The Girl on the Train buys its ticket for a 12th week in the top spot

The Girl on the Train (Black Swan) has puffed into the Official UK Top 50 number one spot for a 12th non-consecutive week. It sold 25,041 copies for £120,353—and is still yet to shift fewer than 20,000 copies per week, since its release in May.

However, could the runaway success finally be starting to slow down? Its film tie-in, which has held second place for three straight weeks, was knocked down to third by Peter James’ Love You Dead (Pan)—which was only 1,783 copies off the number one paperback’s total. With children’s behemoths Jeff Kinney, David Walliams and J K Rowling lurking amongst November’s new releases, The Girl on the Train may soon be shunted into the sidings.

Love You Dead also rose into the Mass Market Fiction chart’s second place, the first time something other than The Girl on the Train has taken either first or second place since early September.

Paul Beatty’s The Sellout (Oneworld), announced last week as the winner of the Man Booker Prize 2016, shifted 9,763 units to rocket into 14th place—and hit third, below Martina Cole and John Grisham, on the Original Fiction chart. This was a 657% boost on its volume a week ago, when it sold 1,288 copies. It also topped the Small Publisher Fiction chart for the first time. Before the announcement of its win, it had sold 8,863—so its total volume has already more than doubled.

Graeme Macrae Burnet’s shortlisted His Bloody Project (Saraband) also returned to the Top 50, despite missing out on the Man Booker Prize. It has now sold 39,919 copies in total and is a standout hit for its publisher—it has shifted more than the rest of Saraband’s entire list combined.

Of the category number ones, only the Hardback Non-Fiction number one changed last week. Guinness World Records 2017 leapfrogged YouTubers The Sidemen to take the top spot—a whole week earlier than it did last year.

The market grew by a whisker last week—it was a scant 0.8% up on the week before. In total, October 2016 was 3.9% up on October 2015. While this isn’t as high as the market has been during this year, it’s important to remember that it was around this time last year that the market upgraded from managed decline to firmly back in the black.