Hardback fiction
1. THE DEFECTOR by Daniel Silva. (Putnam, $26.95.) When a Russian defector who once saved his life disappears, Gabriel Allon, an art restorer and occasional spy for the Israeli secret service, tries to rescue him.
2. BEST FRIENDS FOREVER by Jennifer Weiner. (Atria, $27.) Childhood friends, estranged in high school, reunite years later when the popular one needs the mousy one's help.
3. SWIMSUIT by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. (Little, Brown, $28.) A former cop, now a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, investigates the disappearance of a supermodel.
4. TWENTIES GIRL by Sophie Kinsella. (Dial, $26.) A young woman is haunted by the spirit of her great-aunt, who wants her to find a missing necklace.
5. THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett. (Amy Einhorn/Putnam, $24.95.) A young white woman and two black maids in 1960s Mississippi.
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6. BLACK HILLS by Nora Roberts. (Putnam, $26.95.) A South Dakota wildlife biologist and an ex-cop, childhood sweethearts, reunite to pursue a serial killer.
7. FINGER LICKIN' FIFTEEN by Janet Evanovich. (St. Martin's, $27.95.) Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum tracks a celebrity chef's killer.
8. FIRE AND ICE by J.A. Jance. (Morrow/HarperCollins, $26.) Seattle investigator J.P. Beaumont finds that his pursuit of a murderer leads him into the territory of Joanna Brady, an Arizona sheriff.
9. THE DEVIL'S PUNCHBOWL by Greg Iles. (Scribner, $27.) The mayor of Natchez, Miss., pursues a killer who opposes his attempt to clean up riverboat gambling.
10. RAIN GODS by James Lee Burke. (Simon & Schuster, $26.) A Texas sheriff investigates a mass murder of illegal immigrants and tries to find the young Iraq war veteran who may have been involved before the FBI can find him.
