27th February 2026
Data source Date range 2026, Weeks 1-7
Crime, Thriller & Adventure titles
* * Excluding Freida McFadden 1 Don’t Let Him In 62,059
Lisa Jewell Penguin (Cornerstone), 9781804940266
2 Nobody’s Fool 32,070
Harlan Coben Penguin (Cornerstone), 9781804943434
3 Nightshade
Michael Connelly Orion, 9781398726710
4 The Impossible Fortune
Richard Osman Viking, 9780241743980
5 Murder at Mount Fuji 22,139
S Natsuki, Robert B Rohmer (trans) Penguin (Cornerstone), 9781804959602
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
It Should Have Been You Andrea Mara Penguin (Transworld), 9781804993965
The Secret of Secrets Dan Brown Bantam, 9781787634558
22,002 19,267
A Neighbour’s Guide to Murder L Candlish HQ, 9780008753733
The Winner David Baldacci Pan, 9781035037124
Exit Strategy Lee and Andrew Child Bantam, 9780857505613
The New Neighbours Claire Douglas Penguin, 9781405957656
We Solve Murders Richard Osman Penguin, 9780241997482
The Wasp Trap Mark Edwards Penguin, 9781405971485
Knife in the Back Karen Rose Headline, 9781035403288
Run Away Harlan Coben Penguin (Cornerstone), 9781804956397
A Rock and a Hard Place JD Kirk Canelo Crime, 9781835983027
Woman Down Colleen Hoover Montlake, 9781542025614
My Husband’s Wife Alice Feeney Macmillan, 9781035083008
19,249 16,629 15,296 14,740 14,586 13,255 12,496 12,388 11,231 10,952 10,499
Never Say Die James Patterson, Mike Lupica Penguin (Cornerstone), 9781804948903
The Imperfect Murder J Patterson, JD Barker Penguin (Cornerstone), 9781804953013
10,484 10,062 34 Charts
Rising crime rates: the big names support a category set for record sales
U
ntil the prolifera- tion of World Book Day titles that arrived in bookshops in
mid-February, Freida McFadden had at least eight titles inside the Official UK Top 50 each week of the year, which reduced to a measly six once the £1 books for children entered the charts. As of Valentine’s Day, McFadden
has scooped 10 slots in the Top 50 of the year, according to NielsenIQ BookData’s Total Consumer Market (TCM), and The Housemaid is currently the biggest-selling book of 2026, with 85,231 copies sold – and that is before you add in the 20,808 sales from the film tie-in edition. It puts
The Housmaid comfortably ahead of the second bestselling book of the year, Dear Debbie – also by McFadden. Dear Debbie has similarly dominated Bookstat’s estimates of the bestselling e-books of the year, with McFadden often having three slots in its Top 10. Of The Bookseller’s various charts so far this year, only the independ- ent bookshop Top 20 has resisted McFadden’s charms, with The Housemaid making a sole appearance in 20th place in the last week of January. The £12m earned by the Boston-
based author’s paperbacks in 2025 helped take the Crime, Thriller & Adventure category to its biggest year for revenue since 2010, and
The question being asked by publishers and other crime writers is this: is McFadden’s success having a halo effect on other books in the category?
25,577 26,526
Charts Market Spotlight
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
