Natural Suspect

by William Bernhardt, Leslie Glass, Gini Hartzmark

What Carl Hiaasen and a host of South Florida’s finest authors did for Sunshine State crime capers in the New York Times bestseller Naked Came the Manatee, William Bernhardt now does for legal thrillers–with the help of a "Dream Team" of today’s hottest suspense writers. Like a literary game of telephone, Natural Suspect begins with a chapter from Bernhardt. Then each writer contributes a chapter and passes it along to the next. The result is a completely inventive, brilliantly plotted novel of suspense with more twists than a schizophrenic's train of thought. Can you guess who wrote which chapter?

NATURAL SUSPECT

Arthur Hightower made a name for himself and a vast fortune in the oil business. But when the volatile tycoon decides to disinherit his spoiled children and cheating wife, he makes the biggest mistake of his life-- and the last. After declaring his intentions, Hightower turns up on Thanksgiving Day . . . clubbed to death and stuffed in a meat locker, clutching a frozen asset–his wife’s precious pearl necklace. Now Julia Hightower stands charged with the cold-as-ice crime of murdering for millions. While the sensational trial has New York in a frenzy, a curious cast of characters face off in and out of the courtroom.

Devin McGee, a small-time lawyer about to hit the big-time defending Julia Hightower-- if her intimate encounter with the prosecutor doesn’t catch up with her . . . Trent Ballard, the quirky assistant D.A., who owns a huge pet rabbit and thinks his tryst with Devin will help him get a conviction . . . Patrick Roswell, a wannabe reporter sitting on a scoop that could turn the trial upside-down, unless a scalpel-wielding clown decides to kill the story-- and Patrick . . . Sissy Hightower, Julia's sex-crazed, air-headed daughter-in-law, who has a suitcase full of secrets . . . Robert S. Rutledge, a powerful Wall Street warrior with a lot riding on the Hightower verdict-- and a lot to learn about messing with the wrong people . . . and Cordelia, the mystery woman that everyone seems to know.

All are in for the trial of their lives–but who among them is the true natural suspect?

All author royalties will be donated to The Nature Conservancy.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

240 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

William Bernhardt is the author of over sixty books, including the bestselling Daniel Pike and Ben Kincaid legal thrillers, the historical novels Challengers of the Dust and Nemesis, three books of poetry, and the ten Red Sneaker books on fiction writing.

In addition, Bernhardt founded the Red Sneaker Writers Center to mentor aspiring writers. The Center hosts an annual writers conference (WriterCon), small-group seminars, a monthly newsletter, and a bi-weekly podcast. More than three dozen of Bernhardt’s students have subsequently published with major houses. He is also the owner of Balkan Press, which publishes poetry and fiction as well as the literary journal Conclave.

Bernhardt has received the Southern Writers Guild’s Gold Medal Award, the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award (University of Pennsylvania) and the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award (Oklahoma State), which is given "in recognition of an outstanding body of work that has profoundly influenced the way in which we understand ourselves and American society at large." He has been nominated for the Oklahoma Book Award eighteen times in three different categories, and has won the award twice. Library Journal called him “the master of the courtroom drama.” The Vancouver Sun called him “the American equivalent of P.G. Wodehouse and John Mortimer.”

In addition to his novels and poetry, he has written plays, a musical (book and score), humor, children stories, biography, and puzzles. He has edited two anthologies (Legal Briefs and Natural Suspect) as fundraisers for The Nature Conservancy and the Children’s Legal Defense Fund. OSU named him “Oklahoma’s Renaissance Man.”

In his spare time, he has enjoyed surfing, digging for dinosaurs, trekking through the Himalayas, paragliding, scuba diving, caving, zip-lining over the canopy of the Costa Rican rain forest, and jumping out of an airplane at 10,000 feet. In 2013, he became a Jeopardy! champion winning over $20,000.

When Bernhardt delivered the keynote address at the San Francisco Writers Conference, chairman Michael Larsen noted that in addition to penning novels, Bernhardt can “write a sonnet, play a sonata, plant a garden, try a lawsuit, teach a class, cook a gourmet meal, beat you at Scrabble, and work the New York Times crossword in under five minutes.”

Reviews

[Ferne (Enthusiastic Reader) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary! What an incredible "Collaborative Novel of Suspense" by 11 beloved and best-selling notable authors. I read the description of the novel and was totally intrigued. The book is as amazing as I anticipated and in fact, it surpassed any expectations! I loved it!!

William Bernhardt conceptualized the creation of a mystery written by multiple authors as he invited 10 of his author colleagues to join the fun! It is also very special to note that the project collaboration was simultaneously devised as a fundraiser and supports a very deserving cause as all author royalties are donated to The Nature Conservancy.

I was so excited to learn that 5 of my favorite authors contributed to this adventurous writing including William Bernhardt, John Lescroart, Phillip Margolin, Brad Meltzer, and Lisa Scottoline. It was also a wonderful introduction to the 6 authors that I now must investigate their independent writing as I so enjoyed their gifts of collaboration and generosity to this project including Leslie Glass, Gini Hartzmark, John Katzenbach, Bonnie MacDougal, Michael Palmer, and Laurence Shames.

I could keep the thesaurus open all night to try to capture just a snippet of the delight in reading this novel. It's a perfect blend of page-turning, riveting, exciting, unique, suspenseful scenes of courtroom drama, murder and mayhem, and investigative reporting, with humorous lines all mixed into one extraordinary and outstanding novel.

Even if you never read an author's Afterword - Don't miss this one! It shares more details of how the novel came from creation to fruition. My only disappointment is that the website that was initially created for this title to share which author wrote each chapter no longer seems to be available.

[Bev · Rating 1 out of 5]

Natural Suspect (2001) is a collaborative mystery story devised by William Bernhardt and contributed to by ten suspense novelists--most of whom I had never come across before. I suspect I know why. The Goodreads blurb says that Bernhardt has put together a "Dream Team" of "today's hottest suspense writers" and makes it sound like he and Carl Hiassen (who did the same in Naked Came the Manatee) had come up with a brilliant idea that had never been done before. Hello? Ever heard of folks like Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers and G. K. Chesterton? They and other members of the Detection Club did collaborative mysteries long before Hiassen and Bernhardt even knew how to write (and quite probably before they were even born)--and did them much better.

The best thing about this book is that all proceeds were donated to the Nature Conservatory. That and brief episodes of humor (very brief). The plot is a well-worn one--Head of the Family with Big Bucks threatens to divorce wife and cut everyone out of his will and winds up dead on a big holiday/at a big family gathering (in this case, Thanksgiving). Wife is the prime suspect and winds up on trial. Rest of book is spent making things so convoluted that anybody else might have killed him and no clues really add up and throwing in multiple torture scenes with psycho dressed as a clown (or a ninja or an employee of Footlocker) either really cutting off people's extremities or threatening to as well as an abnormally large rabbit just for fun. I started to give this two stars, but then I realized that there was no way I could rate it higher then the Michael Innes book I just gave one star. So ★ it is.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great mystery written by 11 different authors! Each writer takes up the story cold right where the last author left off. Without this knowledge, provided right on the cover of the book, it would be impossible to know that the book was written by more than one person. This is a feat in itself; what is even more amazing is the quality and complexity of the mystery itself. I highly recommend this book!.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another "Collaborative Novel of Suspense". The authors' royalties were donated to The Nature Conservancy. I was amazed at how well this book came together. One of the things keeping it "glued" together was each author's sense of humor and their ability to toss a hot potato to the next author on the list. Unlike Naked Came the Phoenix, you are not told which author wrote which chapter so unless you are familiar with each contributing author's style, it seems as if only one person wrote the book. It was fun to read.

[Nancy I · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is labeled as a collaborative novel of suspense. That it is. Eleven authors wrote it, with the first and last chapters written by Bernhardt. The others wrote their chapter as they were given the preceding ones and no where in the book are we told who wrote which of the other ten chapters. (And I could not figure out who wrote what, even though I've read books by a number of the contributing authors.) There are some real humorous parts to this "who-done it" novel and just about each chapter ends with a cliff-hanger. One wonders how the next author in the chain will resolve the issue while retaining cohesion.
One thing of note, the authors gave their time and talent to this effort and earned nothing in return. All author royalties went to the Nature Conservancy, not to the authors.

[Wesley Hansen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hated to give Natural Suspect only Two Stars, because I'm a big fan of Brad Meltzer, but I thought this compilation of authors was ridiculous and silly, possibly one of the worst books I've read. The only saving grace is that it was less than 200 pages and didn't take up too much of my time. The plot was all over the place and never got into a rhythm, and the ending made no sense. The last chapter sounded like me, trying to connect all the loose ends and the reasoning behind everyone's actions. Not a good read.

[Pat Welte · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. Different authors wrote one chapter. It was a well-written book, and I could never figure out what author wrote which chapter. It was fast-paced and suspenseful.

[Alaina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Multiple authors each write a chapter to a mystery? Yes please! This book was so much fun to read and did not see the ending coming. I wish authors would cold write together more!

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually listened to this one. This is a "collaborative novel of suspense" where different mystery writers write a chapter each. It was ok--I definitely enjoyed some chapters more than the other, and I'm not sure the final authors pulled the entire story together as cohesively as possible, but fun listening anyway.

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not very good at all. The idea of the book is that multiple authors take turn writing a chapter and by the end of the book, the story is complete. Brad Meltzer was one of the authors. I generally enjoy his books so I gave this one a shot. Bad decision. The story is choppy and the writing is very uninspired.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A self-made oil tycoon is murdered after threatening to disinherit his family. The wife is put on trail. With several differt authors writing the chapters in a round robin, the plot is always changing. I found this to be an interesting read, but don't wish to reveal too many secrets about the plot.

[Buckeye_reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked how the chapters ended...had to laugh out loud at a couple of them. I can only imagine what the next person thought - how am I going to follow that!

A different read, but still entertaining.

[Carol Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I rate this one R for rubbish. Shame on you Mr. Bernhardt for putting this together.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

quick read

[Sheldon Lehman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good serial novel. Read it if you just want some insight into different authors all at once.