Also making its second appearance on PW's charts is The Blue Last, Martha Grimes's 17th mystery to star Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury. Grimes, whose previous Jury title, The Lamorna Wink, spent a total of three weeks on our lists in its hardcover and paperback editions, is in the midst of a nine-city tour; like Gopnik, her appearances set for the week of September 10 have been rescheduled. Viking, which published The Blue Last on September 10 (copies in print: 71,000), ran a national print ad campaign throughout September. One heartening note in conjunction with the terrorist attack: Viking publicity director Carolyn Coleburn, who was one of the many displaced residents living near the World Trade Center, was offered a Manhattan apartment until she could move back into her home. The person who made the generous gesture? Martha Grimes.
With reporting by Dick Donahue