Gaining traction

One of the important things about running a bookstore is keeping up with what is selling. Trends ebb and flow...Colin Cotterill's Dr. Siri stories are sailing along quite well (with people buy multiple copies of The Coroner's Lunch to give to friends) while traditional bestselling authors don't ever seem to get traction at all. James Patterson's book have made no impression on our customers while Spencer Quinn's offbeat Chet and Bernie tales are becoming perennial favorites.
So, what's hot at the moment? Erin Morgenstern's Night Circus seems to have struck a cord and Laurie R. King's Pirate King sells surprisingly well. And certainly Lawrence Block's Getting Off isn't hindered by its dangerous cover featuring a nude woman with knife in the foreground.
And some authors are running on all four cylinders.

Louise Penny's latest, A Trick of the Light, currently rivals her sales in paperback for Still Life, her first in the series. That both ends of the series are selling steadily means that people are talking about the author and recommending her. Alan Bradley's stories of Flavia de Luce, 11-year-old chemistry genius and mystery solver, continue to gain fans as men and women of all ages discover The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. And Nesbo...Jo Nesbo...every day, all day...readers just can't seem to get enough of him, especially in paperback imports that have yet to be officially published in the U.S. 
But far and away, our best selling author is Archer Mayor, whose Joe Gunther novels pique the interests of locals readers and visiting mystery fans. In the four years that we've been here, we have yet to post a list which didn't feature one of Mayor's books at or near the top. With release next week of Tag Man, we can expect Mayor to occupy the top for weeks...nay, months to come.