November Road

By Lou Berney

WINNER OF THE 2020 CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER AWARD

WINNER OF THE 2018 HAMMETT PRIZE

‘A great read, combining brutal action with a moving love story; gorgeous writing, too’ Ian Rankin

‘Exceptional’ Stephen King

A poignant and evocative crime novel – a story of unexpected connections, daring possibilities, and the hope of second chances.

Frank Guidry’s luck has finally run out…

A loyal street lieutenant to New Orleans’ mob boss Carlos Marcello, Guidry knows too much about the crime of the century: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Within hours of JFK’s murder, everyone with ties to Marcello is turning up dead. Suspecting he’s next, Guidry hits the road to Las Vegas. When he spots a beautiful housewife and her two young daughters stranded on the side of the road, he sees the perfect disguise to cover his tracks from the hit men on his trail.

The two strangers share the open road west – and find each other on the way. But Guidry’s relentless hunters are closing in on him, and now he doesn’t want to just survive, he wants to really live, maybe for the first time.

Everyone’s expendable, or they should be, but Guidry just can’t throw away the woman he’s come to love. And it might get them both killed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Oct 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9780008309343

Lou Berney

Lou Berney is the multiple award-winning author of Dark Ride, November Road, and The Long and Faraway Gone, as well as Gutshot Straight and Whiplash River. His short fiction has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. He lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and teaches in the MFA program at Oklahoma City University.

Reviews for November Road

[kgramer-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm a Lou Berney fan. Another well written book with interesting and compelling characters.

[ewhatley_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Since the day of JFK's assassination, numerous conspiracy theories have swirled. One of those theories plays a role in this book. Will you agree? Well written with an interesting cast of characters. I found this far more enjoyable than Berney's The Long and Faraway Gone.

[asxz-2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was a real disappointment. I’d read a rave review which led me to believe this was a crime novel weaving in real history and characters a la Ellroy and that it would be right up my street. In fact it’s pretty basic, lacking any particular charm or wit or sense of originality.

Rather that being woven through with history, it sits awkwardly on top of the Kennedy assassination and makes no terribly sophisticated attempt at a believable back story.

Pretty weak and not the introduction to a new voice in crime fiction that I was hoping for.

[lisapeet · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Solidly entertaining noir crime thriller set in the wake of the Kennedy assassination. Not particularly deep, but a good ride (though I could have done without the epilogue).

[vnesting-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In Nov. 1963, Frank Guidry is a key member of Carlos Marcello’s New Orleans mafia who believes he has one tiny piece of information about the Kennedy assassination that could get him killed. Charlotte is a woman who makes a sudden decision to escape her small town life. From the first page of Berney’s propulsive novel reader's will be pulled along like flotsam on the Mississippi when the river is running high and fast, and tossed up on the shore, gasping, on the final page.

[n.w.moors-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Frank Guidry works for the Mob in New Orleans. On the periphery of the assassination of JFK, he's on the run when he meets Charlotte, her two daughters, Rosemary and Joan, and their epileptic dog. They become unknowing cover for him as she heads to L.A., leaving her alcoholic husband behind. You often hear books called page-turners, but this one really is. Frank, a gangster all his life, uses his contacts to escape assassins sent by Carlos, the Mob boss, but everyone is pretty much double and triple crossing each other. Charlotte is practical but determined to give her girls a life different from the dull and proscribed roles for women in Oklahoma in the sixties. It's a great read with a twist ending (at least, unexpected for me). This really should be a movie and I see Lawrence Kasdan has optioned it. Meanwhile, I recommend this for a great read.

[susan.macura · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fictional what-if story based on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November of 1963. As such, it was an entertaining tale that unfortunately in this time and era could be viewed as another unfounded conspiracy theory, something that there are too many of about too many things, especially since we have a president who spends too much time and effort supporting them. However, for those of use who realize that fiction is just that this is a great story about the mob being behind the assassination and the steps they took to cover their tracks, as well as a great love story between one of the main characters and a woman in the wrong place at the right time.

[techeditor_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although Lou Berney’s NOVEMBER ROAD is not at all like his award-winning THE LONG AND FARAWAY GONE, this is sure to be another winner for him. It is his writing style that will get you now just as it did then.Charlotte is unhappy with her life and Frank wants to simply stay alive. They’re both on the run when they meet. They interact for a short time, so short that Charlotte’s children don’t even remember much of it 40 years later.My only criticism of NOVEMBER ROAD, and anyone who has been married to a drinking alcoholic will agree, is that the explanation for Charlotte’s unhappiness is inadequate. Her reason for suddenly taking off with her two children does not seem to be enough. Berney says that Charlotte’s husband frequently stays out late and comes home drunk but does not show how this has impacted his family’s lives.But NOVEMBER ROAD is a great story otherwise. It looks like Berney is another go-to author for me.

[thomaspluck · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great read. The best story I've read in a long time about people in the life. Characters I will miss.