets she has yet to discover. Even in this small town, surrounded by loved ones, danger is closer than she knows—and threatens Griff, as well. And an attempted murder is only the beginning... *Booklist (starred review)

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