WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD, THE MACAVITY AWARD, THE ANTHONY AWARD, AND THE BARRY AWARD FOR BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL NOMINATED FOR THE 2015 LA TIMES BOOK PRIZEWith the compelling narrative tension and psychological complexity of the works of Laura Lippman, Dennis Lehane, Kate Atkinson, and Michael Connelly, Edgar Award-nominee Lou Berney’s The Long and Faraway Gone is a smart, fiercely compassionate … The Long and Faraway Gone is a smart, fiercely compassionate crime story that explores the mysteries of memory and the impact of violence on survivors—and the lengths they will go to find the painful truth of the events that scarred their lives.
In the summer of 1986, two tragedies rocked Oklahoma City. Six movie-theater employees were killed in an armed robbery, while one inexplicably survived. Then, a teenage girl vanished from the annual State Fair. Neither crime was ever solved.
Twenty-five years later, the reverberations of those unsolved cases quietly echo through survivors’ lives. A private investigator in Vegas, Wyatt’s latest inquiry takes him back to a past he’s tried to escape—and drags him deeper into the harrowing mystery of the movie house robbery that left six of his friends dead.
Like Wyatt, Julianna struggles with the past—with the day her beautiful older sister Genevieve disappeared. When Julianna discovers that one of the original suspects has resurfaced, she’ll stop at nothing to find answers.
As Wyatt’s case becomes more complicated and dangerous, and Julianna seeks answers from a ghost, their obsessive quests not only stir memories of youth and first love, but also begin to illuminate dark secrets of the past. But will their shared passion and obsession heal them, or push them closer to the edge? Even if they find the truth, will it help them understand what happened, that long and faraway gone summer? Will it set them free—or ultimately destroy them?
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A quite remarkable novel, immensely enjoyable for its fully and deeply realized characters, strongly detailed setting, and beautifully drawn storylines. Two lead characters, both changed forever by events rooted in the past, two parallel searches for the why of things, intersecting only obliquely at the end–and all of it written with a confident, self-assured vitality that kept me reading long into the night. Thank you, Lou Berney. I’m a fan.
Can definitely recommend this BB deal today! The Long and Faraway Gone follows two people who dealt with baffling, gruesome crimes as teenagers in Oklahoma City. Decades later, they separately find themselves trying to finally put the past to rest. There are a lot of moving parts, but trust Lou Berney – it all came together in a way that surprised and satisfied me. This book won the 2016 Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original a few weeks ago, and I’m excited to see what Berney does next.
This was a BB promotion and the author has received a number of awards and recognitions, so it seemed a worthwhile chance to take and lived up to my hopes and expectations. Two tragedies in the same town are never solved and the main survivors are still tortured by them 25 years later. I was especially intrigued by the exploration of survivor guilt and the psychological effects it had on the character over time. The searching sister was compelling but more predictable. The story telling is excellent and is put across with wonderful writing which is at once straight forward and intellectually complex. This is not your formulaic murder mystery! While a good number of pages, it is a fast read as you will want to race through to see what happens next. I am looking forward to reading his other books.
This is Lou Berney’s best book yet, which is saying a lot, and it deserves all its awards.
Clever writer, many much needed laughs. Thank you Mr. Berney.
I thought I had reviewed this already, but it’s not on the list, so…
Wyatt is a P.I. Living in Lad Vegas when he gets a call from an old friend.
He wants to know if Wyatt will go to Oaklahoma City to investigate strange happenings at the caller’s friend’s bar.
Wyatt does, even though he’d rather not. When Wyatt was a teenager, he’d been the sole survivor of a mass murder at the theater where he worked. The whole staff was killed except for him.
Meanwhile, across town another drama is going on. A young woman is searching for answers about her sister’s disappearance. She even contacts the man who was the chief suspect and things get tense.
Wyatt solves the bar case, and Juliette gets her answers, too, but the two stories cross only once and it is dealt with as more of a coincidence than a plot point.
It’s not hard to follow the dual storyline, but I think the author could have made two novellas out of this one novel.
Overall it was a very satisfying read.
Piercing, distraught prose set between two drifting tragedies in which characters intertwine in the breeze but do not necessarily intersect. The one is in town investigating escalating vandalism and can’t shake survivor’s guilt; the other, wrapped up in the unsolved disappearance of her addict older sister from a local carnival. The wind rustles the grit of time and stirs the glint of terrible circumstance in this oft times disturbing novel.
This excellent book was my introduction to Lou Berney. After that, I quickly gobbled up Gutshot Straight and Whiplash River, two more five-star books. More recently, I read November Road which, after the first three, was a disappointment.
Wholly original PI story. Read this one for the writing as much as anything else. a
I grew up in Oklahoma City where it is set, so that may tilt my opinion toward a better rating. That said the story was atypical and very entertaining.
The Long and Faraway Gone is one of my favorite mysteries. Berney does a beautiful job of weaving three stories together. The two main characters, Wyatt and Julianna are haunted by tragic events from their youth that take them on a quest to finally answer what really happened in their long and faraway past. It is a masterfully written story by a gifted storyteller.
This is the best book I’ve read in a long time. This author is a really good writer. Not only is the plot excellent, tightly woven, and full of surprises, but there is some really creative use of imagery. Berner also has an uncanny ability to tease out emotional epiphanies. Really an outstanding book.
Looking for more by this author! Great read.
Twenty six years back in Oklahoma City, within a few weeks, a girl disappears and later, all but one of the people working at the Pheasant Run Theatre are killed during a robbery. The two main characters are the sister of the missing girl and the only survivor of the robbery. Both have been damaged by what happened and both are still looking for answers, to the point where they can’t have normal lives.
I never guessed who had done what and was surprised. Still left with one question though, why?
Excellent, but unfortunately, I read this right after Berney’s superb (I don’t think calling it a masterpiece is hyperbole), NOVEMBER ROAD, it just couldn’t measure up. Still, a solid 4 stars and highly recommended.
Good mystery with some great twists. Well worth a read!
This review does contain little spoilers
This book was definitely very mixed emotions for me; to the point where i had to battle in my head what the rating was going to be.
I think firstly, I’m going to start with the praise. There are a lot of amazing qualities in this book. For one, the writing in here is absolutely exquisite. Berney does an excellent job of using definite and concrete details that build this absolutely beautiful city in my head. The writing itself also, had a nice flow. No awkward sentences, or choppy words. This book was such a smooth read in my head, I absolutely loved that about it.
Another great thing about this book is the characters. Berney is amazing with characterization. I honestly for a second thought this might be based on true stories because the characters in the book just felt so real. I especially loved Wyatt, but I also loved a lot of the side characters like Candace and Lily. The author spends so much time with the careful descriptions of their demeanor that you can’t help but feel like these characters were once actually real people. I especially love his attention on Wyatt’s Pheasant Run coworkers & Genevieve, because it the made the plot so much more dynamic when I actually cared about the victims of the mystery.
This had the setup to be one of my favorite books, but unfortunately it fell really flat in terms of pace & plot. I’m giving it three stars because there is a perfect equilibrium: where on the one end there’s this beautiful piece of writing & these lovable characters, but on the other it’s an incredibly slow read & the plot at times seems a little bit all the over place.
The plot and the pacing sort of go hand in hand with each other. The mystery itself was somewhat a disappointing solve. Now, although this is purely opinion, I love when mysteries actually give me a chance at trying to solve them. I love when mysteries put the clues right in front of my face but then distract me with something else, but once the mystery is solved it’s like I look back and I’m like god damn that really was right under my nose. This mystery does not do that; in fact in both Genevieve’s and Wyatt’s case you don’t even get to make the killers a suspect or even think about it at all because you don’t meet the killers till right at the end of the story (literally a few pages later they confess too so you can’t even let your imagination go wild about it).
And every single clue in the book? They were all duds to the actual answer. Like we spend hundreds of pages not even getting anything remotely close to a real clue (just a bunch of characters running around in circles and getting absolutely no where), and at the end it’s like Berney just kind of slaps you with the answers.
I guess it’s a little more of “this is my opinion” kinda thing; but I do love my mysteries to be at least a little psychologically thrilling. There’s nothing thrilling about this mystery or its clues.
As for the pace, I still (even after finishing the book) wonder why Berney put so much white noise in the novel. I honestly think characters like Lacey and the few chapters we spend on her could be taken out entirely. Same for Julianna’s lead detective on the case, all of his scenes could be taken away too and the story would move along just fine. It’s like the author spends so much time on these rather useless happenings that this read so slow to me. I was getting so irritated that I kept spending chapters on people that didn’t even matter in the end. I still don’t even understand why Candace and her mystery were in the story at all. It did absolutely nothing to further Wyatt’s or Julianna’s cases on the tragedies. I just felt like there was a lot of fluff in this story, like stuffing in a bear that is ripping at the seams. I felt that you could remove probably the whole middle of this book and the mystery would still work out just fine (if that makes sense?).
Anyway, I have mixed feelings about this book, but I think I’ll definitely be looking more into Berney’s work. If I can get his kickass characters & beautiful writing paired with a good plot I think I would probably just die of happiness.
Intricate plot with two characters who are loosely linked – one who’s sister was murdered and the other who’s friends were murdered. The only way they can get on with their lives is to solve the murders. Their journey to find the truth is both interesting and complex.
Really needs a 4 1/2 stars!
This is one of my new favorite authors!! Witty and self deprecating style. Very engaging and likeable main character, nicely written.