William Bernhardt is the bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including the blockbuster Daniel Pike legal thrillers and Nemesis: The Final Case of Eliot Ness. Bernhardt is also one of the most sought-after writing instructors in the nation. He is the only person to have received the Southern Writers Gold Medal Award, the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award (U Penn) and the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award (OSU), 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."