November Road

Lou Berney

Smarter and better read folks — of which there are plenty — are already well aware of Lou Berney, whose fusion of crime fiction and literature is up there with Ian Rankin and James Lee Burke. "November Road" is Berney's fourth novel; he's already won numerous big awards, and this one should be nominated for who knows how many? It's the fall of 1963, and loyal Carlos Marcello fixer Frank Guidry realizes a seemingly innocent errand he ran a few weeks back is tied to the JFK assassination. He also knows he's a loose end and needs to bolt if he's going to survive. By chance, he meets Oklahoma housewife Charlotte, her two daughters and their dog — also on the run, from an alcoholic husband. Frank realizes posing as a dad with this unsuspecting group is a perfect disguise. What Charlotte and Frank don't anticipate is that they fall in love and want a future that seems cruelly out of reach. Haunting, sad, beautiful and pulsing with life, humanity, yearning and — yes, possibility.

— Rick Koster