The Bookseller.com

1st December 2008

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Rankin knocks Barclay off number one

19.08.08 Philip Stone

After six consecutive weeks at number one Linwood Barclay's No Time for Goodbye has been dethroned by Orion compatriot Ian Rankin's Exit Music. Rankin's Rebus retirement novel—the 17th outing for the detective inspector—sold 38,097 copies through the market last week, 4,888 more than Barclay's Richard & Judy hit. It's Ian Rankin's highest ever weekly sale through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market since records began in 1998, surpassing his previous personal best of 37,317 copies set by The Naming of the Dead this time last year.

Barclay drops one place to second position with former R&J participants Sam Bourne's The Final Reckoning (Harper) in third place and Dorothy Koomson's Goodnight, Beautiful (Sphere) in fourth.

James Bradley's The Resurrectionist (Faber), the last ever title to go under the R&J spotlight on terrestrial television jumps 23 places to take tenth position overall with a 15,934 weekly sale. Reading group favourite Sophie Hannah is this week's highest new entry. Her tenth novel, The Point of Rescue (Hodder Paperback) sold 10,748 copies through the market during the seven days to 16th August to take 23rd position overall.

Despite the "feel-good factor" being provided by Britain's Olympic performances, revenue through the market is once again down in comparison to last year. In total £29.4m was spent through the TCM last week, down 4.3% year on year and down 4.6% in comparison to the previous week.

Of the Olympic tie-ins, Richard Moore's analysis of "Chris Hoy and Britain's track cycling revolution", Heroes, Villains and Velodromes (HarperSport) proved the most popular last week, selling 296 copies through the market. The books sits 25th in a list of the bestselling sports books last week.

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