For book lovers, 2013 was a year of mystery and thrills, at least according to Amazon’s list of best-selling adult books for the year.
While contemporary romance dominated last year’s list with the likes of “50 Shades of Grey,” this year’s top spot went to Dan Brown’s thriller “Inferno.” It was also a very popular book at the New York Public Library earlier this fall.
“And The Mountains Echoed” by Khaled Hosseini and J.K. Rowling’s crime thriller, “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, rounded out the top three.
Amazon calculated its list of best-selling books by taking into account sales of print and Kindle edition books that were published in 2013. Check out the best-selling books below:
1. “Inferno” by Dan Brown: Brown’s infamous hero Robert Langdon (from “The Da Vinci Code”) heads once more into Italy. Langdon’s latest mystery takes its cue from Dante’s epic poem in the “Divine Comedy.”
2. “And the Mountains Echoed” by Khaled Hosseini: Hosseini follows up “The Kite Runner” with another story set in Kabul, Afghanistan. His latest novel begins with a father telling his two young children a folktale. The story spans several decades and continents following the family’s trials and tribulations from there.
3. “The Cuckoo’s Calling” by Robert Galbraith: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a super model’s suicide in this classically-styled mystery written by J.K. Rowling under a pseudonym.
4. “The Husband’s Secret” by Liane Moriarty: Cecilia Fitzpatrick discovers a letter in which her husband confesses a dark secret that could ruin the life she built. She was supposed to receive the letter after he died, but stumbles across it while he is still very much alive.
5. “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead” by Sheryl Sandberg: Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, shares her leadership secrets in a book that combines personal anecdotes, hard data and research. She aims to understand the bias against women in leadership positions and offer advice for women in the workplace and daily life.
6. “The Hit” by David Baldacci: Will Robie, a highly trained assassin, eliminates enemies of state for the U.S. government. When Jessica Reel, another assassin in the agency, goes rogue, Robie must stop her.
7. “Sycamore Row” by John Grisham: Jake Brigance, from Grisham’s breakout hit “A Time to Kill” returns to Ford County to try a case that brings up old racial tensions. Before hanging himself from a Sycamore tree, Seth Hubbard leaves a handwritten will for his property that drags his adult children and his black maid into a conflict that spans generations.
8. “Entwined with You” by Sylvia Day: Book three of the Crossfire series finds Gideon and Eva with even more alone time than they’ve had in previous installments of this torrid romance.
9. “Never Go Back” by Lee Child: Child’s latest novel in his Jack Reacher series follows the former military cop on a mission to find his missing commanding officer, Major Susan Turner, and clear his own name in the process.
10. “The Storyteller” by Jodi Picoult: Sage Singer is a baker trying to get over the death of her mother. Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group with his own demons, begins stopping by the Sage’s bakery. They strike up an unlikely friendship.
11. “Alex Cross, Run” by James Patterson: Detective Alex Cross has a lot on his plate: A plastic surgeon, Cross got arrested for sleeping with teenage girls is out of jail, and this time with a new face, a young woman who recently gave birth is found murdered and the baby is missing, plus another serial killer is rumored to be on the loose in D.C.
12. “Doctor Sleep” by Stephen King: In his latest supernatural mystery, King invents the True Knot, a group of quasi-immortal RV-travelers who feed off the steam produced when children with “the shining” are slowly tortured to death.
13. “12th of Never” by James Patterson: Part of the Women’s Murder Club series, Patterson’s latest mystery picks up when Lindsay Boxer’s daughter is born. But her bliss is quickly broken when San Francisco gets hit with multiple killings.
14. “Damaged: The Ferro Family” by H.M. Ward: In this romance, Peter is a college professor and Sydney, his teaching assistant, is running from her past and afraid to get too close to another person. Still, the two have unmistakable chemistry.
15. “Killing Jesus: A History” by Bill O’Reilly: Television and radio magnate Bill O’Reilly chronicles the political and historical events that led to the murder of Jesus of Nazareth. Historian Martin Dugard helped O’Reilly write it.
16. “Second Honeymoon” by James Patterson: A string of tragic accidents that left one newlywed couple dead in a sauna and another killed on a flight to Rome leads FBI Agent John O’Hara to suspect a serial killer is on the loose, and he’s targeting honeymooners.
17. “Whiskey Beach” by Nora Roberts: Eli Landon is a Boston lawyer under investigation for the murder of his soon-to-be ex-wife. He takes refuge at his family’s estate on Whiskey Beach. While there, he meets Abra Walsh, the local jack-of-all-trades, and things get complicated.
18. “The Billionaire’s Obsession: The Complete Collection” by J.S. Scott: This collection of 4 romance novels follows b illionaire Simon Hudson as he woos Kara Foster with an offer she can’t refuse.
19. “Surrender Your Love” by J.C. Reed: Brooke Stewart is a New York City realtor who doesn’t do relationships, but that maxim gets tested when she meets Jett Mayfield, a green-eyed millionaire who isn’t used to taking no for an answer.
20. “Six Years” by Harlan Coben: Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man six years ago. But when Jake comes across the obituary for Natalie’s husband Todd, he can’t stay away any longer.
Credits- Yahoo News
