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Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of March 19, 2017

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LINCOLN IN THE BARDO
George Saunders
Cover of LINCOLN IN THE BARDO

LINCOLN IN THE BARDO

by George Saunders · Random House

3 wks on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE The “devastatingly moving” (People) first novel from the author of Tenth of December: a moving and original father-son story featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln, as well as an unforgettable cast of supporting characters, living and dead, historical and invented One of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years • One of Paste’s Best Novels of the Decade Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post, USA Today, and Maureen Corrigan, NPR • One of Time’s Ten Best Novels of the Year • A New York Times Notable Book • One of O: The Oprah Magazine’s Best Books of the Year February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy’s body. From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul. Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction’s ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end? “A luminous feat of generosity and humanism.”—Colson Whitehead, The New York Times Book Review “A masterpiece.”—Zadie Smith

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BANANA CREAM PIE MURDER
Joanne Fluke
Cover of BANANA CREAM PIE MURDER

BANANA CREAM PIE MURDER

by Joanne Fluke · Kensington

1 wks on list

It's been a sleepy summer for the folks of Lake Eden, Minnesota. In fact, it's been a whole four months since anyone in the Swensen family has come across a dead body—a detail that just made the front page of the local paper. And that means Hannah Swensen can finally focus on her bakery. . .or can she? Life is never really quiet for Hannah. After all, her mother's wedding is a little over a month away and guess who Delores put in charge of the planning? Yet just when Hannah believes her biggest challenge will be whether to use buttercream or fondant for the wedding cake, she accidentally hits a stranger with her cookie truck while driving down a winding country road in a raging thunderstorm. Hannah is wracked with guilt, and things get even worse when she's arrested. . .for murder! But an autopsy soon reveals the mystery man, his shirt covered in stains from blackberry pie, would have died even if Hannah hadn't hit him. Now, to clear her name, Hannah will have to follow a trail of pie crumbs to track down the identity of the deceased, find a baker who knows more about murder than how to roll out a perfect pie crust—and get herself to the church on time. . . Indulge In Joanne Fluke's Criminally Delicious Hannah Swensen Mysteries! Red Velvet Cupcake Murder "Culinary Cozies Don't Get Any Tastier Than This Winning series." —Library Journal "Loaded with mouthwatering recipes and clever plotting, the latest Hannah Swensen mystery delights." —RT Book Reviews "If your reading habits alternate between curling up with a good mystery or with a good cookbook, you ought to know about Joanne Fluke." —The Charlotte Observer Cinnamon Roll Murder "Fans of this wildly popular series will not be disappointed. Fluke has kept this series strong for a long time, and there is still plenty to enjoy for foodie crime fans." —Booklist Devil's Food Cake Murder "Fabulous." —Publishers Weekly Apple Turnover Murder "The ever popular Fluke writes engaging cozies with one part great characters, one part gentle story, and three parts the best recipes in the genre." —Library Journal Cream Puff Murder "Entertaining and sprinkled with tempting recipes. It's a sweet treat of a novel." —The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

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THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Colson Whitehead
Cover of THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

by Colson Whitehead · Doubleday

30 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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ECHOES IN DEATH
J. D. Robb
Cover of ECHOES IN DEATH

ECHOES IN DEATH

by J. D. Robb · St. Martin's

4 wks on list

Echoes in Death, the chilling new suspense novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author J.D. Robb is the perfect entry point into the compelling In Death police procedural series featuring Lieutenant Eve Dallas. As NY Lt. Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband Roarke are driving home, a young woman—dazed, naked, and bloody—suddenly stumbles out in front of their car. Roarke slams on the brakes and Eve springs into action. Daphne Strazza is rushed to the ER, but it’s too late for her husband Dr. Anthony Strazza. A brilliant orthopedic surgeon, he now lies dead amid the wreckage of his obsessively organized town house, his three safes opened and emptied. Daphne would be a valuable witness, but in her terror and shock the only description of the perp she can offer is repeatedly calling him “the devil”... While it emerges that Dr. Strazza was cold, controlling, and widely disliked, this is one case where the evidence doesn’t point to the spouse. So Eve and her team must get started on the legwork, interviewing everyone from dinner-party guests to professional colleagues to caterers, in a desperate race to answer some crucial questions: What does the devil look like? And where will he show up next?

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HEARTBREAK HOTEL
Jonathan Kellerman
Cover of HEARTBREAK HOTEL

HEARTBREAK HOTEL

by Jonathan Kellerman · Ballantine

3 wks on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Alex Delaware and LAPD detective Milo Sturgis investigate the death of Alex’s most mysterious patient to date in the sensational new thriller from the master of suspense, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman. At nearly one hundred years old, Thalia Mars is a far cry from the patients that child psychologist Alex Delaware normally treats. But the charming, witty woman convinces Alex to meet with her in a suite at the Aventura, a luxury hotel with a checkered history. What Thalia wants from Alex are answers to unsettling questions—about guilt, patterns of criminal behavior, victim selection. When Alex asks the reason for her morbid fascination, Thalia promises to tell all during their next session. But when he shows up the following morning, he is met with silence: Thalia is dead in her room. When questions arise about how Thalia perished, Alex and homicide detective Milo Sturgis must peel back the layers of a fascinating but elusive woman’s life and embark on one of the most baffling investigations either of them has ever experienced. For Thalia Mars is a victim like no other, an enigma who harbored nearly a century of secrets and whose life and death draw those around her into a vortex of violence. Heartbreak Hotel is classic Delaware and classic Kellerman. Praise for Heartbreak Hotel “Easy to dive into for mystery fans unfamiliar with the series, and a welcome treat for readers who have been with Officer Sturgis and Dr. Delaware since the beginning.”—Booklist Praise for Jonathan Kellerman “Jonathan Kellerman’s psychology skills and dark imagination are a potent literary mix.”—Los Angeles Times “Kellerman doesn’t just write psychological thrillers—he owns the genre.”—Detroit Free Press “A master of the psychological thriller.”—People

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HUMANS, BOW DOWN
James Patterson and Emily Raymond with Jill Dembowski
Cover of HUMANS, BOW DOWN

HUMANS, BOW DOWN

by James Patterson and Emily Raymond with Jill Dembowski · Little, Brown

2 wks on list

In a world run by machines, humans are an endangered species. The Great War is over. The robots have won. The humans who survived have two choices: they can submit and serve the vicious rulers they created, or be banished to the Reserve – a desolate and hopeless slum camp. Now, following the orders of their soulless leader, the robots are planning to finish what the Great War started and conquer humanity's last refuge. Six, whose family was killed with the first shots of the war, is a young woman with nothing left to lose. Escaping the Reserve with her friend Dubs, Six knows she must find a way to stop the robots, before they wipe humans off the face of the earth.

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A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW
Amor Towles
Cover of A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW

A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW

by Amor Towles · Viking Press

16 wks on list

Selected as a BOOK OF THE YEAR in THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES AND IRISH TIMES More than half a million readers have fallen in love with the New York Times bestseller A Gentleman in Moscow ‘This novel is astonishing, uplifting and wise. Don’t miss it’ Chris Cleave ‘No historical novel this year was more witty, insightful or original than Amor Towles’s A Gentleman in Moscow’ Sunday Times, Books of the Year ‘Charming ... shows that not all books about Russian aristocrats have to be full of doom and nihilism’ The Times, Books of the Year On 21 June 1922, Count Alexander Rostov – recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt – is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. But instead of his usual suite, he must now live in an attic room while Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval. Can a life without luxury be the richest of all?

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THE WHISTLER
John Grisham
Cover of THE WHISTLER

THE WHISTLER

by John Grisham · Doubleday

19 wks 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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AFTERMATH:: EMPIRE'S END
Chuck Wendig
Cover of AFTERMATH:: EMPIRE'S END

AFTERMATH:: EMPIRE'S END

by Chuck Wendig · Del Rey

2 wks on list

Following Star Wars: Aftermath and Star Wars: Life Debt, Chuck Wendig delivers the exhilarating conclusion to the bestselling trilogy set in the years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. As the final showdown between the New Republic and the Empire draws near, all eyes turn to a once-isolated planet: Jakku. The Battle of Endor shattered the Empire, scattering its remaining forces across the galaxy. But the months following the Rebellion's victory have not been easy. The fledgling New Republic has suffered a devastating attack from the Imperial remnant, forcing the new democracy to escalate their hunt for the hidden enemy. For her role in the deadly ambush, Grand Admiral Rae Sloane is the most wanted Imperial war criminal-and one-time rebel pilot Norra Wexley, back in service at Leia's urgent request, is leading the hunt. But more than just loyalty to the New Republic drives Norra forward: her husband was turned into a murderous pawn in Sloane's assassination plot, and now she wants vengeance as much as justice. But Sloane, too, is on a furious quest: pursuing the treacherous Gallius Rax to the barren planet Jakku. As the true mastermind behind the Empire's devastating attack, Rax has led the Empire to its defining moment. The cunning strategist has gathered the powerful remnants of the Empire's war machine, preparing to execute the late Emperor Palpatine's final plan. As the Imperial fleet orbits Jakku, an armada of Republic fighters closes in to finish what began at Endor. Norra and her crew soar into the heart of an apocalyptic clash that will leave land and sky alike scorched. And the future of the galaxy will finally be decided.

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BONE BOX
Faye Kellerman
Cover of BONE BOX

BONE BOX

by Faye Kellerman · Morrow

1 wks on list

The twenty-fourth book in the hugely popular Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series from New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman

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SMALL GREAT THINGS
Jodi Picoult
Cover of SMALL GREAT THINGS

SMALL GREAT THINGS

by Jodi Picoult · Ballantine

21 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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NEVER NEVER
James Patterson and Candice Fox
Cover of NEVER NEVER

NEVER NEVER

by James Patterson and Candice Fox · Little, Brown

7 wks on list

Never... assume you know someone. Harry Blue is the top Sex Crimes investigator in her department. She's a seasoned pro who's seen it all. But even she didn't see this coming: her own brother arrested for the grisly murders of three beautiful young women. Never... accept a reassignment to the middle of nowhere "for your own good." Harry's been sent to a makeshift town in a desolate landscape-a world full of easy money, plenty of illegal ways to spend it, and a ragtag collection of transient characters who thrive on the fringes of society. A place where little grows, but evil flourishes. Never... trust anyone. Looking into a seemingly simple missing persons case, Harry's been assigned to a new "partner." But is he actually meant to be a watchdog? Still reeling from the accusations against her brother, Harry can't even trust her own instincts, which she's never doubted...until now. Never... go anywhere without leaving a trace. Far from the world she knows and desperate to clear her brother's name, Harry has to mine the dark secrets of her strange new home for answers to a deepening mystery-before she vanishes in a place where no one would ever think to look for her. Never Never is an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride with enough intrigue and suspense to keep you guessing until the final page. You'll never be able to put it down.

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THE GIRL BEFORE
J. P. Delaney
Cover of THE GIRL BEFORE

THE GIRL BEFORE

by J. P. Delaney · Ballantine

THE GLOBAL BESTSELLER • Soon to be a BBC One and HBO Max limited four-part series, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Morning Show; Misbehaviour) and multiple Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Emmy-nominated actor David Oyelowo (Selma; Les Misérables) “A pitch-perfect novel of psychological suspense” (Lee Child) that spins one woman’s seemingly good fortune, and another woman’s mysterious fate, through a kaleidoscope of duplicity, death, and deception Please make a list of every possession you consider essential to your life. The request seems odd, even intrusive—and for the two women who answer, the consequences are devastating. EMMA Reeling from a traumatic break-in, Emma wants a new place to live. But none of the apartments she sees are affordable or feel safe. Until One Folgate Street. The house is an architectural masterpiece: a minimalist design of pale stone, plate glass, and soaring ceilings. But there are rules. The enigmatic architect who designed the house retains full control: no books, no throw pillows, no photos or clutter or personal effects of any kind. The space is intended to transform its occupant—and it does. JANE After a personal tragedy, Jane needs a fresh start. When she finds One Folgate Street she is instantly drawn to the space—and to its aloof but seductive creator. Moving in, Jane soon learns about the untimely death of the home’s previous tenant, a woman similar to Jane in age and appearance. As Jane tries to untangle truth from lies, she unwittingly follows the same patterns, makes the same choices, crosses paths with the same people, and experiences the same terror, as the girl before. Praise for The Girl Before “Dazzling, startling, and above all cunning—a pitch-perfect novel of psychological suspense.”—Lee Child “The Girl Before generates a fast pace. . . . [J. P.] Delaney intersperses ethics questions on stand-alone pages throughout the book. . . . The single most ingenious touch is that we’re not provided either woman’s answers.”—The New York Times “J. P. Delaney builds the suspense.”—Vanity Fair “Immediate guarantee: You will not be able to put this book down. . . . Fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train will realize that there’s not only more where that came from, but it’s also more thrilling.”—American Booksellers Association

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