Natural Suspect
William Bernhardt, et al.
Forget whodunit. Who wrote it? That’s the challenge awaiting readers of Natural Suspect (Ballantine, $23.95), a “collaborative novel of suspense” devised by courtroom-drama master William Bernhardt and featuring sequential contributions from a “dream team” of writers—among them John Katzenbach, John T. Lescroart and Brad Meltzer. The resulting plot is a zigzagging chase that involves an oil tycoon, a pearl necklace, a killer clown and an outsized rabbit. Suspense readers will enjoy guessing which chapter emanated from which author, and conservationists will get an extra kick from knowing that all author royalties are donated to The Nature Conservancy.
— Louis Bayard
