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The momentum behind Steig Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest (Quercus) has propelled the book into 2010's top spot having become the bestselling book published this year so far.
Larsson's final book in the Millennium Trilogy sold 34,266 copies during the week to 1st May, taking it back into the number one spot in the Top 50 - having been knocked off temporarily by Jamie Oliver's Jamie Does (Michael Joseph). Oliver's book meanwhile fell to sixth position.
But the tussle at the top did little to help the wider market: the week as a whole was down 8.8% on the same week in 2009 for Total Consumer Market - no doubt a reflection of the fact Easter fell during this period last year. However, the market saw a growth of 12.1% on the previous week, with more than £25.8m being spent through the tills. It brings to an en another miserable month for the trade with retail sales well down on last year.
However, Larsson has now sold more than one million copies across all his titles so far this year, worth nearly £5.8m - fast approaching the £6.7m he managed to rack up in 2009. The week ending 1st May saw the paperback edition of the third book, which was released in April, finally outpace its nearest 2010 rival - Sophie Kinsella's Twenties Girl (Black Swan), with total sales of 268,938 - a value of nearly £1.33m - compared with Kinsella's 252,544, worth roughly £1.12m.
The highest charting new title for the week was P C and Christian Cast's Burned: House of Night (Atom), selling 15,773. Despite widespread publicity, with appearances on programmes such as ITV's This Morning, Jodi Picoult's House Rules (Hodder) charted in 17th place, selling 10,377.