The Long and Faraway Gone - Lou Berney

I listened to Lou Berney's second book, Whiplash River a few years ago. (my review) I remember I really enjoyed the characters, the plot and the dialogue - well, yes - everything!

I was eager to read his newly released third book, The Long and Faraway Gone .

Summer of 1968. Oklahoma City. Six employees of a small movie theatre are brutally executed. Inexplicably, the seventh staff member is spared. That same summer, a teenage girl disappears from the state fair - her body is never found.

Twenty five years later, Genevieve's sister Julianna is still pursuing the case and looking for her sister on her own. The lone survivor of the movie theatre killings is now a private investigator who has renamed himself Wyatt.

Initially, it was the mysteries in the The Long and Faraway Gone that intrigued me - why was Wyatt spared? Did Genevieve leave town on her own or was she taken? Yes, those questions are the basis of Berney's plot, but it is the exploration of the past and the search for those answers that was the standout for this reader.

I mentioned that the characters and dialogue captured me in a previous book of Berneys. The same is true in The Long and Faraway Gone. From the opening pages, I was drawn in to Berney's story. His prose are easy,engaging and definitely entertaining. Berney has a quirky sense of humour, but is just as adept in bringing the poignant moments to the page as well. Loss on many levels for almost every character is a theme running throughout the book. There are many supporting characters that were fully fleshed out. I really enjoyed Candace - a woman who inherits a bar in Oklahoma City that ties into the past as well. I almost wish I knew what life held for her 'after'.

Berney himself lives and works in Oklahoma City. His first hand knowledge shows in the descriptions of time and place.

The final whodunit reveals are really good, but the journey there is even better. I'll be watching for Berney's next book.  Read an excerpt of The Long and Faraway Gone.  (and one last note - I really liked this cover!)

"Lou Berney is an accomplished writer, teacher, and liar who has written feature screenplays and created TV pilots for Warner Brothers, Paramount, Focus Features, ABC, and Fox, among others. His short fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, Ploughshares, the Pushcart Prize anthology, and other publications. His first novel, Gutshot Straight, was named one of the ten best debut crime novels of the year by Booklist and nominated for a Barry Award. Find out more about Lou at his website, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter."

See what others on the TLC book tour thought. Full schedule can be found here.