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Behind the Bestsellers
Daisy Maryles -- 5/22/00

A Ghost of a Chance
Michael Ondaatje, author of the critically acclaimed The English Patient, recently concluded the U.K. and Canadian tours for his latest novel, Anil's Ghost (#13 in its third appearance on our list) and last week embarked on a 10-city American tour. First up was Boston's Harvard Square Book Festival; many of the subsequent stops include readings at such venues as San Francisco's City Arts and Lectures series and the Seattle Arts and Lectures at Town Hall. Ondaatje, who was feted last week at a party hosted by Knopf publisher Sonny Mehta, will also be a BEA breakfast speaker on June 4. National media includes appearances on NPR's Fresh Air, Charlie Rose, Bookworm and The Connection, along with a W magazine feature and a profile in the daily Arts section of the New York Times. Knopf reports 138,000 copies in print after three printings.

Prey Tell?
"When the first man woke up that morning, he wasn't thinking about killing anyone." This typically tantalizing opening gets John Sandford's Easy Prey off to a swift start--reflecting the rapid sales pace of this 11th Prey thriller starring Minneapolis cop Lucas Davenport. Published by Putnam on May 8, the novel debuts in second place on PW's fiction list, with more than 400,000 copies in print. Sandford (the pseudonym of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp) is in the midst of a 20-city national tour, for which he's done a great deal of local TV and radio, including five NPR stations. He was interviewed by Bryant Gumbel on The Early Show, and has garnered feature interview attention in such papers as the Chicago Sun-Times, the Miami Herald and the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Rhyme Time
Yet another crackerjack sleuth with his own series is Jeffery Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme, the quadriplegic forensic criminalist who starred most recently in The Bone Collector (seven weeks on PW's list in its Signet edition)--and was portrayed by Denzel Washington in the hit film version. Now Rhyme returns in The Empty Chair, which was published by Simon & Schuster on May 15 (copies in print: 165,000)--and which PW called "engrossing and outlandish." Deaver, a four-time Edgar Award nominee who was dubbed "the best thriller writer around" by the London Times, kicked off a promotional tour on May 9 at Mystery Books in Washington, D.C. Deaver devotees can track down more info on www.JefferyDeaver.com.

The Cup Is Half Full
According to Longstreet publisher Scott Bard, No Such Thing As a Bad Day is "part memoir, part cancer survival story, which recounts the adventures and personal struggles of former White House chief of staff Hamilton Jordan." Jordan, Bard explained, became involved with cancer support groups in the '80s, and in 1982 established, with his wife, Dorothy, Camp Sunshine for kids with cancer. But then Jordan himself was diagnosed with three different types of cancer--non-Hodgkins lymphoma, melanoma and prostate cancer. Published on May 1, No Such Thing is up to 100,000 copies in print after two trips back to press, thanks in part to an intensive marketing campaign. Jordan's media appearances have included Today, Fox News Live, The Edge with Paula Zahn, Charlie Rose, Face the Nation and Imus in the Morning ("one of the most inspirational books I've ever read," said the host); still to come are Larry King Live, a second Imus spot and more. Vanity Fair, Time, People and the Washington Post have run features on Jordan and his book, with more print coverage on the way. Bard is clearly off to an auspicious start: publicity director Beth Dickey notes that No Such Thing is part of his first list as president and publisher--Bard purchased Longstreet from Cox Enterprises last December.

With reporting by Dick Donahue.
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