Harlan Coben scores first number one in almost a decade with Run Away

Harlan Coben’s Run Away (Arrow) has ended the seven-week run of David Walliams’ The World’s Worst Teachers (HarperCollins) in the top spot, leaping 42% in volume on its launch week to claim the UK Official Top 50 number one. With 14,732 copies sold through Nielsen BookScan’s TCM, the thriller becomes Coben’s first number one since Long Lost in January 2010, and only his third title to hit the top spot since records began.

However, Run Away’s volume, at just over a thousand copies more than second-placed The World’s Worst Teachers, is the lowest for a number one in 2019 to date, and the lowest for any title in the top spot since Val McDermid’s Out of Bounds (Sphere) in January 2017.

The highest new entry in the Top 50 was Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man 5: For Whom the Ball Rolls (Scholastic), which hit 21st place and entered the Children’s chart as runner-up to the Tony Ross-illustrated …Teachers. Disney title Let It Go: A Frozen Twisted Tale (Igloo) also entered the kids’ top 20, with a return to the chart for Natural History Museum guide Kids Only (NHM), which always benefits from a school summer holiday.

Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs (Century) held the Original Fiction top spot for a second week, selling 3,986 copies—a 5% improvement on the week before to score another personal best for the author in seven-day hardback sales.

Ben Elton’s Identity Crisis (Black Swan), Claire Douglas’ Then She Vanishes (Penguin) and Karen Rose’s Say You’re Sorry (Headline) all entered the Mass Market Fiction chart, bouncing on their first full weeks on sale. The previous week’s Fiction Heatseeker number one, Cressida McLaughlin’s The Cornish Cream Tea Bus (HarperCollins), graduated into the Top 50 in 41st place.

Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson’s Pinch of Nom (Bluebird) held the Hardback Non-Fiction number one for a 20th week in total, surpassing the run of Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients (Michael Joseph). Only Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals has spent longer in the top spot, racking up 32 weeks across autumn 2010 to spring 2011.

Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt (Picador) notched up an even-more-impressive 42nd week atop the Paperback Non-Fiction chart. While the junior doctor memoir bested Joe Wicks’ Lean in 15 (Bluebird) to become the top 20’s longest running number one in February, he still has a way to go to beat his Pan Mac stablemate in author top spots—Wicks has scored 68 in total.

The print market slid 2.6% in value week on week to £26.7m, but managed to hold up 0.3% against the same week in 2018.