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Carreteras de otoño
Carreteras de otoño
Carreteras de otoño
Audiobook9 hours

Carreteras de otoño

Written by Lou Berney

Narrated by Isaak Gracia

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

Noviembre de 1963.

Se le acabó la suerte a Frank Guidry. A la sombra del prominente capo de la mafia, Carlos Marcello, la combinación de encanto, inteligencia y astucia de Guidry lo lleva los primeros puestos del negocio. Pero todo cambia repentinamente cuando una horrible tragedia golpea al mundo: John F. Kennedy es asesinado a tiros en la plaza Dealey. Guidry había estado en Dallas menos de dos semanas antes, cumpliendo una tarea para Carlos, y no puede evadir la creciente sospecha de que está involucrado en el asesinato más escandaloso de la historia. Ahora su vida está en riesgo, y Carlos cuenta con que Guidry será el chivo expiatorio. Es hora de que este utilice todas las conexiones que ha logrado y todos los favores que le deben, huya del país y mantenga un perfil bajo... porque su vida pende de un hilo.

Charlotte tiene veintiocho años y es madre de dos niñas. Su esposo es amable, pero es un borracho perdido. Ella ha estado durante años tratando desesperadamente de sobrevivir y de proteger a sus hijas, pero el asesinato del presidente ha puesto de manifiesto una sola cosa: que su vida en Oklahoma no tiene futuro. La única opción de Charlotte es llevarse a sus hijas y marcharse.

Guidry se encuentra con la bella ama de casa de Oklahoma, sentada a un lado de la carretera con nada más que un auto roto, dos pequeñas y un perro en el asiento trasero, y se da cuenta de que ha encontrado el disfraz perfecto para escapar.

Lo último que Guidry espera en un momento como este es acabar metido en un viaje por Estados Unidos con una madre y dos niñas, pero Charlotte y él están en el punto en que necesitan y pueden ayudarse mutuamente. Y a medida que la persecución tras Guidry se vuelve más peligrosa, las cuatro vidas resultan estar en riesgo. ¿Encontrarán la senda a la libertad, o los sentimientos mutuos cada vez mayores que Charlotte y Guidry están alimentando serán su perdición?

LanguageEspañol
PublisherRayo
Release dateFeb 26, 2019
ISBN9781400212453
Author

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.

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    After Kennedy is assassinated in 1963, anyone who could connect New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello with the assassination must be eliminated. Frank Guidry is a fixer for Marcello and he is one of those people who must die, so he goes on the run, headed to Las Vegas. Along the way he picks up Charlotte Roy, a runaway wife from Oklahoma, her two young daughters and their epileptic dog. He hopes that they can pose as a family in order to hide his identity. Paul Barone is the killer dispatched by Marcello to mop up the potential witnesses against him. It's not a good sign that the most interesting character to me was Barone. I liked his unsentimental relentlessness. Frankly, I saw no need to root for Guidry. I loved "The Long and Faraway Gone" by this author, but this book was just OK for me. The backdrop of the Kennedy assassination served as an allure to get people to read this book, but it's only a device to create a reason for Guidry to go on the run. Charlotte and Guidry don't meet until about the halfway point of the book, and there are no romantic sparks when they do meet. I didn't mind that at all. In fact, I found Guidry's later instalove to be totally out of character. At least Charlotte was not an idiot and she turned out to be perfectly able to take care of herself. I wasn't crazy about the ending of the book, and I really hated the epilogue. Please don't tidy things up for me. I'll probably read more by this author, but this one was a little disappointing. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Set 1963 - JFK’s assassination. Cat-and-mouse chase across America. New Orleans mob boss, Carlos Marcello, wants Frank Guidry dead as he know too much about JFK’s assassination. On his way to Las Vegas, Guidry means and falls in love with Charlotte and her 2 daughters who are escaping her drunken husband in Oklahoma. Fugitives should not fall in love as it might get them killed. Berney has written an unforgettable American classic. Recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    For me, November Road by Lou Berney was a fantastic read that I both didn’t want to put down but I also didn’t want it to end. Set in November, 1963, the book covers the time immediately after the assassination of President John Kennedy. We meet Frank Guidry, a sharp dressed mobster in the city of New Orleans. When his boss makes the request that he park a get-away car in Dallas, he didn’t think anything of it – until after the news broke about the President. Then when he is requested to go to Houston and pick up the same car and ensure it disappears, he realizes this is all connected and now he knows too much.On the run for his life, Frank meets up with Charlotte, a young housewife from Oklahoma who with her two daughters has left her husband and is one her way to a new life in California. Frank realizes that Charlotte and the girls would make an excellent cover for him and manages to work his way into their lives. What he didn’t plan was that he would develop strong feelings for them. Meanwhile they are being tracked by a ruthless killer who has been instructed not to leave any witnesses behind.The author has delivered a sharp, chilling story that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. He develops each character fully and gives us a glimpse of their inner thoughts and feelings which ensures that the reader will feel a connection to all. November Road is a suspenseful, beautifully written story and has placed this author on my “must-read” list.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a wonderful story told beautifully. And the narrator was outstanding.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was a hard book to read. Much of the book addresses the brutal crimes that paid killers commit, and in this book, many of these murders were against their own. The other part of the book illustrates the unhappiness a wife and mother endures with a husband who drinks too much. The author does a good job of making the reader feel sorry for killer Frank Guidry, who has now become expendable in the organization and is on the run for his life. He meets Charlotte, disillusioned mother of two who has just run away from her husband to start a new life. They form a bond of sorts, and the reader, along with Guidry, wonders if they can all start a new life together. Set against the back drop of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the book is a gripping tale. But for me, it fails to make the grade because of the way Charlotte’s storyline plays out. I needed more information about her life and her husband’s, and if an attempt was made to fix the brokenness she felt in that relationship. Many more pages were devoted to the unsavory antics of the gangsters and how they treated women. Perhaps we needed to see just how despicable they were, but killing a random woman with car trouble just because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time was over the top evil. I thought the parts of the book that dealt with the relationship between Charlotte and Guidry were well written. The character of Barone as an extreme amoral killing machine was well depicted. The second half of the book was certainly more interesting than the first half, and like Guidry at the end, it redeems the novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Part Big Easy and Part Sin City, 60's style. A good mobster read to keep your mind off of lockdown.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    4.5 This was a great period piece - set days after JFK's assassination. The New Orleans mob is in a shake-up as a result and Frank Guidry, a minor mobster who was in Dallas just prior to the assassination, sees his limited future and vows to make an escape to Vegas. Meanwhile, Charlotte Dooley of Woodrow, OK is also on the run, with her dog and 2 young daughters from her drunkard husband. Frank and Charlotte’s paths converge in New Mexico in an unlikely, but mutually beneficial way. Frank needs a cover - the hit man following him won't be looking for a family, and Charlotte, who has never been out on her own (why would a woman in 1962?) needs the guidance and financial backing Frank can provide. The (male) author gets it with Charlotte: the small life of a wife and mother in a small town and also the helplessness at Dooley's drinking, though he is not abusive - just hopeless. And the author does a great job of making Frank, mobster though he is, a sympathetic character. The choices he is faced with and his instinct for survival really drive the action. Charlotte and the darling girls are in grave danger, though they are completely unaware of Frank's situation, so that adds to the suspense too. This was well-done from start to finish. Only short of 5 stars due to male bias/violence in a few spots that felt a little uncomfortable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Well written thriller about a hitman on the run in the wake of the assassination on JFK. (Mind! Spoilers ahead!) Frank Guidry does odd jobs for the local mob boss in New Orleans. He delivered a car to Houston some weeks ago, and once the news of the assassination of JFK breaks he is asked to get rid of the same car. Meanwhile other members of the mob Frank is part of, disappear (presumably taken out, to cover tracks). When even Lee Harvey Oswald gets killed by Jack Ruby, Frank realizes his number is up. He disposes the car and goes aground. In a parallel story Charlotte, a demure housewife to an alcoholic with two kids, living in a rural village, takes an impulsive decision to leave her husband, heading for California. In a third narrative Barone gets assigned by Carlos, the mob king, to clear out all people who could possibly be connected to the JFK killing – and he is thorough, starting with taking out the guy who supplied the guns (and killing an innocent by-passer on the road on a whim). Barone has to hunt down Frank. The game is on. Frank somehow ingratiates himself to Charlotte figuring that travelling as a husband to a mom with two kids is the perfect cover. Quite how he pulls this off is part of the fun, but he does, and in the process we enter a road movie where both adults actually fall in love with each other. Barone runs into a nasty injury (dagger through the hand) and this will prove to be his ultimate downfall (delaying his actions at crucial stages - infection – and ultimately preventing him from taking out Charlotte (and Frank). There is the mysterious Ed, millionaire playboy with quirky sexual preferences, who promises a way out for Frank (since Carlos is Ed’s arch enemy). But just when you think as a reader that all will end well, Frank does some calculations and sacrifices himself in a bold action to save Charlotte and the girls. In an epilogue, we hear what happened to Charlotte and the girls, 40 years on. Frank has proven to be a forgettable episode in the girls lives…
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A great read. The best story I've read in a long time about people in the life. Characters I will miss.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a refreshing change, in the words of an old advert! I've been hung up for a week on a novel set in the 60s which wasn't grabbing me and a history of The Great Gatsby which was boring me silly, so Lou Berney's short but sweet story of a mob fixer on the run after the Kennedy assassination was just what I needed.Another life thrown into chaos by a death in Dallas on November 22, 1963. When Frank Guidry is dispatched by legendary New Orleans crime boss Carlos Marcello to dispose of a getaway car in Texas, he realises that he is being set up and goes on the run. With a hitman on his heels and a network of his former boss' spies reporting on his every move, Frank decides to change his appearance - by taking on a wife and kids. Oklahoma housewife Charlotte Roy is also on the run, driving across the country with her two daughters and epileptic dog to find a new life in California. When Frank meets Charlotte at a motel after her car has been towed into town for repairs, the opportunity is too good to pass up - but who is out of their depth?Though thankfully plot driven, I really enjoyed the journey with charming Frank and strong-willed Charlotte. Even the hitman was a fascinating character! Frank is using Charlotte and Charlotte senses this, but both enjoy the game while it lasts - I almost wished that they would, somehow, be able to start a new life together, but much preferred the way story worked out. The Kennedy subplot was also interesting to a long-time follower of Camelot - I've only just discovered that the real Carlos Marcello was actually implicated in the assassination at one point. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but I might have to read up on that angle!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    With writing like "...the towel could have sanded the faces off Mount Rushmore", Lou Berney certainly knows how to turn a phrase, but that's just icing on the cake of November Road. He also is no stranger to crafting a fast-paced, spellbinding story populated with fully-fleshed, memorable characters. The story is told in three voices: Frank's and Charlotte's, the two people on the run, and a hitman most refer to simply as Barone.The circumstances revolving around the assassination of JFK are more than plausible, and some of the scenes brought back a childhood memory or two, as well as Guidry's escape route along Route 66. The cat-and-mouse chase can make your heart pump a little faster as first we learn where Guidry and Charlotte are before switching to Barone who's rapidly closing the distance between them. Part of me wanted a fairy-tale ending for Frank and Charlotte, who begin to fall in love the closer they get to Las Vegas, but the other part of me was still in the real world. Berney proved to be skilled at leading me on.No matter how strong the story and the writing are-- and they are-- it's the characters who make November Road something special. Theodore, a black teenager who finds himself traveling with a hitman. Charlotte, in despair over her life and the life she's giving her children, changes as she makes her escape from her sot of a husband, and her two daughters, Joan and Rosemary, are easily capable of stealing the show from time to time-- a necessary lightening of the tension that builds throughout the book. But those two children are also strong characters in their own right without becoming cloying caricatures. Even Guidry, who's spent his life living in the moment for whatever pleasure he feels like experiencing, undergoes a transformation when he comes into Charlotte's orbit.Did I get my fairy-tale ending? That's for you to find out. November Road is a marvelous book, in turn nerve-wracking, funny, heartbreaking, and almost impossible to put down. It's going to be a long time before I forget characters like Charlotte and Theodore, and it goes without saying that I'm on the lookout for more books by Lou Berney.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    4 1/2 stars. I really enjoyed this book. It is set right around the time of John F. Kennedy's assignation in November of 1963, and then proceeds to a car chase all around the USA until the story culminates in Las Vegas. This is a noir book in every way. The story is about Frank Guidry, and is run from the big mobster Carlos Marcello. Somehow Frank knows too much about a shocking event that has occurred in Dallas and it appears that Carlos was responsible for it. Carlos and his minion, Seraphine, send one of their best men after Frank. Ramone is a cold-hearted killer who will stop at nothing to get his mark. Frank knows that he's running out of time, and that Carlos can track him anywhere in the States, so he hooks up with a a young woman from Oklahoma on the run from her husband. She is travelling with her two young girls and the family dog Lucky, and he tries to cover his tracks with the new identity he has made for himself with Charlotte and the kids. There's lots of killing and murder like any good story about the mob should have, but there is more to this book than that sensationalism. Frank finds himself falling in love with Charlotte, and he starts to lose sight of the prize - the prize being keeping himself alive. Things star getting really complicated and Frank does not anyone he can trust. The plot moves ahead quite quickly, and I found myself rooting for Frank, as duplicitous as he was, and rooting for Charlotte, who finds untapped strength and depth in her own self during this cross-country adventure. As I was reading I couldn't help but put actors into the roles of Frank and Charlotte. From my much-loved noir films, I would pick Robert Mitchum and Bette Davis for these roles. My more modern choices would be Brad Pitt and Uma Thurman, but no one would have been better than Robert and Bette against the mob and the mob's relentless pursuit of mob justice. Highly entertaining, and highly recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Charlotte is raising her two daughters in a small Oklahoma town where everyone knows everyone else, and things are done as they always have been. She's married to an alcoholic who has trouble keeping a job, although his family's status in the town means he usually has one. It's 1963, and she's suffocating under the need to keep up appearances and with the lack of opportunity for women. She'd like to become a photographer, but that's out of the question. So when her husband slips out after a family dinner, she packs up her daughters and the dog and takes off, traveling west, to where an aunt she's lost touch with used to live.Frank is a mobster who has worked his way up the ladder. He's got a sweet life in New Orleans, trusted by his boss, able to rely on his charisma and smooth-talking to get things done. But when he realizes that he knows what really happened on that November day in Dallas and that his boss is systematically eliminating everyone involved, he goes on the run. But his boss has a long reach and no matter how carefully he runs, a single man is too conspicuous to get far. This is just a fantastic noir. Lou Berney has every thing in the right places and writes so very well. There's not a misstep or flat note in the entire novel, which demands to be read at far to quick a pace. Charlotte is a fantastic character and there was not a single moment when I was not pulling for her. This is just a superbly written, researched and plotted crime novel. They don't come better than this.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Book on CD performed by Jonathan McClainFrom the book jacket: Frank Guidry’s luck has finally run out. A loyal lieutenant to mob boss Carlos Marcello, he’s learned that …it’s his turn – he knows too much about the assassination of President John F Kennedy. Within hours of the murder, people with ties to Marcello are turning up dead, and Guidry suspects he’s next. He hits the road to Las Vegas where one man who hates Marcello just might help him. En route he comes across a young mother with two girls, who has her own reasons to be running. Frank sees a perfect disguise and offers to help Charlotte. My reactionsThis is a fast-paced thriller with very interesting and complex characters, and more than a few twists and turns. I love the 1963 time frame, and Guidry put me right back in that time. I travelled many of those same highways with my parents when I was a child. I vividly remember those motels, diners, and roadside attractions with their dusty giftshops full of trinkets my brother and I just HAD TO HAVE. I also remember the excitement of seeing new things, and the worry of having our car break down in a small town where we knew no one. I was quickly invested in the story and eager to see how it would turn out. I loved the way Berney wrote these characters. I could practically hear the gears grinding as Guidry tried to think three steps ahead of the assassin on his trail. Charlotte, starting out as rather meek, young and mostly uneducated, showed true mettle and a strength and determination that seemed to surprise even herself. The other characters seemed more stereotyped: ruthless mob boss, serene and equally ruthless mob girl, psychopathic assassin, young street-smart kid, oily Vegas casino magnate, and even a British butler. I listened to the audio which was marvelously performed by Jonathan McClain. He really brought these characters to life. I particularly liked the way he voiced the seven-year-old Rosemary.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It is not often that I read a book by a new author and think...wow! that was a thrilling ride.November Road by Lou Berney simply crackles along with strong characters, clear precise prose,and a really enjoyable story. Frank Guidry "former fixer extraordinaire for the Marcello organization is a hunted man. His employers are uncomfortable that he knows a little too much about the perpetrators behind the assassination of JF Kennedy in Dallas and need to terminate his employment on a permanent basis. As a separate story we learn that a beautiful young housewife Charlotte has escaped the clutches of her controlling drunken husband Dooley and is on route to the west coast with her two daughters Rosemary and Joan. As luck (or possibly not) would have it she crosses path with Guidry and this newly combined family attempt to stay ahead of those who would do them harm. As an avid reader and reviewer I often try to anticipate the direction a story is heading and how the adventure will conclude. I was pleasantly surprised with the ending of November Road as the author presents an unexpected conclusion to a cracking little crime thriller. Many thanks to the good people at netgalley for a gratis copy of November Road in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written. Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    November Road is set against the backdrop of the JFK assassination. It is a crime novel, it’s a travel story, and it’s a story about people finding themselves. Frank Guidry has spent his entire life surrounded by criminals and is trusted by the New Orleans crime family. Frank was in Dallas shortly before the assassination and now people Frank knows are turning up dead. Frank didn’t get to where he was by being dumb so he knows it’s time to disappear. When Frank spots a stranded housewife with two daughters in tow along the side of the road, he decides he’s found the perfect disguise. Charlotte is on the run herself. She’s on the run from a small-town life she realizes is stifling and a vision of a future that is all too clear and entirely too depressing. Frank finds in Charlotte a connection he’s not felt before and Charlotte likewise feels a connection she’s not had before. The people hunting Frank aren’t just going to give up and staying together may put them all in danger.Lou Berney has written a novel that defies easy categorization. The characters are relatable and sympathetic. The mood is electric, nostalgic and dangerous. Traveling across the landscape of an America devastated by tragedy yet still filled with wonder. It is also filled with brutal violence. The characters are resourceful but conflicted with feelings of hopefulness and resignation. Berney perfectly balances the feelings of discovery that Frank and Charlotte find in each other while never letting it become overly sentimental. The pursuit of Frank by the ultraviolent Barone tempers the mood. It also adds a bit of melancholy as Frank discovers the appeal that life as a family man may hold for him just at the moment that it may all be ripped away.Berney captures the twin edge of people who are both running away from something and towards something. The travel the characters embark on becomes spiritual as well as physical. None of this works without strong characters and Berney absolutely nails that. Charlotte, Frank, the girls and even Barone are all fully realized and will remain etched in your mind long after you finish the story. He wraps up the story with an ending that will run you through a gamut of emotions all over again.The narration of the audiobook by Jonathan McClain is spot on. His vocal intonation complements the characters and helps convey both the mood and the action. He doesn’t intrude on the story but enhances it. His pace matches what is going on and moves the story along navigating the complex emotional landscape of the characters. Given the setting, it is a near perfect story to listen to while driving. Highly recommended.I was provided a copy of the book by the publisher.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    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).
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I noticed this book on a number of best book lists for Fall 2018 reading. I wasn’t crazy about the plot link to the Kennedy assassination – I had read Stephen King’s excellent “11/22/63” and thought that was enough for me. But after scanning a couple of Nov Rd reviews I decided to give it a try; I’m glad I did and I will read at least one other Berney book, “The Long and Faraway Gone”.Frank Guidry works for the mob in New Orleans, he’s one of Carlos’s guys. It doesn’t take many pages to get a pretty clear picture of Frank and where his loyalties lie. A former mentor is now in trouble with the organization and contacts Frank for help. Frank agrees to a meet, though a bit reluctantly. But now what, does he help an old pal out at some risk to himself, or does he betray?Frank is a wise guy, in more ways than one. In quick succession, Frank hears of the JFK assassination, realizes he played a small though unknowing role, notes some players in the chain have been quickly eliminated, and quickly assesses his own future…..then runs. A great set-up. What next?All of a sudden we meet Charlotte, mom of two fascinating little girls, Rosemary and Joan (whom you just can’t get enough of), and wife of a not-so-secret drunk. On the spur of the moment, Charlotte flees, with the girls, the dog, an old car, and not much money. It takes a while for these on-the-run characters to hook up, but when they do they make sweet….music. For the first time in his life, is Frank in love, or is he just using this family as a cover? Remember, this is 1963, no cells, no digital anything, but there are plants everywhere (no, not the potted kind). Where are they headed? “California!” Charlotte would say. Frank would add, “yeah, but we’ll stop in Vegas first”. Vegas in the 60’s – a great place for the climax to this story.Lots of tension, well written, interesting characters although a few are really over-the-top, enough action to make a very good movie. Recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Frank Guidry is a lieutenant in Carlos Marcello's New Orleans crime family. When President Kennedy is killed in Dallas, Frank's heart jumps to his throat. He was sent to Dallas to set up a getaway just a week before. He doesn't know if the two events are connected but he does know two things for sure; the FBI won't fail to gather every clue and if Carlos is behind the shooting, he won't let anyone with knowledge against him live. Frank has no choice but to go on the run.Charlotte Roy of Woodrow, Oklahoma married into a good family. Her brother-in-law and father-in-law are lawyers. Her husband on the other hand is an alcoholic ne'er do well. Charlotte is smart and curious and in addition to suffering with her husband's behavior, she desperately wants to see and do things that aren't offered in Woodrow. She eventually screws up her courage, gathers up her two young daughters, and goes on the run. And as the song says, two worlds collide. While Berney is good with relationships, whatever they may be, this is a crime novel saturated with suspense and murder. The best crime novel I've read in awhile, it was hard to put down but also hard turning the pages because I was fearful of what would come next.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    “The prairie, weathered and leathery and endless. Like God meant to get around to it during Creation but had run out of steam.”“And Dolly would sell him out. Every human heart was rotten meat, but Dolly's was more rotten than most.”Frank Guidry is a handsome, charming, well-liked guy. He is also a career criminal, working for a New Orleans mob boss. When he is ordered to go to Dallas, to retrieve and dispose of a powder blue Eldorado, all hell breaks loose. It turns out the date is November 23rd, 1963 and things are red-hot in that fateful, Texas city. Frank finds himself on the run and like everyone else involved in this deadly scenario, he is highly disposable. He some how ends up with a young woman and her son, fleeing from a broken marriage and uses the pair as a perfect cover, as they flee to LA. Well maybe, not so perfect...This is a tight, violent and suspenseful crime novel, well-written and nicely paced. Plenty of echoes of Elmore Leonard here, but Berney has slightly better writing chops.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I'm a Lou Berney fan. Another well written book with interesting and compelling characters.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Described as being “set against the assassination of JFK,” I was expecting more of a historical fiction within the pages of this book. However, I quickly discovered this was not the premise of November Road, but rather happens to be the period in which this book takes place. Frank is a “gangster” tasked with parking a stolen car in a Dallas Parking Lot, after the assassination of JFK he quickly realizes his role and begins life on the run from his mob boss, Carlos Marcello. Charlotte is a wife and mother of two. One night, she decides to leave her alcoholic husband and hits the road. Frank and Charlotte cross paths as the story of love in unlikely places unfolds. Had the stage not been set for a JFK assassination/mob type book I may have been more receptive to the budding romance within. But, the writing felt forced as Berney injected colorful characters in an attempt to continually remind the reader of the mob influence and foundation of Frank’s story. Conversely, despite Charlotte’s emotionally grabbing backstory, she failed to resonate with me and quickly became an unlikeable character creation. Just be warned as you embark on reading this novel (should you chose to read it) that it is not a JFK assassination conspiracy, but rather an unexpected romance in the midst of escape.*Disclaimer: A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.