Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series hits paydirt with book #11, Cerulean Sins, which lands a very close second to Roberts's Birthright. Berkley Hardcover reports large crowds and strong sales at every stop along the author's current 16-city junket. First printing for the book was 100,000 copies, and after just a week in the stores, the publisher went back to press three times; that figure's now up to 133,000.

With reporting by Dick Donahue