A list of the top 15 mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending January 09, 2009 has been posted on the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books website.
While it isn't surprising that James Patterson's latest Alex Cross thriller, Cross Country, and Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell retain the top two positions this week (though to be fair, the difference in their scores is statistically insignificant), it is surprising that a book published last May is not only still on the list but has moved into fifth position. This wonder book: From Dead to Worse, the 8th Southern Vampire mystery with Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris.
Also unsurprising is the debut of Janet Evanovich's third between-the-numbers Stephanie Plum mystery, Plum Spooky, on the list this week. Or maybe it's the fourth. We're not sure if the Christmas Plum mystery counts as a "between-the-numbers" entry or not. And to confuse things further, the publisher is calling Plum Spooky the first full length between-the-numbers mystery! Regardless, there's no number in the title. Turn on all the lights and check under your bed. Things are about to get spooky in Trenton, New Jersey. According to legend, the Jersey Devil prowls the Pine Barrens and soars above the treetops in the dark of night. As eerie as this might seem, there are things in the Barrens that are even more frightening and dangerous. And there are monkeys. Lots of monkeys. Wulf Grimoire is a world wanderer and an opportunist who can kill without remorse and disappear like smoke. He’s chosen Martin Munch, boy genius, as his new business partner, and he’s chosen the Barrens as his new playground. Munch received his doctorate degree in quantum physics when he was twenty-two. He’s now twenty-four, and while his brain is large, his body hasn’t made it out of the boys’ department at Macy’s. Anyone who says good things come in small packages hasn’t met Munch. Wulf Grimoire is looking for world domination. Martin Munch would be happy if he could just get a woman naked and tied to a tree. Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has Munch on her most-wanted list for failure to appear in court. Plum is the all-American girl stuck in an uncomfortable job, succeeding on luck and tenacity. Usually she gets her man. This time she gets a monkey. She also gets a big guy named Diesel. Diesel pops in and out of Plum’s life like birthday cake -- delicious to look at and taste, not especially healthy as a steady diet, gone by the end of the week if not sooner. He’s an über bounty hunter with special skills when it comes to tracking men and pleasing women. He’s after Grimoire, and now he’s also after Munch. And if truth were told, he wouldn’t mind setting Stephanie Plum in his crosshairs. Diesel and Plum hunt down Munch and Grimoire, following them into the Barrens, surviving cranberry bogs, the Jersey Devil, a hair-raising experience, sand in their underwear, and, of course ... monkeys.
Coming in at number 13 this week is Dead or Alive, the 12th mystery in the Kevin Kerney series by Michael McGarrity. Living in London while his wife serves as a military attaché at the American Embassy, recently retired Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney gets an early morning phone call that changes everything and sends him hurrying home to his New Mexico ranch. Riley Burke, his partner in a horsetraining enterprise, has been mowed down on Kerney's doorstep by an escaped prisoner cutting a murderous swath through New Mexico. As the killings mount, Kerney teams up with his half-Apache son, Lieutenant Clayton Istee of the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department, to hunt for a psychotic murderer with a growing appetite for blood, who has no intention to be taken alive. Publishers Weekly say that Dead or Alive "displays the author's usual fine sense of place" and that "series fans will relish the deepening relationship of Kerney and Istee, who only recently learned they were father and son."
Finally, new this week is Bone by Bone, a stand-alone thriller by the author of the Kathleen Mallory mysteries, Carol O'Connell. In the northern California town of Coventry, two teenage brothers go into the woods one day, but only one comes back. No one knows what happened to the younger brother, Josh, until twenty years later, when the older brother, Oren, now an ex-investigator for the Army CID, returns to Coventry for the first time in many years. His first morning back, he hears a thump on the front porch. Lying in front of the door is a human jawbone, the teeth still intact. And it is not the first such object, his father tells him. Other remains have been left there as well. Josh is coming home ... bone by bone. Using all his investigative skills, Oren sets out to solve the mystery of his brother's murder, but Coventry is a town full of secrets and secret-keepers: the housekeeper with the fugitive past, the deputy with the old grudge, the reclusive ex-cop from L.A., the woman with the title of town monster, and, not least of all, Oren himself. But the greatest secret of all belonged to his brother, and it is only by unraveling itthat Oren can begin to discover the truth that has haunted them all for twenty years. (MBN note: See our related post on a conversation with Carol O'Connell on Minnesota Public Radio.)
On our bestseller page, we've added an icon 
next to every title that is available for immediate download onto the Amazon Kindle. To learn about this wireless reading device, visit the Amazon Kindle page for more information.
The top four mystery bestsellers this week are shown below:
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