New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers
January 3, 2021

1. A Time for Mercy
by John Grisham

The third book in the Jake Brigance series. A 16-year-old is accused of killing a deputy in Clanton, Miss., in 1990.
2. Ready Player Two
by Ernest Cline

In a sequel to Ready Player One, Wade Watts discovers a technological advancement and goes on a new quest.
3. Deadly Cross
by James Patterson

The 28th book in the Alex Cross series. An investigation of a double homicide sends Alex Cross to Alabama.
4. The Return
by Nicholas Sparks

A doctor serving in the Navy in Afghanistan goes back to North Carolina where two women change his life.
5. The Vanishing Half
by Brit Bennett

The lives of twin sisters who run away from a Southern Black community at age 16 diverge as one returns and the other takes on a different racial identity but their fates intertwine.
6. Where the Crawdads Sing
by Delia Owens

In a quiet town on the North Carolina coast in 1969, a young woman who survived alone in the marsh becomes a murder suspect.
7. Daylight
by David Baldacci

The F.B.I. agent Atlee Pine's search for her twin sister overlaps with a military investigator's hunt for someone involved in a global conspiracy.
8. The Sentinel
by Lee Child and Andrew Child

Jack Reacher intervenes on an ambush in Tennessee and uncovers a conspiracy.
9. The Awakening
by Nora Roberts

The first book in the Dragon Heart Legacy series. Breen Kelly travels through a portal in Ireland to a land of faeries and mermaids.
10. The Law of Innocence
by Michael Connelly

The sixth book in the Mickey Haller series. Haller defends himself when police find the body of a former client in his car's trunk.
11. If It Bleeds
by Stephen King

Four novellas: "Mr. Harrigan's Phone," "The Life of Chuck," "Rat" and "If It Bleeds."
12. Fortune and Glory: Tantalizing Twenty-Seven
by Janet Evanovich

The 27th book in the Stephanie Plum series. Stephanie deals with a soldier of fortune from Little Havana.
13. The Midnight Library
by Matt Haig

Nora Seed finds a library beyond the edge of the universe that contains books with multiple possibilities of the lives one could have lived.
14. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
by V.E. Schwab

A Faustian bargain comes with a curse that affects the adventure Addie LaRue has across centuries.
15. The Evening and the Morning
by Ken Follett

In a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth, a boatbuilder, a Norman noblewoman and a monk live in England under attack by the Welsh and the Vikings.
© 2021 All rights reserved by New York Times Syndication Sales Corp. This material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner.
 
A version of this list appears in the January 3, 2021 issue of The New York Times Book Review. Rankings reflect sales for the week ending December 19, 2020.
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