Caricamento
Informazioni sul libro
The Long and Faraway Gone: A Novel
Scritto da Lou Berney
Narrato da Brian Hutchison e Amy McFadden
Azioni libro
Inizia ad ascoltareDescrizione
With 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 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?
Azioni libro
Inizia ad ascoltareInformazioni sul libro
The Long and Faraway Gone: A Novel
Scritto da Lou Berney
Narrato da Brian Hutchison e Amy McFadden
Descrizione
With 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 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?
Informazioni sull'autore
LB![]()
Recensioni
Wow. New favourite author! I loved November Road and this novel is even better - Lou Berney has a wonderful knack for creating believable characters that his readers can't help but love, along with slow-building plots that keep the pages turning.In 1986, two lives are changed forever in Oklahoma City. A fifteen year old cinema employee survives the massacre of his colleagues and a thirteen year old girl loses her sister forever at the fair. Twenty six years later, private detective Wyatt Rivers is sent back to his hometown to do a favour for a friend and Julianna Rosales is still searching for the truth about her sister Genevieve's disappearance. Their paths cross - 'small town, actually,' in the words of one character - but their lives stay separate. Why was Wyatt's life spared that night at the cinema, and who was the last person to see Genevieve? Wyatt and Julianna find they need to deal with the past before they can move onto a future.I loved Wyatt, the snarky private detective who gets called a smart ass all the time, even when he's being serious. He reminded me of Nero Wolfe's legman, Archie Goodwin, but with slightly more depth. 'He balanced on his hands and waited for Wyatt's reaction. Wyatt checked to see if he had one. He didn't.' He's obviously - and understandably - messed up about what happened when he was younger, but so flippant that his trauma keeps bubbling beneath the surface until the memories boil over. Julianna, the little sister left behind, is not quite as endearing, but equally sympathetic. I don't know if I would have handed over all that money on a hunch, but her desperation felt real. Even the secondary characters - Candace and her daughter Lily, the reason Wyatt returns home, and even crackpot rockstar Finn Lyle. I loved every minute!Definitely recommended. Now I have to go and download the rest of Lou Berney's novels!
Rating: 5a great story that grips you to the end, about coping with loss and what you can never truly know.
Rating: 5I really thought this was a good book. I enjoyed the premise and the character development.
Rating: 4Set in Oklahoma City, this book follows two different people as they try to unravel their own tragedies that occurred during the summer of 1986. Wyatt was the only survivor of a theatre massacre and he cannot understand why he was spared while the others were killed. Julianna's sister disappeared one night from the fair and the last person to see her lies with every single breath. This book was fast-paced and I really enjoyed all of the side stories and mysteries. I hoped that the two stories would overlap a bit more than they did and the ending wrapped up quickly but the journey to get to the end was well worth the read. I received this book from the LibraryThing Early Reader's Program.
Rating: 4Well written with an interesting plot and varied cast of characters. Good early character development made it easy to follow when the story moved back and forth between the past and present.
Rating: 3The summer of 1986 in Oklahoma City was hot and humid; the usual. There were the usual crimes but a few were worse than others. In one, six theatre employees were lined up and killed after hours. Another saw a girl disappearing from the Oklahoma State Fair, leaving her younger sister waiting as she said she’d be right back. She usually was, but not this time.Twenty-five years later the survivors are still searching in their own ways. Wyatt somehow survived the shooting (maybe because he was covered in blood and they thought he was dead?). He has become a private investigator and ends up working a case back home. Julianna is still looking for her older sister. Neither has had resolution and this is what the book is about: resolution. In The Long and Faraway Gone, Berney gives us all we need to know about each crime. He leads us along in intricate detail and we still don’t know who and why. One of the protagonists is released form prison and he really didn’t do it, but he knows…..something. Most of the places Wyatt remembers are either shuttered or torn down but that doesn’t keep his thoughts from racing in this great who dunnit. I love books where I can’t figure out the end! The one fits that picture very well. I thought I knew, then I thought I knew. I was wrong both times. Out in February.
Rating: 5listened to Lou Berney's second book, Whiplash River a few years ago. 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. (and one last note - I really liked this cover.)
Rating: 4Excellent! Can't wait to read more by Berney.
Rating: 5In Oklahoma City, during the late summer of 1986, the employees of a movie theater are killed - everyone except Wyatt, a teenager at the time. A month later, a young woman takes her sister, Julianna, to the State Fair, walks away from her, and never returns. Twenty-six years later, Wyatt and Julianna are both trapped by a past they cannot resolve. Why wasn't Wyatt killed along with the rest of his coworkers? Why did Julianna's sister never return? A harassment case brings Wyatt, now a private investigator, back to Oklahoma City in 2012 and Julianna, who has never stopped investigating her sister's disappearance follows a new, potentially dangerous lead. Berney's three storylines illustrate growing up and living in Okalahoma City and question the reliability of memory. A leisurely read that could have been shortened to increase the intensity. Berney's plotting is clever but the novel as a whole develops too slowly to be a thrilling read.
Rating: 3There was a lot I liked about The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney and a few things that I didn’t care for. First of all, I felt the book was a little long and could have been edited down to a tighter read but there was a lot of story to cover and these assorted mysteries were all absorbing. And while I felt a great deal of sympathy for the character of Julianna, her approaches to the man she thought had abducted, and most probably murdered, her sister were unbelievable. The principal characters are Wyatt, a private detective, who was the sole survivor of a robbery and mass killing in 1986, and Julianna, whose sister disappeared from the fair one night also in 1986. The P.I. is brought back to Oklahoma City to work on a case, and being home again finds himself also re-examining what happened on that long ago night. Julianna, on the other hand, has never left Oklahoma City and is still actively pursuing any thread that could lead to answering the question of what happened to her sister. The story goes back and forth between these characters and before too long the reader is totally engaged in finding the answers to these and the current mystery that Wyatt is working on, a strange harassment of a woman who recently inherited a night club.The Long and Faraway Gone is a unique mystery, both well written and carefully plotted. With it’s two timelines and separate tragedies, this is a fascinating look at how events can set the course of one’s life, and how powerful the question of “Why” can be.
Rating: 4With two mysteries wrapped in a novel, this book has a lot going on and a lot going for it. Berney does the alternating protagonist chapter thing very well, probably because he's got two very compelling characters working their ways through two traumatic youthful tragedies in, of all place, Oklahoma City.Wyatt is the sole survivor of a massacre at a movie theatre, having been conscious and listening when five of his co-workers are murdered by his side. Years later, he is an investigator sent back to Oklahoma City for a case, and he can't prevent himself from working the old and the new simultaneously.Julianna was only ten, and idolized her teenage sister Genevieve, who disappeared from the midway at a local fair county fair.Twenty years later, both main characters are damaged, but possibly not beyond repair. The secondary cast is especially well-drawn and there's plenty of humor amid the pathos as Berney juggles multiple red herrings and keeps the reader entranced throughout.
Rating: 5I really loved this book. I loved the characters. I loved the pivotal events in their lives which were based on actual things that occurred in Oklahoma City. I loved the descriptions of Oklahoma City and the mysteries at the center of the novel. I tried to decide if I would have liked this as much if it hadn't taken place in a town with which I am very familiar. I think I would. I think the characters would have kept me engaged.
Rating: 5This book is gripping, in-depth and engaging. I thought it was so deep and moving at times. It has a setting so perfect for the book. It is one of those long books, that doesn't seem so long because you find yourself lost int he pages of the novel and when you poke your head up it has been an hour. A really great read. 4 stars
Rating: 4I don't know why it took me so long to get around to writing this review, because I liked this book a lot. I am a huge fan of books with seemingly disparate characters and storylines that slowly begin to intertwine. This novel follows the parallel stories of Wyatt and Julianna, who each continue to be haunted by separate unsolved crimes that happened within days of each other in 1986 in Oklahoma City. The book flashes back and forth between the past and present, slowly teasing out the tangled threads of these mysteries, and a couple of present-time mysteries as well. I think some people might feel that there are too many plot lines going to wrap them all up satisfactorily, but I enjoyed the stories and characters so much that the multiple storylines didn't bother me.Well-written and evocative, witty and unsettling by turns, The Long and Faraway Gone is a book that makes you nostalgic for the endless summers of your youth, while simultaneously imbuing that nostalgia with a bit of dread, a reminder of the long shadows cast by the hot summer sun.
Rating: 4This is the third novel by Lou Berney that I have read. The first two were nominated for awards by organizations devoted to the best books in various mystery categories. The premise for The Long and Faraway Gone is two separate tragic events take place during the summer of 1986 in Oklahoma City. One is a robbery and mass murder of five employees at a movie theater—unaccountably leaving one alive; the other disappearance of an 18 year old girl at the state fair—leaving her 12 year old sister by herself.Twenty-six years later the lone survivor of the mass murder, Wyatt, who had left Oklahoma City shortly after the tragedy and is now a PI in Las Vegas, is asked to help a business colleague out with a problem his niece is having with her business being vandalized for no apparent reason. Returning to OKC brings back vivid memories for Wyatt, mostly relating to survivor’s guilt that he feels and asking himself: why me, why was I spared?The little sister, Julianna, is now 38 and still obsessed with her sister’s disappearance. Julianna continues to try to find out why her sister abandoned her, what could have happened to her, and what can she do to obtain more details of the circumstances that are vague in her own mind all these years later.The story alternates between Wyatt and his efforts to help his friend and puzzle out his past and Julianna searching for answers about her sister. The story lines intersect a few times but not in a particularly meaningful way other than to conveniently drop a clue or two that eventually help both solve their cases. It is a well written book that I found enjoyable to read. I recommend it to all who enjoy reflective mysteries.
Rating: 4"The Long and Faraway Gone" is an absolute killer of a mystery, or actually two mysteries, Lou Berney has treated us with in his latest thriller. Oklahoma City, 1986 Two terrible tragedies rock the city. Six movie theater workers are killed in a robbery, only one worker survives the attack. In another part of the city, a young woman goes missing at a fair, and is never seen or heard from again. "The Long and Faraway Gone" introduces us to Wyatt, a Las Vegas based PI who's been hired to go to Oklahoma City to look into some harassing activity recently inherited by a tough-talking, hard working young mother. Readers also meet Julianna, a woman who has been running down leads and following clues since the disappearance of her sister twenty-five years ago. Wyatt and Julianna have been so impacted by the two crimes, their lives are colored by it in every way. As the layers of both crimes are uncovered both main characters put their lives on the line to finally uncover secrets from the past. This is one of those occasions where I know my review will not convey how truly wonderful this book is, and how eager I am to share it with other readers. Fans of Harlan Coben (his Myron Bolitar books) Robert Crais, and Dennis Lehane will LOVE this book. I promise.Release Date:February 10, 2015
Rating: 4I was not able to start this book when I first received it. I'm glad I waited until I really had some time to devote to it. It is a real page turner and hard to put down. I think if I had started it early in the day it would have been a one day book, not two.This is the story of two survivors of tow separate tragic events that occurred in Oklahoma City in the summer of 1986. The first is Wyatt Rivers, who at age 15 was the lone survivor of a brutal armed robbery. In the present day, he a private detective in Las Vegas. He is still haunted by the ordeal, and continues to question the reason for his survival.The other is Julianna Rosales. She was 12 when her older sister Genevieve took her to the Oklahoma State Fair. Genevieve left her alone for "15 minutes" to meet up with a carny she met that day. Genevieve was never seen again. Julianna is haunted by her sister's unknown fate. An unlikely turn of events brings Wyatt back to Oklahoma City on a case. While there, he begins to delve into his past, and the crime that changed his life. At the same time Julianna, now a nurse in Oklahoma City, has her interest in her sister's disappearance piqued by a photo on a Facebook page.Their investigations carry them to some dangerous places. Along the way, their paths intersect, but they make no real connection.This novel is really and original and very well done. While the plot sounds convoluted, it is not. The characters are interesting, sympathetic and realistic. Wyatt is not the typical fictional private investigator; he has a real depth and humanity. Many thanks to LibraryThing Early Reviewers!
Rating: 4I really enjoyed this thoughtful mystery whose solution alternated with the drama of the two main characters (strangers to each other) but who both exhibit post traumatic stress disorder, and who are both trying to understand their painful past histories. Wyatt was the sole survivor of a brutal murder in a movie theater that took 5 other lives, and Julianna is obsessed with finding out what happened to her sister Genevieve who disappeared when the two of them became separated during a visit to the state fair. Both events happened in Oklahoma City in 1986 so these events have been haunting the two for close to 26 years. As a private investigator Wyatt is lured back to Oklahoma City by a friend to investigate a series of mysterious events upsetting the owner of the Land's Inn bar. His investigation as well as his attempts to deal with his memory of the movie murders alternate with Julianna's increasingly dangerous attempts to track down what happened to her sister.Although parts of this story teetered on the edge of being believable, the author delivered a compelling story with interesting characters and a dramatic story fortunately relieved at times by Wyatt's dry humor.
Rating: 4This was a well written thought provoking mystery that has stayed with me long after I finished it. The author does a wonderful job with the alternating narratives and the main characters are believably conveyed. The minor characters are also memorable. As another reviewer has noted, the story unfolds a little slowly at first. But in a very short time the story exerts it's hold.. A compelling, evocative read.
Rating: 4Twenty-five years after two tragedies struck Oklahoma City, in the summer of 1986, two adult survivors are on their separate missions to find answers and bring closure to their losses. Wyatt reluctantly returns to the city for a case he has taken on in his role as a private detective. While investigating the harassment of a local bar owner, Wyatt can't help but be pulled back to his past as the lone survivor of a mass murder at a movie theater. Julianna attempts to find out what happened to her older sister who went missing from the State Fair around the same time. In their efforts to find answers, some mysteries are revealed, while some are left forever unanswered.I really enjoyed this novel but I was disappointed to find that the two primary characters, Wyatt and Julianna, had very little overlap. This surprised me, as most novels with two separate storylines eventually intersect to a greater degree. Nonetheless, there was good suspense and interesting characters to keep the story moving. An interesting literary thriller/mystery.
Rating: 4The Long and Faraway Gone,(Uncorrected PROOF not for sale version) Lou Berney, William Morrow An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 2015, 454 pagesWyatt Rivers is a private investigator working in Las Vegas and the first thing you should know about him is that he's not a hard boiled tough guy detective. He's not the guy you would hire if you were looking for a bodyguard. What he is, is a smart affable guy who doesn't take life too seriously and likes to kid around as he goes about his work. And he's good at his work, he knows how to use guile and his affable nature to obtain information from people as he works his cases. Wyatt's 41 years old and he's been a private investigator for long enough to know that he's good at it and the job's been good to him too. He knows he's not going to get rich doing it, but he's comfortable with a four-year-old paid off car and a three bedroom home almost paid off and a girlfriend that he cares about.But there's something else you need to know about Wyatt. Twenty-five years ago, in 1986, he was one of seven employees working in a movie theater in Oklahoma City when an armed robbery took place after closing time. The employees were lined up face down in the projection room and brutally murdered, all except for Wyatt. Wyatt left Oklahoma City trying to escape the memory of that horrific experience, but the nagging question of why was he spared continues to linger in his consciousness.Now it's 2011 and one of his clients whose thrown a lot of jobs Wyatt's way comes to him asking him for a favor. It sounds like a simple matter. A relative of the client's wife has inherited a live music club and is convinced that someone is trying to drive her out and to please his wife, the client wants Wyatt to travel to Omaha and check it out. Wyatt agrees, not wanting to say no to the client and figuring that it's probably a whole lot of nothing that can be cleared up in a few days. However, after Wyatt has agreed, it turns out that the live music club is in Oklahoma City, not Omaha. An honest mistake on the client's part, and even though Wyatt's survival philosopy regarding the Oklahoma tragedy up until now has been to leave the past in the past, he feels kind of roped in having already agreed to take on the job.Wyatt isn't the only one haunted by something that occurred in the long and faraway gone year of 1986 in Oklahoma City. A month after the movie theater massacre, a seventeen year old girl named Genevieve was stuck baby sitting her twelve year old sister Julianna at the Oklahoma State Fair because of their mother's concern occasioned by that crime. Genevieve and Julianna have a relationship outwardly characterized by teasing and insults, but underneath all the sibling ribbing, there is a caring and truly sisterly relationship.But Genevieve carries a heavy secret. She's been fooling around with drugs since she was fourteen, progressing from pot to ludes to cocaine, but on this day she's fighting within herself to stay clear of drugs. Towards the end of the day, wore out from her inner struggles, Genevieve decides to check out a party that she heard about from a carnival stand operator just for a little excitement. She tells Julianna to stay where she is and that she'll be back in fifteen minutes. Julianna is a little afraid as darkness is coming on, but reluctantly agrees to stay there until Genevieve comes back. However Genevieve never comes back and her disappearance is never solved.Twenty five years later, in 2011, Juliana is a nurse in Oklahoma City, but she has never given up trying to find out what happened to her sister, Genevieve.There's a great deal in this novel as there are multiple story lines and subplots with many well drawn characters. The main story lines, of course, concern Wyatt's investigation to uncover who wants to drive the live music club's owner out and Julianna's continuing search to find out what happened to her sister. What makes this novel more than a standard detective novel is that as we travel along with Wyatt in his quest and with Julianna in her quest, we get a fuller picture of their humanity and grow fond of them and care what happens to them. Both Wyatt and Julianna are likeable people who care about the nice people they encounter in their lives. There's plenty of suspense and surprises and colorful characters, and to use a well worn cliché, it's a page turner.My only caveat with the novel, and it's a minor one, is that I think it would benefit from some editing or revision to tighten it up.
Rating: 5This novel follows two characters--only slightly connected--who are both from Oklahoma City and are both struggling to get past unresolved mysteries from their youth. Wyatt, now a private investigator living in Las Vegas, returns to Oklahoma City as a favor for a friend, to find out who is harassing a woman who recently inherited a bar; the trip brings up buried memories, because when Wyatt was fifteen and worked at a movie theater one summer, he was the only survivor of a mass shooting and robbery there, and has since struggled to figure out why. Julianna never left Oklahoma City; she is a nurse who is obsessed with what happened to her older sister, who disappeared from the State Fair that same summer. These two characters' paths occasionally cross, but their stories are separate and are both engrossing. With three mysteries in one, this novel is understated but not slow-moving, with well-defined characters and a fascinating subtext about how we inadvertently touch so many other peoples' lives as we go about living ours.
Rating: 4Now this. This is what a crime novel should be. Set in Oklahoma City, The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney follows two people whose present is haunted by events that took place during the summer of 1986. Julianna was twelve when her older sister disappeared at the state fair. Wyatt was fifteen when the movie theater he was working at was targeted by armed thieves. In the present day, Julianne works as a nurse, but half-heartedly, living alone and still looking for her sister. The man she was going to see is back in Oklahoma City, and she's determined to find out what he knows. Wyatt works as a private investigator. He's living in Las Vegas for now, but he's hired to do a favor by looking into a possible stalking case in Oklahoma City.This is a book deeply rooted in time and place. And the setting isn't one often seen. This is a character study of how loss and uncertainty have shaped two people, and while they remain separate for much of the book, their journeys share a pattern. There's a lot going on, but Berney adeptly pulls it all together at the end in a satisfying way.
Rating: 5In The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney, 25 years have gone by since two tragedies occurred in Oklahoma City the same year. Chapters shift back and forth from 1986 to 2011. In the 1986 chapters we learn how the victims were living and how they were thinking before the crimes took place. In 2011 we see how people who knew the victims are still grappling with the unsolved crimes.Berney does a lot right with this book. He builds tension beautifully, a large empty potato chip bag on my family room floor attests to that. He also manages his characters with compassion and tolerance. And then there is the fact that I didn't figure it all out before the criminals were revealed. I can't think of a crime book that I've read in quite awhile that I liked any better.
Rating: 4Subtle is how I’d characterize this book. It’s billed as two mysteries coming together, but it really doesn’t. Wyatt’s and Juliana’s situations connect in the lightest, most tangential way. As individual stories they are quite different and Juliana’s is the most exasperating. She tells herself she’s being stupid (monumentally so), but doesn’t stop and the urge to shake her is great. Wyatt, on the other hand, is trying to be smart, but is blind to certain things that I picked up on, although not totally. Both stories are tales of fate and circumstance and how just one small thing can make a life spin out of control, or end it all together. There are some surprises along the way and both mysteries are resolved in a satisfactory way.
Rating: 3A character-driven triple mystery in what I hope will be a new series.In the summer of 1989, two teenagers in Oklahoma City survive separate tragedies. One is the sole survivor of a mass shooting at his workplace, and the other, a younger girl, is with her lovely older sister at a fair when the sister leaves her for a moment and never returns. Now, 26 years later, each has found clues to possibly solve their individual mysteries. The man is a private detective who has long ago changed his name and moved to Las Vegas. He reluctantly comes back to town to help a relative of one of his regular clients, whose newly-inherited rock club is being regularly vandalized. The visit brings nightmares as well as some ideas to follow up on in his long quest to understand why he was spared when everyone else with him was executed. The young woman, who has never left OC, is haunted by her memories of her sister, who promised she'd be right back. Each of these three have interesting backstories and stand out clearly as individuals. Even the secondary characters and the surroundings are well-drawn. And the mysteries are challenging and pull the reader happily along. Just don't go into this thinking it will be one of those tales that wrap up nice and easy - life is messy, after all.
Rating: 4I loved this book; I just can't decide if the reason I loved it is that so much of it took place in Oklahoma City in 1986. I lived in Oklahoma City in 1986, and it felt so, so accurate (albeit with the details changed--but hey, fiction) that it actually took me back to that time and kept me there for days. It doesn't help that I finished it the day before Prince died, and I cannot think of that time and place without hearing Prince in the background of my memory. So yeah, I might have gotten a little bit more involved in this book than someone without my own personal history might.
So... just to get the OKC stuff out of the way, because I can't think of anyone I knew then who would want to read this book and then sit around at Village Inn and talk about it with me for several hours, here goes:
- I recognized French Market Mall immediately, but couldn't remember if there was a theater there or not; there was one at North Park, though, and it seemed to me that perhaps those two malls were blended for the sake of fiction. It worked for me, because I could picture French Market the way it was in the 80s, with the jazz club upstairs--which seems really weird for a mall these days, and I'd think it might strike some readers as odd. But this wasn't a typical mall. It was more like a really big two-story marketplace, all done up to look like New Orleans. It was pretty cool, but mostly deserted in 1986--exactly the kind of place where what happened in the book could have happened.
- Starwind = Moon Breeze. That cracked me up.
- I remember the State Fair of Oklahoma that year. The first weekend of the fair was unseasonably hot (in the 90s), but the second weekend it did, in fact, get quite chilly at night. I remember this because I had a brand-new Liz Claiborne jacket with 2" shoulder pads that I got to wear for the first time that weekend. So assuming my memory is correct, the weather in the book is exactly accurate for that weekend 30 years ago. How many books can you say that about?
As a mystery, I thought it was pretty good, if a little unbelievable in the way that all the characters' lives were unnecessarily connected. I won't go into specifics, because those things are slowly revealed throughout the book, but it did strain fictional credibility a little.
On the other hand, I was disappointed that the two stories in the book--Wyatt's and Julianna's--didn't end up being more related to each other than they were. I kept expecting her sister to end up being part of the theater shooting somehow. I liked the way Julianna uncovered clue after clue after clue, but thought her mystery was resolved disappointingly; try as I might, I can't think how ANY of the clues she discovered led her to it. The answer seemed to come out of nowhere. I typically dislike that quite a bit, and if I didn't have such a strong personal connection to the setting I think I would have been more upset about it.
But whatever quibbles I might have, I thought it was a great read, and immediately went off to read Lou Berney's other books. I know he keeps getting compared to Carl Hiaasen, but his writing actually reminds me a little more of Lawrence Block or maybe Don Winslow. I hope he has a long and productive career.
Rating: 4So... just to get the OKC stuff out of the way, because I can't think of anyone I knew then who would want to read this book and then sit around at Village Inn and talk about it with me for several hours, here goes:
- I recognized French Market Mall immediately, but couldn't remember if there was a theater there or not; there was one at North Park, though, and it seemed to me that perhaps those two malls were blended for the sake of fiction. It worked for me, because I could picture French Market the way it was in the 80s, with the jazz club upstairs--which seems really weird for a mall these days, and I'd think it might strike some readers as odd. But this wasn't a typical mall. It was more like a really big two-story marketplace, all done up to look like New Orleans. It was pretty cool, but mostly deserted in 1986--exactly the kind of place where what happened in the book could have happened.
- Starwind = Moon Breeze. That cracked me up.
- I remember the State Fair of Oklahoma that year. The first weekend of the fair was unseasonably hot (in the 90s), but the second weekend it did, in fact, get quite chilly at night. I remember this because I had a brand-new Liz Claiborne jacket with 2" shoulder pads that I got to wear for the first time that weekend. So assuming my memory is correct, the weather in the book is exactly accurate for that weekend 30 years ago. How many books can you say that about?
As a mystery, I thought it was pretty good, if a little unbelievable in the way that all the characters' lives were unnecessarily connected. I won't go into specifics, because those things are slowly revealed throughout the book, but it did strain fictional credibility a little.
On the other hand, I was disappointed that the two stories in the book--Wyatt's and Julianna's--didn't end up being more related to each other than they were. I kept expecting her sister to end up being part of the theater shooting somehow. I liked the way Julianna uncovered clue after clue after clue, but thought her mystery was resolved disappointingly; try as I might, I can't think how ANY of the clues she discovered led her to it. The answer seemed to come out of nowhere. I typically dislike that quite a bit, and if I didn't have such a strong personal connection to the setting I think I would have been more upset about it.
But whatever quibbles I might have, I thought it was a great read, and immediately went off to read Lou Berney's other books. I know he keeps getting compared to Carl Hiaasen, but his writing actually reminds me a little more of Lawrence Block or maybe Don Winslow. I hope he has a long and productive career.
Filled with poignancy and heart, The Long and Far Away Gone resonates with feelings of love and loss. Told with tenderness and humor, the novel vividly recounts the anguish of two lost souls, Julianna and Wyatt, as they try to rationalize the events of one night almost three decades ago.
Witty and compelling. Highly recommended
Rating: 5Witty and compelling. Highly recommended
It’s been twenty-five years since two tragic events occurred in Oklahoma City, but to the people affected by the loss they incurred, the wounds have never healed. Wyatt alone survived a massacre at the movie theater where he worked, and Julianna’s sister disappeared at a fair, never to be seen again. Each is wracked by unanswered questions of why and how and who. Now a private investigator and called back to his home town on a case, all of Wyatt’s old feelings of that fateful night that he has managed to control now surface with renewed vigor. How these cold cases interact with Wyatt’s new cases make for some very compelling reading. But to some questions, there are no satisfying answers and knowing cannot bring back the dead. A suspenseful and gripping tale based on true crimes, this novel may keep you up nights, first reading it and then thinking about it.
Rating: 5Excellent, will look for more by this author.
Rating: 4