Fiction: Osman continues sensational sales form
Richard Osman’s The Man Who Died Twice (Penguin) seems to have nine lives in the Official UK Top 50 number one spot, reigning for a sixth week running, after rising 5.6% in volume week on week and putting a hefty 10,000 copies between itself and its nearest runner-up.
The TV presenter-turned-cosy-crime-author’s latest could have a tilt at being the year’s bestselling title; however, to do so it would have to usurp its predecessor The Thursday Murder Club which, after more than a year on the shelves, continues to sell at a phenomenal rate, and has just tipped over the million-copies-sold mark in paperback since release. It leads The Man Who Died Twice in the year-to-date bestseller chart, with the sequel the fifth-bestselling book of the year; The Thursday Murder Club is third. But if both books continue selling at their current rate, the leapfrog could be a week or two away.
This would make The Man Who Died Twice the category bestseller—if it wasn’t for those meddling kids. The Adult Fiction (and overall) bestseller for the year is still Colleen Hoover’s TikTok-boosted It Ends with Us (S&S). The romance title hasn’t dipped below 9,000 copies sold in a week since November last year, and is more than 65,000 copies ahead of The Man Who Died Twice in the 2022 chart. A year ago, the 2016-published title had never shifted more than a three-figure weekly volume.
Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You (Faber) claimed second in the Top 50 and the Mass-Market Fiction top 20. Bella Mackie’s How to Kill Your Family (The Borough Press) also held firm in third place in the category chart. Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe’s Assassin (HarperCollins), Ian Rankin and William McIlvanney’s Nibbies Crime & Thriller Book of the Year The Dark Remains (Canongate) and Jill Mansell’s Should I Tell You? (Headline) made their débuts, in a week that saw Adult Fiction bounce 4.6% in volume and 12.7% in value year on year.
Reverend Richard Coles’ Murder Before Evensong (W&N) took the Original Fiction number one for a second week, with John Grisham’s short story collection Sparring Partners (Hodder) and Bonnie Garmus’ Lessons in Chemistry (Doubleday) holding second and third place respectively.
