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The mass-market edition of Patricia Cornwell's 17th Kay Scarpetta thriller, The Scarpetta Factor (Sphere), was the bestselling book in the UK last week, selling 27,698 copies in just three days.
According to Nielsen BookScan data, £26.1m was spent on books during the seven days to 29th May, up 10.2% week on week and up 2.9% on the same week last year. It is the first time 2010's weekly book sales have been ahead of 2009 since the beginning of April.
Sales of the number one were helped by half-price book of the week spots at both Waterstone's and W H Smith, that plunged its average selling price to £4.21 (47% off its £7.99 r.r.p.). The mass-market edition of the previous instalment in the US author's series, simply titled Scarpetta, has sold 284,000 copies since its release a year ago.
Last week's number one, Kathy Reichs' 206 Bones (Arrow), falls two places to second position overall, while Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Quercus) climbs once place into second position week-on-week. Kathryn Stockett's The Help (Penguin) climbs three places into fourth position overall, helped by a spot in W H Smith's "£2.99 if you buy the Times" link-save promotion.
Journalist Jonathan Freedland joins the chart in eighth position with his fourth novel, The Chosen One (Harper), written under his pseudonym Sam Bourne, while Bill Bryson's "Short History of Private Life", At Home (Doubleday), débuts in 10th position and was the bestselling hardback non-fiction title of the week. Sales were helped by half-price spots at both Waterstone's and W H Smith. His A Short History of Nearly Everything (Doubleday) spent more than three months at the summit of the hardback non-fiction chart in 2003 on its way to selling 406,000 copies.
Joining the Official UK Top 50 in 28th position is Peter James' sixth Roy Grace thriller, Dead Like You (Macmillan). It débuts atop the Original Fiction Top 20 with a 7,583 three-day sale, becoming the Brighton-born novelist's first ever number one.
Carol McGiffin's memoir, Oh, Carol! (Hodder) débuts in third position in the Hardback Non-fiction Top 20, one place ahead of fellow "Loose Women" panellist Denise Welch's Pulling Myself Together (Sidgwick & Jackson). Both books sold more copies last week than another "Loose Women" panellist, Coleen Nolan, whose début novel, Envy (Pan), sold 2,604 copies last week. However, both McGiffin and Welch have some way to go to match the 141,000 sale Nolan's memoir, Upfront and Personal (Pan), has sold to date.
Jeremy Clarkson's Driven to Distraction (Penguin), which has been one of the bestselling ebooks at Apple's UK iBookstore since the iPad's release last week, débuts atop the paperback non-fiction charts this week, while Antony Beevor's D-Day (Penguin), a half-price book-of-the-week at Waterstone's, joins the Paperback Non-fiction Top 20 in fourth position.
In the children's sector, Stephenie Meyer's Eclipse (Atom) remains at the top of the charts while Bronagh Woods' 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Activity Book (Carlton) joins the Children's Top 20 as this week's highest new entry. It takes seventh position—one place ahead of Carloz Ruiz Zafón's Prince of Mist (Weidenfeld), which also débuts. The young adult horror novel by the writer who rose to fame with Shadow of the Wind (Phoenix) was first published in Spain in 1993.