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Lee Child eclipses the competition with Blue Moon straight in at number one
Lee Child’s Blue Moon (Bantam) has illuminated the charts, beaming straight into the UK Official Top 50 number one with 56,700 copies sold in its first week on sale. The 24th Jack Reacher title scored the author’s second highest ever single-week volume, just 2,011 units short of 2018’s Past Tense, which was released on the Monday of its launch week last year and therefore had an extra day's sales. It also racked up his first number one in hardback format since Personal in 2014, his 21st week at the top in total.
Blue Moon also notched up Child’s 40th number one in the Original Fiction chart, knocking Martina Cole’s No Mercy (Headline) from the summit. Michael Connelly’s The Night Fire (Orion) and Lucinda Riley’s The Sun Sister (Macmillan) also joined it in the category chart top five.
David Baldacci’s Redemption (Pan) was the highest-charting new Mass Market Fiction title, yet it couldn’t defeat reigning champ Peter James’ Dead at First Sight. The Roy Grace title beat its Pan Mac stablemate by 1,311 copies.
It might still only be November, but it was a busy week for Christmas-themed fiction. Five festive titles charted in the Mass-Market Fiction top 20, with Dilly Court’s The Christmas Wedding (HarperCollins) a place above Sarah Morgan’s A Wedding in December (HQ), and Nancy Revell’s Christmas with the Shipyard Girls (Arrow), Katie Flynn’s A Christmas Gift (Arrow) and Karen Swan’s The Christmas Party (Pan) making up the numbers. This was in addition to Sophie Kinsella’s Christmas Shopaholic (Bantam), Trisha Ashley’s The Christmas Invitation (Bantam) and Rosie Goodwin’s A Precious Gift (Zaffre) charting in Original Fiction.
Mrs Hinch: The Activity Journal (Michael Joseph) held the Hardback Non-Fiction number one for a third week running. Emily and Michael Eavis’ Glastonbury 50 (Trapeze) was the highest new entry in Hardback Non-Fiction, selling 12,326 copies to claim fifth, with fellow new entry Angela Kelly’s The Other Side of the Coin (HarperCollins), the memoir of the Queen’s dresser, in sixth place.
Philip Pullman’s The Secret Commonwealth (Penguin/David Fickling) re-claimed the Children’s and YA Fiction number one, selling 9,007 copies the week leading up to the launch of the BBC’s "His Dark Materials" adaptation. However, the highest new entry in the kids’ charts was Craig Smith and Katz Cowley’s The Dinky Donkey (Scholastic), the sequel to everyone’s favourite viral picture book, The Wonky Donkey.
Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson's Pinch of Nom (Bluebird) also became a million-copy bestseller, with 7,067 copies last week to tip it into seven figures. The cookbook smashed records upon its release in March, becoming the fastest-selling non-fiction title of all time.
