Lou Berney’s November Road is the latest novel to explore this explosive material, and the result is one of the most distinctive, unexpected crime novels of recent years ... November Road is his first attempt at historical fiction, and it is impressive ... a road novel and a first-rate thriller ... a quietly moving evocation of public and private trauma, of individuals searching for new lives in a radically altered world. This is Berney’s best book to date.
November Road...tells a propulsive, romantic and danger-laden story centered on two people taking to the open road, running from past mistakes ... a crime novel with a rare combination of emotional weight and gunshot speed ... Berney gets inside his characters so gradually and gracefully that November Road easily transcends genre conventions. All that, and he keep things moving at a lively clip ... November Road is indeed something different. There's no shortage of JFK fiction, but this one belongs up there with the best.
Frank Guidry learns the hard way that when it comes to the criminal underworld, everyone is expendable. After years of serving Carlos Marcello, a prominent New Orleans crime lord, Frank’s usefulness has finally run its course ... After dumping a car that was supposed to play a role in the shooting in Dallas, Frank discovers that Paul Barone, a skilled hitman with a devastatingly lethal resumé, has been tasked with killing him before anyone uncovers the link between the assassination and Marcello. Forced to go on the run, Frank’s only chance at survival is to get all the way to Las Vegas and link up with one of Carlos Marcello’s rivals, who not only hates the New Orleans mob man enough to help Frank disappear, but has the resources to make sure nobody ever finds him ... Incredibly well-written and deftly plotted, Lou Berney’s November Road is one of the year’s best novels. . . and a story readers will be talking about for a very long time.
Lou Berney seamlessly blends classic noir and star-crossed romance. And he’s a beautiful writer... You only wish that, as exciting as the highly touted November Road is, it didn’t settle for using the assassination as a plot device and looked deeper through the dark shadows it cast — and casts still.
Through gorgeous prose, the Edgar, Macavity and Anthony Award-winning author of The Long and Faraway Gone elevates an otherwise simple cat-and-mouse story into a heartfelt journey of hope and discovery for two characters running from their pasts ... In the end, November Road is more than the sum of its parts—a thrilling plot, an iconic period piece and unforgettable characters. Above all, it’s an American novel not to be missed.
November Road avoids being another novel about that fateful day in Dallas. Instead, this superior novel from Edgar winner Lou Berney melds crime fiction with a tale about people reinventing themselves ... Berney keeps the tension high ... But the strength — and pleasure — of November Road is how Charlotte and Frank begin to change, finding new focus and resolve in themselves ... November Road not only showcases his considerable talents but also gives an insightful look at our past.
I couldn’t put [November Road down. I’ve been a fan for years, and Mr. Berney’s books are ever richer, ever more daring. His language sucks you in, his characters deepen, and his plots keep you locked in to the very end ... Set against the framework of the JFK assassination, November Road crackles with authenticity as Mr. Berney burrows into his characters and the personalities of the cities they pass through ... The book concludes on an unexpected and satisfying note. Mr. Berney doesn’t tie up loose ends, and that’s fine. Rather, he lifts us out of those turbulent ‘60s into today, in Hollywood, in an enigmatic and wistful coda.
...Frank Guidry, a soldier in New Orleans mobster Carlos Marcello’s family, happens to know something he shouldn’t about what happened in Dallas—something he would give anything not to know. But he does know it, and that means he’s a loose end. Nothing to do but run, which Frank does, heading west and harboring the unlikely dream of reaching that chimerical frontier where Marcello’s boys can’t find him. On the road, he meets another would-be escapee, Charlotte Roy, running from an abusive husband and standing with her two young daughters beside their broken-down car. What great cover, Frank thinks, traveling with a woman, two kids, even a dog ... Berney bends his notes exquisitely, playing with the melody, building his marvelously rich characters while making us commit completely to the love story, even though we hear the melancholy refrain and see the noir cloud lurking in the sky. Pitch-perfect fiction.
In Berney’s latest, Frank Guidry’s skills have made him an invaluable part of Carlos Marcello’s illegal New Orleans empire, but they don’t protect him when he becomes a loose end ... Perfectly captures these few weeks at the end of 1963—all that was lost and all that lay tantalizingly and inevitably just beyond the horizon.
Berney breathes life into all the characters, even Barone, who would be easy to write as a central-casting serial killer. The players in November Road are complex, interesting, and often surprising, but fully believable ... November Road is a tour de force, highly recommended for all lovers of noir fiction.
Berney takes a familiar plot in unexpected directions in this moving novel. In 1963, Frank Guidry serves New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello as a fixer, assigned to take care of loose ends—permanently. In November of that year, Guidry is tasked with leaving a car in a Dallas parking lot near Dealey Plaza. After President Kennedy’s assassination, Guidry realizes that, because he provided the getaway vehicle for the real killer, he’s become a loose end, and he begins a desperate flight to evade execution ... This is much more than just another conspiracy thriller.
