Weekly E-Ranking: Logan topples The Testaments

The Testaments may have lost its pole in the print charts last week, but it was dethroned from its Weekly E-Book Ranking top spot a week before, with T M Logan’s The Holiday leapfrogging Margaret Atwood’s blockbuster sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. It is the psychological thriller’s fifth week as the e-book number one, after zipping straight into the top spot in late July and notching up a three-week run over August (including the week of the late summer bank holiday).

The week of this chart, up to 28th September, was pretty much wall-to-wall torrential rain in the UK, so either e-book buyers were buying the Provence-set novel for escapism or, having maintained either second or third place during The Testaments’ run at the top, The Holiday has simply notched up consistent-enough sales to emerge as the chart’s bestselling title once The Testaments’ more-front-loaded sales trajectory declined.

Adele Parks’ Lies Lies Lies leapt to fifth place, after climbing to sixth place a week ago. In paperback, the title scored Parks her first Mass-Market Fiction number one, notching up a two-week run—though in the same week it bounded into the e-book top five, it was leapfrogged in the paperback charts by C J Sansom’s Tombland. Of course, the e-book of Tombland, released at the same time as the 2018-published hardback, has already enjoyed a long run in the e-book charts, streaking straight into the top spot in November last year, appearing in the top 20 a total of 17 times across autumn and winter. Last week it returned to the chart for an 18th week off the back of its paperback publicity, claiming 18th place.

Rick Riordan’s The Tyrant’s Tomb débuted in ninth place, a rare sighting of a children’s book in the Weekly E-Book Ranking. Two years ago, Philip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage became the first kids’ title to top the e-book ranking—an accolade it holds to this day. Next week shall see if The Secret Commonwealth can pull off the same trick and honour Pullman with a unique digital double.

Week ending 28th September 2019. Titles with a selling price below £2 are excluded, as are titles priced £4.50 or below with any print versions priced above £17.99. Participating publishers: PRH UK, Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, Bloomsbury, Simon & Schuster, Bonnier Zaffre & Canongate.