Brothers in Law

Books by a pair of legal thriller stalwarts take the top two spots on our hardcover fiction list. At #1, John Grisham’s The Widow is “a captivating legal whodunit,” according to our review, which praised the author’s “gift for constructing morally flawed yet sympathetic characters.” Michael Connelly takes the #2 spot with The Proving Ground, “a riveting eighth case for attorney Mickey Haller,” per our review. “Connelly effectively dips his toe into topical waters here, touching on adolescent male loneliness and the dangers of AI without skimping on the propulsive plotting he’s known for.”

Girl, Interrupted

Virginia Roberts Giuffre was an outspoken advocate for survivors of sex trafficking and one of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s most prominent accusers. Her posthumously released memoir, Nobody’s Girl, #1 on our hardcover nonfiction list, details a lifetime of abuse that, she writes, began when she was seven years old (her father has denied the allegations). She writes of being approached by Maxwell as a 16-year-old spa attendent at Mar-a-Lago and details the abuse she suffered from Maxwell, Epstein, and Andrew Mountbatten Windsor (formerly Prince Andrew), among many others. Giuffre died by suicide in April.

Ashes to Ashes

In 2008, PW spoke with Philip Pullman as he was about to publish Once upon a Time in the North, the second spinoff novella from his popular His Dark Materials YA fantasy trilogy, which follows the adventures of Lyra Belacqua through a series of parallel universes, including our own. He teased another book set in that fictional world, which he said was titled The Book of Dust. One book became three, and now the culmination of the Book of Dust trilogy, The Rose Field, debuts at #3 on our children’s fiction list. PW gave the first two installments, La Belle Sauvage and The Secret Commonwealth, starred reviews; of the new book, our review said, “Providing a less polished resolution to Lyra’s story than the His Dark Materials series, this leg of the character’s journey into adulthood immerses Lyra in deeper internal growth, subtler evils, and murkier outcomes.” Still, it’s hard to imagine a His Dark Materials fan who won’t want to see Lyra’s story through. (Ask us how we know.)

Royal Flush

In the horror novel King Sorrow, #11 on our hardcover fiction list, Joe Hill “makes accepting the supernatural easy through his pitch-perfect characterizations and doses of black humor,” per our review. It’s his first novel since 2016’s The Fireman.

Correction: The print version of this article incorrectly referred to Dav Pilkey, rather than Jeff Kinney, as the author of Partypooper (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #20), the #1 book in the country.