From Publishers Weekly
First there was Naked Came the Stranger, a novel written round-robin by Newsday staff, then Naked Came the Manatee, a serial crime caper from Miami-based writers. Now, here's a legal thriller wherein each succeeding chapter has been created by recognized pros in the genre. The roster of authors includes Leslie Glass, Gini Hartzmark, John Katzenbach, John Lescroart, Bonnie MacDougal, Phillip Margolin, Brad Meltzer, Michael Palmer, Lisa Scottoline and Laurence Shames all of whose contributions appear without bylines. Saluting and satirizing the tricks of the trade, Bernhardt starts the story off on a Long Island estate as oil mogul Arthur Hightower threatens to divorce his martini-soaked wife, Julia, and cut off his wastrel children. Before he makes good on the threat, Arthur's frozen corpse is discovered in the basement freezer. Julia hires Devin Gail McGee to defend her in court, not knowing Devin once shared a hot tub with the handsome prosecutor. Bernhardt laces his opener with possibilities, then each author in turn uncovers clues and miscues, from the toe cut off by the movie-quoting thug in clown costume to one lawyer's unseemly devotion to his voyeuristic pet rabbit. The fun for readers of this team tour de force is not to solve the case but to guess which author penned which chapter. Remarkably, the ending ties up more loose ends than anyone has a right to expect. More publishing than literary event, more mind game than artistic accomplishment, the book is an over-the-top diversion, with each author attempting to be more clever than the one before. There are some hits and some misses, but most of the curveballs are fun. (Nov.)Conservancy.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
A thriller with chapters by different authors, e.g., Philip Margolin, Brad Meltzer, and Lisa Scottoline. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Ever since Carl Hiaasen resurrected the multiple-author serial novel with Naked Came the Manatee (1996), publishers have been jumping on the bandwagon. But unlike in Manatee and the more recent Naked Came the Phoenix [BKL Ag 01], the various authors of this thriller do not sign their respective chapters, with the exception of the first chapter, written by Bernhardt, whom the publisher describes as having "devised" the book. The story revolves around the murder of a self-made millionaire. The victim's drunken wife, Julia, looks like the top suspect, but what about his two ungrateful children? All three knew the cranky oil tycoon was about to disinherit them. Enter Devin McGee, the small-time lawyer hired to defend Julia. Can Devin outwit the D.A. assigned to the case, who happens to be his ex-lover? Silly plot twists and over-the-top characters abound, but the story has a lot of charm for those able to suspend disbelief. Among the contributors are John Lescroart, Phillip Margolin, and Laurence Shames. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
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 Inside Flap
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.


About the Author
Like a literary game of telephone, Natural Suspect combines the talents of a "Dream Team" of today's hottest suspense writers. Each writer contributes a chapter and passes it along to the next. The result is a completely inventive, brilliantly plotted novel of suspense.

Eleven masters of the craft deliver a rollercoaster ride of a book that is as much fun to read as it obviously was to write.

Eleven bestselling masters of the craft have collaborated to write a completely inventive, brilliantly plotted novel of suspense.

William Bernhardt is the bestselling author of thirteen novels, most recently Murder One. Library Journal calls him “master of the courtroom drama.” He has twice won the Oklahoma Book Award for Best Fiction.

Leslie Glass is the beloved author of Tracking Time, the newest novel of suspense in her popular April Woo series.

Gini Hartzmark taps into her law and business backgrounds to create the engrossing Kate Millholland legal thrillers, most recently, Dead Certain.

New York Times bestselling author John Katzenbach is the author of eight acclaimed novels of suspense, including Hart’s War, The Shadow Man and Just Cause.

John T. Lescroart is a bestselling author of suspense. His novels include Nothing but the Truth, The 13th Juror, and The Mercy Rule.

Bonnie MacDougal is a trial attorney who adds authenticity to everything she writes. She is the author of three legal thrillers, including Angle of Impact and Out of Order.

Phillip Margolin is the Edgar Award-nominated author of Wild Justice. He was a practicing criminal defense attorney for twenty years.

Brad Meltzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Tenth Justice, Dead Even, and The First Counsel.

Michael Palmer is a master of the medical thriller whose books have been translated into thirty languages. His most recent book is The Patient.

Bestselling author Lisa Scottoline won the prestigious Edgar Award for Final Appeal. Her newest legal thriller is Moment of Truth.

Laurence Shames is the author of Mangrove Squeeze, Welcome to Paradise, and other hilarious novels set in Key West. His most recent thriller strips The Naked Detective.

THE MYSTERY WITHIN THE MYSTERY. . .
Can you guess which author wrote which chapter of Natural Suspect? For the opportunity to play detective (and win valuable prizes), log on to http://www.naturalsuspect.com for details.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Sunday afternoon. A time when families all across the country spend quality time together—breaking bread, acknowledging how important they are to one another, sharing secrets. And the Hightower family, one of the richest broods on Long Island, was no exception.

“Who made the martinis?” Marilyn said as she sipped the drink she had just poured out of the tumbler.

“Mummy,” Morgan replied, not looking up from his magazine. “Why do you ask?”

“Because as far as I can tell, it’s straight gin.”

Morgan nodded. “That’s our Mummy.” Morgan and Marilyn were brother and sister. Morgan was six feet tall, underweight, and carried himself with an air of determined dissipation. Marilyn was almost as tall and was often described as having “steely good looks,” which meant both that she was uncommonly attractive and that her beauty was encased in a titanium shell no one had yet managed to penetrate. Morgan was a year older; they were both well into their thirties.

Marilyn poured her drink into the sink, took a tall glass, and reached for a Coke bottle. “That was a bit strong for the first drink of the day.”

“Mummy’s first drink of the day came shortly after breakfast. What you sampled would be the—oh, I don’t know—third or fourth batch of the day. Which might explain why she didn’t detect any subtle variations in flavor.”

“Toodle-doo, Morgan. Can I come in?” The voice in the hallway came from Cecilia, better known as Sissy, Morgan’s well-proportioned wife. She was not generally considered nuclear scientist material, but what she had downstairs compensated Morgan for what she didn’t have upstairs, or so everyone assumed, anyway.

Sissy snuggled up beside Morgan, who wrapped his arm around her. “What’s my little Morgy doing?”

Morgan had the look of supreme boredom down cold. “Reading, obviously.”

She pressed against him. “Could I interest Morgy in doing something a little more . . . athletic?”

“I’m reading, dear.”

She brushed her lips against his cheek. “I can think of something more fun than reading.”

A pained expression crossed Morgan’s face. “Not now, dear. My sinuses are acting up.”

“Please?” She traced a line up his neck with her finger, ending at his mouth. “I’ll make it worth Morgy-Worgy’s time.”

“Morgan,” Marilyn said sternly. “Be a dear and take your nymphet bride to your bedroom. If I have to listen to any more of this, I’m going to vomit.”

“Oh, all right.” He laid his magazine down and sighed heavily. “Back to the salt mines.”

Before he could move, however, he heard galumphing footsteps signaling that his father was on his way. And that he wasn’t in a good mood.

“Has anyone seen Julia?” Morgan and Marilyn’s father, Arthur Hightower, was an overweight bear of a man. He was blunt, gruff, and willfully unvarnished. He’d made a fortune in the oil business while the boom was on and managed to keep it when the boom was over. “How long must a man go on searching for his own wife?” He throttled up the volume. “Julia!”

The blanket on the sofa beside Sissy moved. Sissy let out a short, high-pitched cry. Morgan attempted concern. “What’s wrong, dearest?”

“The blanket moved!”

The blanket did move. And then it moved again. And a few moments later, a head peered out over the top. “Did someone call me?”

It was Julia, Morgan and Marilyn’s mother. Her hair was mussed, and what they could see of her clothes looked as if she’d been wearing them for days.

“Mummy!” Morgan said. “How long have you been there?”

She took a long time before answering. “What time is it?”

“Almost seven.”

Her head bobbed slowly. “Where did the after- noon go?”

Morgan crouched beside the sofa and helped her sit upright. “Are you all right, Mummy? It’s nearly time for dinner.”

“Forget dinner.” Her voice was harsh and raspy. “Where’s my martini?”

Morgan rushed to the wet bar to fix it.

“Well, I’m glad I’ve found you all gathered together in one place,” Hightower said. “I’ve got something on my mind and I want you all to hear it.”

“Could it possibly wait, Daddy?” Marilyn asked. “It’s time for dinner. And I’m famished.”

Hightower made a hmmphing noise. “And I suppose we’ll be having the usual twelve-course meal. You children don’t know how lucky you are. There were no big face feeds when I was a boy, that’s for certain.”

Morgan’s eyelids drooped. “Here we go . . .”

“When I was growing up on that hardscrabble farm in Omega County in a family of nine, we were poor, and I’m not afraid to admit it. Poor, that’s the only word for it. Dirt poor, if you don’t mind my saying so. We never had enough to eat. Most nights, I went to bed hungry.”

“You’ve certainly compensated for it in the intervening years,” his wife observed.

He didn’t hear her, or at any rate, didn’t let it check his monologue. “We only had meat once a week. Can you imagine? Only once a week—if we were lucky. For Sunday dinner, my poor mother would fix a chicken. One scrawny little chicken. To be split by the nine of us. You know what piece I always got?”

Marilyn’s long lashes fluttered. “Would that perhaps be . . . the feet?”

“That’s right,” Hightower said. “The feet. I’ll bet you didn’t even know the feet were edible.”

“Only since I was two.”

“There’s not much meat on the feet, I don’t mind telling you. Not much meat at all. But I didn’t complain. No, sir. I was glad to get it.”

“I’ve heard that in Paris,” Marilyn said, just to be evil, “chicken feet are all the rage. They’re considered quite a delicacy.”

Hightower repeated his hmmphing. “Perhaps in Paris, where they’ll eat anything if it has enough sauce poured on top of it. But not in Omega County. No, sir. Not a bit of it.”

“I’ve never had chicken’s feet,” Sissy said, giggling. “But I had frog’s legs once. And they tasted like chicken.”

Marilyn bit down on her lower lip, struggling to maintain control.

“You children don’t appreciate how privileged you are. Never learned the value of money, that’s what it is. You’re spoiled. Spoiled rotten. I don’t know how it happened, but that’s what it amounts to. Spoiled.”

Marilyn decided the time had come to add some rum to her Coke. “I think that’s a bit harsh, Daddykins.”

“Maybe it is, but I’m just a poor boy from a hardscrabble farm in Omega County, and I never learned to put on airs or mince words. I call ’em like I see ’em. And when my children are spoiled, I’m not afraid to say so. Not a one of you has ever worked a day in your life.”

“Now, Father,” Morgan said, “that’s not true. I take my work very seriously.”

Marilyn snorted into her glass. “Your work? Puh-leese.”

The bridge of Morgan’s nose crinkled. “Marilyn, you know I’ve always been very dedicated to my art.”

“Art? Goopy watercolors of sunrises are not art.”

Morgan’s chin rose. “There are certain critics who would differ with you. May I remind you that my art has had a private showing in an important gallery?”

“Yes, a gallery that Daddy owns. When was the last time you completed a painting, anyway? The Carter administration?”

“Every great artist goes through a difficult period.”

“More like a difficult decade.”

“Enough,” Hightower proclaimed. “If this bickering is supposed to impress me, it doesn’t.”

“Daddy,” Marilyn said, “I’m just trying to bring Morgan around to reality.”

“You’re just trying to be nasty, Marilyn. You were a nasty baby and you haven’t improved much in the last thirty years.”

“Daddy!”

“It’s painful for a man like me to admit it, but the fact is you’re all a worthless, heartless pack of wretched refuse, and the thought that I’ve worked so hard all my life to create a gigantic fortune to be passed on to the likes of you just makes me sick.”

“Daddy!”

“Don’t think I don’t intend to do something about it, either. I’m leaving tonight for an important business trip in Washington, but I’ll be back by Thanksgiving, and as soon as I am, I’m having a long talk with my lawyer. I’m not going to let my fortune be squandered on watercolors and trips to Paris for . . . fancy chicken’s feet!”

This last bit definitely attracted Marilyn and Morgan’s attention. “Daddy!”0345


From the Paperback edition.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"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, airheaded 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.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

First there was Naked Came the Stranger, a novel written round-robin by Newsday staff, then Naked Came the Manatee, a serial crime caper from Miami-based writers. Now, here's a legal thriller wherein each succeeding chapter has been created by recognized pros in the genre. The roster of authors includes Leslie Glass, Gini Hartzmark, John Katzenbach, John Lescroart, Bonnie MacDougal, Phillip Margolin, Brad Meltzer, Michael Palmer, Lisa Scottoline and Laurence Shames all of whose contributions appear without bylines. Saluting and satirizing the tricks of the trade, Bernhardt starts the story off on a Long Island estate as oil mogul Arthur Hightower threatens to divorce his martini-soaked wife, Julia, and cut off his wastrel children. Before he makes good on the threat, Arthur's frozen corpse is discovered in the basement freezer. Julia hires Devin Gail McGee to defend her in court, not knowing Devin once shared a hot tub with the handsome prosecutor. Bernhardt laces his opener with possibilities, then each author in turn uncovers clues and miscues, from the toe cut off by the movie-quoting thug in clown costume to one lawyer's unseemly devotion to his voyeuristic pet rabbit. The fun for readers of this team tour de force is not to solve the case but to guess which author penned which chapter. Remarkably, the ending ties up more loose ends than anyone has a right to expect. More publishing than literary event, more mind game than artistic accomplishment, the book is an over-the-top diversion, with each author attempting to be more clever than the one before. There are some hits and some misses, but most of the curveballs are fun. (Nov.) FYI: The authors are donating the book's profits to theNature Conservancy. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

A thriller with chapters by different authors, e.g., Philip Margolin, Brad Meltzer, and Lisa Scottoline. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews