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Gerritsen top as Jamie's reign ends

11.01.11 | Philip Stone

American thriller writer Tess Gerritsen has brought an end to Jamie Oliver's dominance at the summit of the Official UK Top 50.

The mass-market edition of Gerritsen's eighth Rizzoli/Isles thriller, The Killing Place (Bantam), sold 21,744 copies in just three days bringing an end to Oliver's 13-week stint at the top of the charts. Jamie's 30-minute Meals (Michael Joseph), life sales of which now stand at 1.2m copies, falls one place to second position overall, while mother/daughter duo P C and Kristin Cast's eighth House of Night vampire thriller, Awakened (Atom), débuts in third place.

Both the Richard and Judy and Channel Four book clubs battled it out for the customer pound last week, with the former's WHSmith-exclusive one enjoying stronger sales, according to Nielsen BookScan data. Thanks in part to a tempting "buy one get one free" offer at W H Smith, sales of the eight R&J selections totalled 63,900 copies last week, the majority of these sales coming in just three days. Comparatively, sales of the 10 "TV Book Club" selections totalled 44,300 copies.

R&J book club member Sarah Blake's The Postmistress (Penguin) was the bestselling book among the two clubs, selling 16,430 copies in its opening week in UK bookshops, and taking fourth position in the Official UK Top 50. Emma Donoghue's Man Booker-shortlisted Room (Picador), which is a member of both clubs, takes fifth position in The Official UK Top 50 with a 16,266 sale.

"TV Book Club" participant Andrea Levy's The Long Song, which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker prize, also scores a place in the top 10, although its 14,763 sales last week were largely down to its spot in WHSmith's incredibly popular "£2.99 if you buy the Times" promotion.

Elsewhere in the market, Stuart MacBride's seventh Logan McRae thriller has scored the Scot his first ever The Bookseller number one. Shatter the Bones (HarperCollins) débuts in pole position in this week's Top 20 Original Fiction chart ahead of Karen Rose's latest thriller, You Belong to Me (Headline).

In non-fiction, Oliver's dominance in the hardback non-fiction chart continues, his Jamie's 30-minute Meals outselling the next most popular purchase (Nigella Lawson's Feast) by more than three copies to one. New entries include Admund de Waal's award-winning The Hare with Amber Eyes and Philip's 2005-published Planisphere which received a massive 955% week-on-week sales boost thanks to BBC Two's recent three-day "Stargazing LIVE" extravaganza.

In the paperback non-fiction chart, Aron Ralston's 127 Hours (Pocket) takes top spot thanks to a silver-screen boost (the film hit cinemas last week), while Paul McKenna's latest self-help book, I Can Make You Happy (Bantam Press) takes second position with a 6,019 opening-week sale.

In total, £27.9m was spent at UK book outlets last week—up 3.8% week-on-week and up 14% on a snow-affected week of sales last year.

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