Secrets, Enemies, and Spies
Big new releases from the world of mysteries and thrillers top our list of the bestselling books in the country.
#1 Secrets in Death by J.D. Robb, her 45th Eve Dallas novel set in a near-future N.Y.C. Our review said, “Robb continues to impress with her ability to make the same murder mystery formula fresh.”
#2 Enemy of the State by Kyle Mills, which our review called his “exciting third contribution to the late Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series,” saying it “reinvigorates the well-worn Middle East conspiracy thriller plot.”
#3 A Legacy of Spies by John le Carré, the first appearance of le Carré’s famed George Smiley character since 1991’s The Secret Pilgrim. Our starred review says le Carré “can convey a character in a sentence, land an emotional insight in the smallest phrase—and demolish an ideology in a paragraph.”
(See all of this week's bestselling books.)
Going for Gold
A pair of much-lauded literary novelists debut on our Hardcover Fiction list. At #21, Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward is an “astonishing novel” about three generations of a struggling Mississippi family, our starred review said, praising Ward’s “brilliant writing and compassionate eye.” The author won the 2011 National Book Award for Salvage the Bones; on September 15, the National Book Foundation announced that her new novel had been longlisted for the NBA.
Two notches up, at #19, The Golden House by Salman Rushdie is “a distinctively rich epic of the immigrant experience in modern America,” our starred review said, “where no amount of money or self-abnegation can truly free a family from the sins of the past.”
Fantasy and Reality
Fantasyland by Spy cofounder and public radio host Kurt Andersen (Studio 360) debuts at #5 in Hardcover Nonfiction. He writes in the introduction that “America was created by true believers and passionate dreamers, by hucksters and their suckers”—and that this legacy led us to our current political moment. First week print unit sales eclipse those for his recent books: 2009’s Reset, an analysis of the financial crisis, and 2012’s True Believers, a novel about 1960s antiwar activists then and in the present day.
New & Notable
Tower of Dawn
Sarah J. Maas
#2 Children’s Frontlist Fiction, #9 overall
The latest volume in Maas’s Throne of Glass YA high-fantasy series joins five novels and one prequel collection; together, the books have sold more than a million print copies.
The Western Star
Craig Johnson
#7 Hardcover Fiction
We starred this 13th Walt Longmire mystery, calling it a “cleverly plotted” homage to Agatha Christie. Netflix announced in November that it will air the sixth and final season of the Longmire TV series this year.
Picturing Prince
Steve Parke
#21 Hardcover Nonfction
The musician’s former creative director shares anecdotes and numerous photos, 16 pages of which are being published for the first time.
Top 10 Overall
| Rank | Title | Author | Imprint | Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Secrets in Death | J.D. Robb | St. Martin’s | 29,085 |
| 2 | Enemy of the State | Kyle Mills | Atria/Bestler | 27,447 |
| 3 | A Legacy of Spies | John le Carré | Viking | 27,311 |
| 4 | Wonder | R.J. Palacio | Knopf | 24,014 |
| 5 | A Tale of Two Kitties (Dog Man #3) | Dav Pilkey | Graphix | 20,679 |
| 6 | Turbo Twenty-Three | Janet Evanovich | Bantam | 17,245 |
| 7 | It | Stephen King | Scribner | 16,225 |
| 8 | The Woman in Cabin 10 | Ruth Ware | Scout | 16,104 |
| 9 | Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass) | Sarah J. Maas | Bloomsbury | 15,981 |
| 10 | Milk and Honey | Rupi Kaur | Andrews McMeel | 15,807 |
All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.
