Back in the fall of 1993, an Ace paperback appeared entitled Guilty Pleasures—Laurell K. Hamilton's first in her Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. Readers really sank their teeth into these fiendish tales, and the result was that last year's ninth title, Obsidian Butterfly, became the first to be published in hardcover. Now book #10, Narcissus in Chains, published by Berkley on October 9, debuts on PW's list with 96,000 copies after three trips to press. (It's also Berkley's first New York Times hardcover bestseller.) Hamilton's 12-city tour got off to a rousing start in her home town of St. Louis, where a Barnes & Noble sold more than 600 books in one day. And that's not all—according to Berkley, some of the author's fans have driven up to eight hours to attend her events.
With reporting by Dick Donahue.
