Familiar Fiction Faces

by Daisy Maryles -- Publishers Weekly, 8/30/2004

Four fiction hardcovers from bestseller veterans debut this week. Sandra Brown has had more than 50 bestsellers, and now her latest, White Hot from Simon & Schuster, lands in the #5 slot with more than 375,000 copies in print after three printings. Brown will appear at events this fall in Dallas, Salt Lake City, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., where she'll participate in the National Book Festival.

It's been 40 years since Frank Herbert wrote his first Dune novel and interest has not waned. His son, Brian Herbert, and fellow SF author Kevin J. Anderson have written a trilogy of prequels; the final book, Dune: The Battle of Corrin, lands in the #6 slot this week. A printing of 150,000 launches the Tor title, supported by a $250,000 budget that includes an 18-city tour.

Ballantine author Tess Gerritsen's Body Double, #12, has 155,000 copies in print after two printings and her mass market bestseller, The Sinners, has 810,00 after three printings. She is doing a 19-city tour that finishes on September 19.

With more than five million copies of her bestselling thrillers in print, including the Evil series and the Shadows trilogy, Kay Hooper has a new Bantam hardcover bestseller, Hunting Fear, that begins a series featuring Agent Noah Bishop and his elite FBI Special Crimes Unit. It has more than 100,000 copies in print after two trips to press, and debuts at #13.