Digital Bestseller Lists: Foley's French adventure leads field

Lucy Foley’s The Paris Apartment (HarperCollins) took the lift (or should that be l’ascenseur) up to the Bookstat number one spot, shifting an estimated 9,288 units in the week after Christmas. We have seen before how the digital market can suffer slightly in the autumn months, as book buyers concentrate on buying gifts they can physically wrap and put under the tree, then spike back following the 25th, when much of the nation is making an indent in its sofa with a tin of Quality Street and the remaining cheese board.

Ken Follett’s Never (Pan) joined The Paris Apartment at the top, with Reverend Richard Coles’ cosy crime title Murder Before Evensong (W&N), the previous week’s number one, dropping to fourth.

Miriam Margolyes’ This Much is True (John Murray) rebounded into the chart in fifth, the sole non-fiction title in the chart, as Jodi Taylor’s Santa Grint (Headline), a festive short story set in the author’s Time Police series, débuted in sixth.

Richard Osman’s The Bullet that Missed (Penguin) held the Publisher E-Book Ranking number one for the week ending 24th December, with The Thursday Murder Club bouncing up to join it in second place. Claire Douglas’ The Girls Who Disappeared (Penguin) returned to the chart in third, as Robert Galbraith’s The Ink Black Heart (Sphere) benefited from the latest series of “Strike” on the BBC, boomeranging back into fourth.

Clarification: Hachette has stated that Murder Before Evensong sold 7,375 copies; This Much is True 6,360; Santa Grint 5,982; and Verity 6,083.