Anyone betting on this week’s number one title will not have made a fortune with the bookies – it is of course The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman (Viking) that was the most popular book of the past seven days according to the latest data from NielsenIQ BookScan’s Total Consumer Market (TCM).

The fifth book in The Thursday Murder Club series has sold 145,580 copies in its first week putting it comfortably atop the Official UK Top 50 and making it the second-fastest selling book of the year behind Rebecca Yarros’ Onyx Storm (Piatkus) which sold an extra 10,000 copies in its first week on sale at the end of January.

It is somewhat of a return to form for Osman: up 42% compared with the 102,257 copies that We Solve Murders sold in its first week in 2024, but slightly down against the preceding title in the series, 2023’s The Last Devil to Die which sold 0.9% more in its first week.

The second-highest new release this week is Alchemised – the debut publication from SenLinYu (Michael Joseph). Alchemised has sold 47,957 copies in its first week, only a few thousand less than The Hallmarked Man (Little Brown) by Robert Galbraith, Rowling’s male pseudonym, managed on its debut a few weeks ago.

Falling from first place to third in the TCM’s Top 50 is Jamie Oliver’s Eat Yourself Healthy (Michael Joseph) but keeps hold of the top spot in the Hardback Non-Fiction Top 20 with 29,831 copies, just ahead of Pinch of Nom Slow Cooker by Kay and Kate Allinson (Bluebird) which has shifted 26,863 copies in its first week, the highest of 14 new entries into that Top 20.

The bestselling paperback this week – and for the third week running – is Laurie Gilmore’s The Gingerbread Bakery (HarperCollins), the fifth in the Dream Harbor series. With sales of 10,461 copies this week, it has declined 35.8% from the previous seven days – but that gives Gilmore’s latest a total of 58,374 units up 18.2% compared with the first three weeks of March’s The Strawberry Patch Pancake House.

The Mass-Market Fiction chart is a bit quieter than the hardback charts in terms of new releases with the highest new entry landing in fourth place. The Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz (Cornerstone) is the third of his Susan Ryeland series and has sold 6,152 copies in its first week, 18.3% more than The Moonflower Murders moved in its first week on sale in paperback back in 2021.

The Paperback Non-Fiction chart is even quieter – with no new releases making it into the Top 20. Gillian Anderson’s Want (Bloomsbury) and Chloe Dalton’s Raising Hare keep hold of the top two positions for another week – though both experience a double-digit percentage drop in sales – with third place taken by The Official Highway Code (Stationery Office) following a 73.8% boost in sales compared with the previous seven days.

While the mass of high-profile new releases jostle for attention ahead of the key Christmas trading period, the Children’s Top 20 is not looking as far ahead: the top two slots are taken by Halloween-themed titles with both The Dinosaur that Pooped a Monster! by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poyner, featuring illustrations by Garry Parsons (Puffin) and Michael Bond’s Paddington Trick or Treat, illustrated by RW Alley (HarperCollins) both selling more than 7,000 copies in the past seven days.

All of those new releases have helped boost the TCM by 8.2% to 3.6 million books sold in the last week while value has risen 12.6% to £36m as the ASP rises above £10 for the first time this year. Compared with the same week in 2024, volume is down a slight 0.5% with value climbing by 2.8%.