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The Long and Faraway Gone
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 fate brings these damaged souls together, their obsessive quests spark sexual currents neither can resist. 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?
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 fate brings these damaged souls together, their obsessive quests spark sexual currents neither can resist. 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?
454 pages, Paperback
First published February 10, 2015
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About the author
Lou Berney
8 books1,058 followersLou Berney is the Edgar Award-winning author of Double Barrel Bluff (November 2024), Dark Ride (2023), November Road (2018), The Long and Faraway Gone (2015), Whiplash River (2012), and Gutshot Straight (2010), all from William Morrow. His short fiction has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Ploughshares, the New England Review, and the Pushcart Prize anthology.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,466 reviews
July 29, 2015
This is a fantastic novel! I was hooked right from the beginning and just loved it. "The Long and Faraway Gone" should be on everyone's to read list!!! The novel is about two separate tragic crimes that take place in Oklahoma in 1986 and how the survivors are still searching for answers in the year 2012. The character development is fantastic! I loved the two main characters, especially Wyatt. I rarely say this about a book but this should be made into a movie! I actually could picture Wyatt being played by Edward Norton!
Read it and spread the word. Lou Berney is an incredibly talented writer, this is an incredible book, and it should be at the top of the NY Times Bestsellers List!
Read it and spread the word. Lou Berney is an incredibly talented writer, this is an incredible book, and it should be at the top of the NY Times Bestsellers List!
February 19, 2016
This is a very unique and beautifully written crime novel that examines the ways in which a single incident can alter the course of a life, the ways in which the past is always with us, and the power that our memories can hold over us.
Two separate tragedies occur in Oklahoma City in the summer of 1986. In the first, six young employees of a movie theater are shot to death in a robbery. One employee survives and is haunted by the memory of that night and by the question of why he alone was left to live. The second incident involves the disappearance of a teenage girl named Genevieve from the Oklahoma State Fair. She leaves her younger sister, Julianna, promising that she will only be gone for a few minutes. Twenty-five years later, Julianna is still waiting for her sister to return with her own life basically on hold until she can resolve the mystery of what happened that night.
Meanwhile, the boy who survived the theater massacre has changed his name and become Wyatt Rivers, a P.I. working in Las Vegas. As a favor to an important customer, who is also a friend, Wyatt agrees to investigate a case that takes him back to Oklahoma City for the first time in twenty-five years. A young woman named Candace Kilkenny has inherited a music club there and someone is harassing her, perhaps attempting to drive her out of the club and out of town.
Wyatt agrees to attempt to identify the culprit and put a stop to the harassment. But from the moment he arrives back in Oklahoma, his memories pull him back to the night of the massacre and, in addition to investigating Candace's problems, he finds himself desperately attempting to find answers to the questions about that night that have followed him ever since.
Meanwhile, Julianna is working as a nurse, her thoughts never straying far from the memory of her lost sister. She continues to hound the detective who was in charge of the case and he patiently continues to answer her questions. The principal suspect in Genevieve's disappearance was a carnival worker who had hit on Genevieve. Julianna told the police that her sister was going to meet the guy, but it turns out that he had an iron-clad alibi: he was arrested for petty theft that evening, and Genevieve was seen alive by a witness following the arrest.
The detective lets it slip the the ex-carny is back in town. When Julianna expresses a desire to talk to him, the detective warns her away. This is a seriously bad guy and she should keep her distance. But Julianna will never be able to move forward with her life until she knows that happened to her sister and so, in spite of the detective's advice, she determines to try to make contact with the guy.
Both Wyatt and Julianna are very appealing characters. Wyatt in particular, is smart and funny and lights up every page on which he appears. His relationship with Candace, who gives at least as good as she gets, is very entertaining, and both of these stories pull the reader in and refuse to let go.
Again, Berney writes beautifully; the book is very well plotted and this is one of those cases where you want to race through the book to find out what happens and then go back and re-read it very slowly to savor the experience. An easy 4.5 stars for me.
Two separate tragedies occur in Oklahoma City in the summer of 1986. In the first, six young employees of a movie theater are shot to death in a robbery. One employee survives and is haunted by the memory of that night and by the question of why he alone was left to live. The second incident involves the disappearance of a teenage girl named Genevieve from the Oklahoma State Fair. She leaves her younger sister, Julianna, promising that she will only be gone for a few minutes. Twenty-five years later, Julianna is still waiting for her sister to return with her own life basically on hold until she can resolve the mystery of what happened that night.
Meanwhile, the boy who survived the theater massacre has changed his name and become Wyatt Rivers, a P.I. working in Las Vegas. As a favor to an important customer, who is also a friend, Wyatt agrees to investigate a case that takes him back to Oklahoma City for the first time in twenty-five years. A young woman named Candace Kilkenny has inherited a music club there and someone is harassing her, perhaps attempting to drive her out of the club and out of town.
Wyatt agrees to attempt to identify the culprit and put a stop to the harassment. But from the moment he arrives back in Oklahoma, his memories pull him back to the night of the massacre and, in addition to investigating Candace's problems, he finds himself desperately attempting to find answers to the questions about that night that have followed him ever since.
Meanwhile, Julianna is working as a nurse, her thoughts never straying far from the memory of her lost sister. She continues to hound the detective who was in charge of the case and he patiently continues to answer her questions. The principal suspect in Genevieve's disappearance was a carnival worker who had hit on Genevieve. Julianna told the police that her sister was going to meet the guy, but it turns out that he had an iron-clad alibi: he was arrested for petty theft that evening, and Genevieve was seen alive by a witness following the arrest.
The detective lets it slip the the ex-carny is back in town. When Julianna expresses a desire to talk to him, the detective warns her away. This is a seriously bad guy and she should keep her distance. But Julianna will never be able to move forward with her life until she knows that happened to her sister and so, in spite of the detective's advice, she determines to try to make contact with the guy.
Both Wyatt and Julianna are very appealing characters. Wyatt in particular, is smart and funny and lights up every page on which he appears. His relationship with Candace, who gives at least as good as she gets, is very entertaining, and both of these stories pull the reader in and refuse to let go.
Again, Berney writes beautifully; the book is very well plotted and this is one of those cases where you want to race through the book to find out what happens and then go back and re-read it very slowly to savor the experience. An easy 4.5 stars for me.
September 3, 2018
The Long Ago and Far Away Gone by Lou Berney is a 2015 William Morrow/Harper Collins publication.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-
Wyatt is a private investigator who has been hired to check out the alleged harassment claims made by Candace Kilkenny, sister-in-law of another client. The case isn’t really all that worrisome on the surface, but the problem for Wyatt is that he’ll have to return to his home town of OKC, a place that holds dark memories for him- memories he’d rather not have floating to the forefront of his consciousness.
The past had power. The past was a riptide. That's why, if you had a brain in your head, you didn't go in the water.
But, he takes the case, which turns out to be far more complicated than he bargained for, and sure enough, almost right from the second he rolls into OKC, he fights a losing battle with the past, finally embracing the inevitable, hoping to find the answers to lingering questions so that he can finally come to peace with why he has survived a tragedy no one else did.
Julianna Rosales is a nurse in OKC, also haunted by the past. Years ago, her sister vanished from a carnival leaving Julianna stranded, never to be seen or heard from again. Her search for answers consumes her, all the more, as the detective who has worked on the case all these years is set to retire.
Humans, by nature, did this all the time. They wanted something, so they found reasons to support that desire. And then they convinced themselves that the reasons came first, that the reasons lead to the desire and not the other way around.
As Wyatt and Julianna each work their way out of the rabbit hole they’ve jumped into, their paths randomly cross one another in a peculiar sense of irony.
How is it that I am just now discovering this author? All I can say is -Wow!!
This literary mystery embodies two cold cases, each one doggedly pursued by the survivors of the events that transpired. The city, the spookiness of the crimes, even the nostalgia plays a part in setting the atmosphere of the novel. The characters are haunted, tortured by memories and evidence that holds the key to solving the mysteries that keep them firmly rooted in the past, but remain elusive, just out of their grasp.
Was memory like a river that slowed over time to a trickle? Or was it like a house with many rooms that become a house with fewer rooms and then finally just a single room you could never leave?
Wyatt and Julianna both put their lives at stake to free themselves from the agony of living in the continual limbo they have grown so accustomed to living in. Wyatt, however, has the added stress of working a live case for Candace, which is yet another, equally riveting mystery within this novel. It's like getting three mysteries for the price of one.
The writing is outstanding, the dialogue, the flashbacks, the poignancy, the suspense, the danger- it all grabs you and won’t let turn loose until you flip over that final page. I was sorely tempted to start re-reading this book the minute I finished it – it’s that good!
He liked to think that sometimes an ending cleared the way for a beginning.
5 stars
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-
Wyatt is a private investigator who has been hired to check out the alleged harassment claims made by Candace Kilkenny, sister-in-law of another client. The case isn’t really all that worrisome on the surface, but the problem for Wyatt is that he’ll have to return to his home town of OKC, a place that holds dark memories for him- memories he’d rather not have floating to the forefront of his consciousness.
The past had power. The past was a riptide. That's why, if you had a brain in your head, you didn't go in the water.
But, he takes the case, which turns out to be far more complicated than he bargained for, and sure enough, almost right from the second he rolls into OKC, he fights a losing battle with the past, finally embracing the inevitable, hoping to find the answers to lingering questions so that he can finally come to peace with why he has survived a tragedy no one else did.
Julianna Rosales is a nurse in OKC, also haunted by the past. Years ago, her sister vanished from a carnival leaving Julianna stranded, never to be seen or heard from again. Her search for answers consumes her, all the more, as the detective who has worked on the case all these years is set to retire.
Humans, by nature, did this all the time. They wanted something, so they found reasons to support that desire. And then they convinced themselves that the reasons came first, that the reasons lead to the desire and not the other way around.
As Wyatt and Julianna each work their way out of the rabbit hole they’ve jumped into, their paths randomly cross one another in a peculiar sense of irony.
How is it that I am just now discovering this author? All I can say is -Wow!!
This literary mystery embodies two cold cases, each one doggedly pursued by the survivors of the events that transpired. The city, the spookiness of the crimes, even the nostalgia plays a part in setting the atmosphere of the novel. The characters are haunted, tortured by memories and evidence that holds the key to solving the mysteries that keep them firmly rooted in the past, but remain elusive, just out of their grasp.
Was memory like a river that slowed over time to a trickle? Or was it like a house with many rooms that become a house with fewer rooms and then finally just a single room you could never leave?
Wyatt and Julianna both put their lives at stake to free themselves from the agony of living in the continual limbo they have grown so accustomed to living in. Wyatt, however, has the added stress of working a live case for Candace, which is yet another, equally riveting mystery within this novel. It's like getting three mysteries for the price of one.
The writing is outstanding, the dialogue, the flashbacks, the poignancy, the suspense, the danger- it all grabs you and won’t let turn loose until you flip over that final page. I was sorely tempted to start re-reading this book the minute I finished it – it’s that good!
He liked to think that sometimes an ending cleared the way for a beginning.
5 stars
January 2, 2019
This book may be the perfect example of a character driven crime story.
In 1986 two major crimes occur in Oklahoma City. A robbery of a movie theater turns into a massacre. A beautiful teenager goes missing while attending a fair. Both events are major news, but as with most things time passes and eventually they’re forgotten. But not by Wyatt and Julianna.
Wyatt was the sole survivor of the movie theater staff, and 25 years later he’s changed his name and moved to Las Vegas where he’s a private investigator doing background checks for casinos. Julianna is the sister of the missing teen who still lives in the area and is haunted by the loss.
When a major client ask him to go to Oklahoma City for a case Wyatt is reluctant to revisit his old hometown, but soon finds himself caught up in the memories of that fateful summer. Julianna is still obsessed with learning what happened to her sister, and she desperately latches on to any slim clue that might offer her answers.
This book is a little bit tricky in that its tone at first reads like a PI novel with Wyatt being a cheerful guy whose style comes across as smart ass even when he doesn’t mean to. His investigation into the harassment of a woman who inherited a bar at first seems like a major plot that you assume will somehow eventually intersect with his and Julianna’s story somehow.
What you eventually realize is that what’s really important here are the parallel stories of Wyatt and Julianna’s trying to deal with the aftermath of what they went through. They took completely different approaches. Wyatt fled his old hometown and has done everything he can not to think about it, but as he revisits his old haunts in OKC the old survivor’s guilt and questions begin to bubble up. Julianna has actively been looking for the truth for over two decades, and her behavior has become obsessive and self-destructive. Even though they’ve taken different paths in dealing with their pain what becomes clear over the course of the story is that the unanswered questions have haunted them all along.
The book didn’t go where I expected at all, and if you’re looking for some kind of thriller where it all dovetails together nicely, you’d probably be disappointed. Instead what we get is a more realistic thing where the two stories intersect in the small random ways that would happen in a small city. Some mysteries are solved, some aren’t, and some new ones arise. The real question here isn’t whether Wyatt and Julianna will ever know exactly what happened and why, it’s if they can ever get over the guilt and grief to get on with their lives.
Also, as a lifelong resident of the Midwest it’s also nice to get a work of fiction that portrays characters from somewhere other than New York or Los Angeles as real people rather than just stereotypical jokes or rubes in flyover country.
Great read, and I’m happy to hear that Lou Berney has a new book coming out this fall. I’ll definitely be checking it out.
In 1986 two major crimes occur in Oklahoma City. A robbery of a movie theater turns into a massacre. A beautiful teenager goes missing while attending a fair. Both events are major news, but as with most things time passes and eventually they’re forgotten. But not by Wyatt and Julianna.
Wyatt was the sole survivor of the movie theater staff, and 25 years later he’s changed his name and moved to Las Vegas where he’s a private investigator doing background checks for casinos. Julianna is the sister of the missing teen who still lives in the area and is haunted by the loss.
When a major client ask him to go to Oklahoma City for a case Wyatt is reluctant to revisit his old hometown, but soon finds himself caught up in the memories of that fateful summer. Julianna is still obsessed with learning what happened to her sister, and she desperately latches on to any slim clue that might offer her answers.
This book is a little bit tricky in that its tone at first reads like a PI novel with Wyatt being a cheerful guy whose style comes across as smart ass even when he doesn’t mean to. His investigation into the harassment of a woman who inherited a bar at first seems like a major plot that you assume will somehow eventually intersect with his and Julianna’s story somehow.
What you eventually realize is that what’s really important here are the parallel stories of Wyatt and Julianna’s trying to deal with the aftermath of what they went through. They took completely different approaches. Wyatt fled his old hometown and has done everything he can not to think about it, but as he revisits his old haunts in OKC the old survivor’s guilt and questions begin to bubble up. Julianna has actively been looking for the truth for over two decades, and her behavior has become obsessive and self-destructive. Even though they’ve taken different paths in dealing with their pain what becomes clear over the course of the story is that the unanswered questions have haunted them all along.
The book didn’t go where I expected at all, and if you’re looking for some kind of thriller where it all dovetails together nicely, you’d probably be disappointed. Instead what we get is a more realistic thing where the two stories intersect in the small random ways that would happen in a small city. Some mysteries are solved, some aren’t, and some new ones arise. The real question here isn’t whether Wyatt and Julianna will ever know exactly what happened and why, it’s if they can ever get over the guilt and grief to get on with their lives.
Also, as a lifelong resident of the Midwest it’s also nice to get a work of fiction that portrays characters from somewhere other than New York or Los Angeles as real people rather than just stereotypical jokes or rubes in flyover country.
Great read, and I’m happy to hear that Lou Berney has a new book coming out this fall. I’ll definitely be checking it out.
May 10, 2018
Posted at Heradas
“Sometimes the best lie was just the truth left to ripen on the branch too long."
I’m kind of a snob when it comes to physical books. There’s a very specific kind of trade paperback aesthetic that I just adore: A little shorter than a hardcover, thick ass pulpy paper, matte cover, very floppy. Think about the kind of book you can roll up a little while you’re reading, and when you set it down, it flops right back to flat. The lack of any sort of gloss coating on the covers and not too much glue in the spine means the binding is nice and malleable, so there’s no chance of it cracking if you read the book a little too hard. Seriously, if a book is like this, at the very least I am going to pick it up and flip through it. It’s just a perfect feel for a book.
I found a paperback copy of The Long and Faraway Gone in the used book store at my local library that had these exact characteristics. I picked it up, flopped through it, read the synopsis and said “Yep, getting this one.” Then I set it on my shelf and proceeded to forgot it entirely until a few months later, one night last week, when my wife decided she was going to make pasta from scratch. When I help prepare any dough based food, I tend to hinder more than help, so my job that night was to select a book and read to her while she pressed the dough. I’d step back in when it was time to boil and drain. I was taking too long at the bookshelf as usual, trying to select just the right book to fit the mood of the evening when she came in, flour all over her hands, an impatient look on her face. She closed her eyes and pointed randomly at the book from the library bookstore that I’d forgotten about. Remembering, I took it off the shelf and followed her back into the kitchen to start reading.
“Was memory like a river that slowed over time to a trickle? Or was it like a house with many rooms that became a house with fewer rooms and then finally just a single room you could never leave?"
The first thing that struck me was that it had great characters. Great, great characters. They were all so unique and different from one another, especially the secondary ones. They felt alive with their own voices. The next thing was that it had that clipped prose style that mystery novels are well known for. I loved the short, incomplete sentences. When a story calls for them, they add so much to the pace and feel of a book. The story itself dripped with youthful nostalgia for shitty summer jobs, rural summer fairgrounds, and summer flings. It dealt with loss and blame and guilt and questions of purpose. I loved how there were multiple mysteries unfolding at the same time. Some were resolved along the way, like side-quests in a videogame, or b-plots in a season arc of television. Others not until the book came fully to its close.
The setting of Oklahoma City was a nice change of pace from the usual Los Angeles, New York, Louisiana based mysteries that are a dime a dozen. Plus, OKC is only a few hours from the city I’ve been living in the last twenty years, so it was fun seeing something similar to where I live represented so well. We ended up taking turns reading it to one another and absorbed the book over the next three or four nights. It was so good that I immediately went out and bought another novel, Gutshot Straight, by the same author. It’s sitting on my shelf right now, but I want to wait a while. I’m planning on forgetting all about it, so it can be picked at random some night, and read together with my wife.
“Sometimes the best lie was just the truth left to ripen on the branch too long."
I’m kind of a snob when it comes to physical books. There’s a very specific kind of trade paperback aesthetic that I just adore: A little shorter than a hardcover, thick ass pulpy paper, matte cover, very floppy. Think about the kind of book you can roll up a little while you’re reading, and when you set it down, it flops right back to flat. The lack of any sort of gloss coating on the covers and not too much glue in the spine means the binding is nice and malleable, so there’s no chance of it cracking if you read the book a little too hard. Seriously, if a book is like this, at the very least I am going to pick it up and flip through it. It’s just a perfect feel for a book.
I found a paperback copy of The Long and Faraway Gone in the used book store at my local library that had these exact characteristics. I picked it up, flopped through it, read the synopsis and said “Yep, getting this one.” Then I set it on my shelf and proceeded to forgot it entirely until a few months later, one night last week, when my wife decided she was going to make pasta from scratch. When I help prepare any dough based food, I tend to hinder more than help, so my job that night was to select a book and read to her while she pressed the dough. I’d step back in when it was time to boil and drain. I was taking too long at the bookshelf as usual, trying to select just the right book to fit the mood of the evening when she came in, flour all over her hands, an impatient look on her face. She closed her eyes and pointed randomly at the book from the library bookstore that I’d forgotten about. Remembering, I took it off the shelf and followed her back into the kitchen to start reading.
“Was memory like a river that slowed over time to a trickle? Or was it like a house with many rooms that became a house with fewer rooms and then finally just a single room you could never leave?"
The first thing that struck me was that it had great characters. Great, great characters. They were all so unique and different from one another, especially the secondary ones. They felt alive with their own voices. The next thing was that it had that clipped prose style that mystery novels are well known for. I loved the short, incomplete sentences. When a story calls for them, they add so much to the pace and feel of a book. The story itself dripped with youthful nostalgia for shitty summer jobs, rural summer fairgrounds, and summer flings. It dealt with loss and blame and guilt and questions of purpose. I loved how there were multiple mysteries unfolding at the same time. Some were resolved along the way, like side-quests in a videogame, or b-plots in a season arc of television. Others not until the book came fully to its close.
The setting of Oklahoma City was a nice change of pace from the usual Los Angeles, New York, Louisiana based mysteries that are a dime a dozen. Plus, OKC is only a few hours from the city I’ve been living in the last twenty years, so it was fun seeing something similar to where I live represented so well. We ended up taking turns reading it to one another and absorbed the book over the next three or four nights. It was so good that I immediately went out and bought another novel, Gutshot Straight, by the same author. It’s sitting on my shelf right now, but I want to wait a while. I’m planning on forgetting all about it, so it can be picked at random some night, and read together with my wife.
February 25, 2017
It is a quiet Saturday, home alone, and I wanted to spend the time reading. No telephones, no people. It was just my luck that I have chosen this book.
This was my first encounter with Lou Berney's books. He wrote a mystery crime that turned out to be three mysteries rolled into one tale with enough oomph behind it to let me skip breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was snacks and coffee today. Then juice, then water, then some snacks again. I read everywhere I went. I noticed from my bedroom window that it was a nice cool sunny day outside. Through the window. The window said there was a day passing by outside. But I was in Oklahoma City. With Wyatt (Michael Oliver), Candace Kilkenny, Genevieve and Julianna.
In the summer of 1986, 25 years earlier, a seventeen year old girl disappeared from the annual State Fair, and six murders in a movie theater rocked the city.
Those who stayed behind had to go on with life, while their abilities to cope were hampered by the uncertainties about what happened that fateful summer.
The murders and the disappearance remained unsolved, until fate stepped in and rolled away the curtains on the secrets that were buried for so long.
I expected the usual detective drama with many misguiding clues thrown into the mix. It was there, sure. But the story was a lot more than that. In the end it was about gentle, damaged souls who were brought together by fate and confronted with their pasts. It was about bonds and friendships. It was eventually about new beginnings.
It is certainly one of the best mystery-crime novels I have read in a very long time.
I think the last time I felt this engrossed and impressed by a book, with more or less the same richness of tone and ambiance, was Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg.
More resent reads:
The Dry by Jane Harper
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
I got so much more than I ever bargained for. And that made the hours reading, which I can never get back in my life, absolutely worth it.
This novel won several awards: The Edgar Award; the Anthony Award; the Barry Award, and was nominated for 2015 LA Times Book Prize, for the best paperback original.
It my opinion it deserved them all.
RECOMMENDED!
This was my first encounter with Lou Berney's books. He wrote a mystery crime that turned out to be three mysteries rolled into one tale with enough oomph behind it to let me skip breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was snacks and coffee today. Then juice, then water, then some snacks again. I read everywhere I went. I noticed from my bedroom window that it was a nice cool sunny day outside. Through the window. The window said there was a day passing by outside. But I was in Oklahoma City. With Wyatt (Michael Oliver), Candace Kilkenny, Genevieve and Julianna.
In the summer of 1986, 25 years earlier, a seventeen year old girl disappeared from the annual State Fair, and six murders in a movie theater rocked the city.
Those who stayed behind had to go on with life, while their abilities to cope were hampered by the uncertainties about what happened that fateful summer.
The murders and the disappearance remained unsolved, until fate stepped in and rolled away the curtains on the secrets that were buried for so long.
I expected the usual detective drama with many misguiding clues thrown into the mix. It was there, sure. But the story was a lot more than that. In the end it was about gentle, damaged souls who were brought together by fate and confronted with their pasts. It was about bonds and friendships. It was eventually about new beginnings.
It is certainly one of the best mystery-crime novels I have read in a very long time.
I think the last time I felt this engrossed and impressed by a book, with more or less the same richness of tone and ambiance, was Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg.
More resent reads:
The Dry by Jane Harper
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
I got so much more than I ever bargained for. And that made the hours reading, which I can never get back in my life, absolutely worth it.
This novel won several awards: The Edgar Award; the Anthony Award; the Barry Award, and was nominated for 2015 LA Times Book Prize, for the best paperback original.
It my opinion it deserved them all.
RECOMMENDED!
July 15, 2019
4.75 Stars.
What does it mean to survive? For that matter, what does it mean to live?
In the Summer of 1986, two different violent crimes in Oklahoma City almost destroyed the lives of two people in their youths, yet both survived, if you could call it that. Now, twenty-five years later, both struggle to move on and to make sense of what they are left with.
Wyatt is now a Private Investigator living in Las Vegas. When asked by a friend to investigate a case in his former hometown, he jumps at the chance. He survived a mass shooting in a movie theatre where five people were shot and killed. Everyday he asks himself a question “Why did I survive when they are all gone?” That case went unsolved. Back where it all began, Wyatt does a little investigative work of his own.
Julianna is a nurse. Her sister Genevieve disappeared from the State Fair twenty five years ago. Gone in a flash, Julianna has never given up hope that Genevieve is still alive. Julianna searches, year after year, turning over the same leads hoping for something new to appear. Then it does.
Hopeless and Lost. Both ache for something neither can ever get back, regardless of the answers they find: “The Long and Faraway Gone.”
There are character driven novels and then there are novels written by Lou Berney. This is the second novel I’ve read by him (the first being “November Road) and I must say, I am impressed. He writes characters that settle into your soul and grow roots like a tree. The character of Wyatt gutted me. I felt what he was going through and desperately wanted to help him. If only I could have. As for Julianna, her strength surprised me. Never one did she give up and if I were her, I might have cut and run. That is what I love about Lou Berney’s writing. He makes you feel like you are right there with his characters, almost as if you are them, and that my friends is what spectacular writing is all about.
While I loved “The Long and Faraway Gone,” I didn’t quite love it as much as “November Road,” which spoke to me for different reasons. That said, this novel is absolutely brilliant and I highly recommend it if you like character driven novels and literary fiction.
Thank you to Hoopla for making this novel available.
Published on Goodreads, Amazon and Twitter on 7.14.19.
What does it mean to survive? For that matter, what does it mean to live?
In the Summer of 1986, two different violent crimes in Oklahoma City almost destroyed the lives of two people in their youths, yet both survived, if you could call it that. Now, twenty-five years later, both struggle to move on and to make sense of what they are left with.
Wyatt is now a Private Investigator living in Las Vegas. When asked by a friend to investigate a case in his former hometown, he jumps at the chance. He survived a mass shooting in a movie theatre where five people were shot and killed. Everyday he asks himself a question “Why did I survive when they are all gone?” That case went unsolved. Back where it all began, Wyatt does a little investigative work of his own.
Julianna is a nurse. Her sister Genevieve disappeared from the State Fair twenty five years ago. Gone in a flash, Julianna has never given up hope that Genevieve is still alive. Julianna searches, year after year, turning over the same leads hoping for something new to appear. Then it does.
Hopeless and Lost. Both ache for something neither can ever get back, regardless of the answers they find: “The Long and Faraway Gone.”
There are character driven novels and then there are novels written by Lou Berney. This is the second novel I’ve read by him (the first being “November Road) and I must say, I am impressed. He writes characters that settle into your soul and grow roots like a tree. The character of Wyatt gutted me. I felt what he was going through and desperately wanted to help him. If only I could have. As for Julianna, her strength surprised me. Never one did she give up and if I were her, I might have cut and run. That is what I love about Lou Berney’s writing. He makes you feel like you are right there with his characters, almost as if you are them, and that my friends is what spectacular writing is all about.
While I loved “The Long and Faraway Gone,” I didn’t quite love it as much as “November Road,” which spoke to me for different reasons. That said, this novel is absolutely brilliant and I highly recommend it if you like character driven novels and literary fiction.
Thank you to Hoopla for making this novel available.
Published on Goodreads, Amazon and Twitter on 7.14.19.
January 18, 2018
You certainly get your money’s worth by reading The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney! This is a mystery crime novel that has three plots in one book. Winner of the Edgar, Macavity, Anthony, and Barry awards, this book is a real winner.
Private Investigator Wyatt is asked to leave his current home in Vegas and travel to Oklahoma City to help a young woman, Candace, with harassment problems in the night club she just inherited. Low and behold this is Wyatt’s boyhood home that he hasn’t stepped back into for years. Wyatt is totally freaked out with the request, but must go.
Meanwhile, we are introduced to Julianne and her quest to find out what happened to her sister, Genevieve, who disappeared at a county fair many years ago.
Twenty five years ago In Oklahoma City six people were murdered at a movie theater with one survivor. This is a story written about the survivors of these crimes and their obsession to get some answers. We see what people are driven to do to get to the truth. Many past secrets are revealed.
Lou Berney’s writing is spectacular. I will certainly be looking to read more of his books.
Highly recommend!
4.5 out of 5 stars
Private Investigator Wyatt is asked to leave his current home in Vegas and travel to Oklahoma City to help a young woman, Candace, with harassment problems in the night club she just inherited. Low and behold this is Wyatt’s boyhood home that he hasn’t stepped back into for years. Wyatt is totally freaked out with the request, but must go.
Meanwhile, we are introduced to Julianne and her quest to find out what happened to her sister, Genevieve, who disappeared at a county fair many years ago.
Twenty five years ago In Oklahoma City six people were murdered at a movie theater with one survivor. This is a story written about the survivors of these crimes and their obsession to get some answers. We see what people are driven to do to get to the truth. Many past secrets are revealed.
Lou Berney’s writing is spectacular. I will certainly be looking to read more of his books.
Highly recommend!
4.5 out of 5 stars
April 23, 2019
A note about my reviews: In an effort to focus on my novel writing, I’ll be keeping my reviews a little shorter than usual. Especially books that have been out for more than a year. If you have any questions about my review feel free to comment or send me a message. Thanks
This is the first Lou Berney book that I have read, and as an aspiring novelist, I’m amazed at his ability to write something from the noir/detective fiction genre that is fresh and interesting. Taking place in Oklahoma City, the setting was unique and readers will be able to tell that he knows a lot about the area. It’s nice to know that interesting things can happen outside of New York and Los Angeles. He also takes on a daunting theme. Both of the main characters in the novel are struggling with traumatic events from their past. Both are still searching for answers that they may or may not find. The fascinating thing about this book is the way the main characters deal with the closure or lack of closure relating to these events. I really didn’t expect any of the twists that Berney was able to weave into the plot. It is a little slow in the beginning but that is by design, as Berney is setting readers up for the dramatic climax and resolution. I could definitely see this turned into a TV series or a movie. It fits perfectly in the category of character driven dramas
This is the first Lou Berney book that I have read, and as an aspiring novelist, I’m amazed at his ability to write something from the noir/detective fiction genre that is fresh and interesting. Taking place in Oklahoma City, the setting was unique and readers will be able to tell that he knows a lot about the area. It’s nice to know that interesting things can happen outside of New York and Los Angeles. He also takes on a daunting theme. Both of the main characters in the novel are struggling with traumatic events from their past. Both are still searching for answers that they may or may not find. The fascinating thing about this book is the way the main characters deal with the closure or lack of closure relating to these events. I really didn’t expect any of the twists that Berney was able to weave into the plot. It is a little slow in the beginning but that is by design, as Berney is setting readers up for the dramatic climax and resolution. I could definitely see this turned into a TV series or a movie. It fits perfectly in the category of character driven dramas
February 28, 2015
I'll be honest: the first thing that drew me to Lou Berney's
The Long and Faraway Gone
was the lettering of the title on its cover. (Admit it: it's happened to you before, too.) Because it looked similar to some other books I've enjoyed recently (particularly Marian Palaia's
The Given World
), I was intrigued.
And then I started reading the book...and was instantly hooked. Holy wow, this book is fantastic.
"The past had power. The past was a riptide. That's why, if you had a brain in your head, you didn't go in the water."
In 1986, two separate crimes rocked Oklahoma City. In a rundown movie theater, six employees were killed in a robbery, although one mysteriously survived. And then at the State Fair, Genevieve, a teenage girl, disappeared after leaving her younger sister on the midway for a few minutes. No answers were ever found in either crime.
Twenty-five years later, Wyatt, a private investigator in Las Vegas, is asked to do a favor for a friend and look into a case in Oklahoma City involving a relative of his wife. The young woman, who was bequeathed a rundown music club by a man she knew vaguely, has become the victim of strange, harassing incidents, ostensibly to get her to sell. But while the case itself proves more challenging than he thinks it is, returning to Oklahoma City dredges up more memories than Wyatt can handle, and reminds him of questions he never could answer.
Julianna was 12 years old when her sister Genevieve disappeared. Despite the fact that the police never were able to figure out what happened to her, Julianna has never given up trying to solve the mystery, at the expense of her relationships, her career, and often her sanity. When a person from those days re-emerges, she is willing to risk everything she has to find the answers she so desperately needs.
"The landscape of memory was like that. Sometimes the near seemed far, far away and the faraway was right beneath your feet."
This book is so powerfully written, so compelling. If you've ever found yourself unable to move on from something that once happened to you, you can identify, although perhaps only on a small scale, with these characters. And they're wonderfully memorable characters, so desperate to move on with their lives but utterly unable to pull themselves away from the past. This book is both hopeful and sad, and Berney did such a great job shifting perspectives between Julianna and Wyatt, and from past to present.
I had never heard of Berney before, but I am definitely interested in reading his earlier books. He's a tremendously talented storyteller, and The Long and Faraway Gone was just a fantastic book.
See all of my reviews (and other stuff) at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
And then I started reading the book...and was instantly hooked. Holy wow, this book is fantastic.
"The past had power. The past was a riptide. That's why, if you had a brain in your head, you didn't go in the water."
In 1986, two separate crimes rocked Oklahoma City. In a rundown movie theater, six employees were killed in a robbery, although one mysteriously survived. And then at the State Fair, Genevieve, a teenage girl, disappeared after leaving her younger sister on the midway for a few minutes. No answers were ever found in either crime.
Twenty-five years later, Wyatt, a private investigator in Las Vegas, is asked to do a favor for a friend and look into a case in Oklahoma City involving a relative of his wife. The young woman, who was bequeathed a rundown music club by a man she knew vaguely, has become the victim of strange, harassing incidents, ostensibly to get her to sell. But while the case itself proves more challenging than he thinks it is, returning to Oklahoma City dredges up more memories than Wyatt can handle, and reminds him of questions he never could answer.
Julianna was 12 years old when her sister Genevieve disappeared. Despite the fact that the police never were able to figure out what happened to her, Julianna has never given up trying to solve the mystery, at the expense of her relationships, her career, and often her sanity. When a person from those days re-emerges, she is willing to risk everything she has to find the answers she so desperately needs.
"The landscape of memory was like that. Sometimes the near seemed far, far away and the faraway was right beneath your feet."
This book is so powerfully written, so compelling. If you've ever found yourself unable to move on from something that once happened to you, you can identify, although perhaps only on a small scale, with these characters. And they're wonderfully memorable characters, so desperate to move on with their lives but utterly unable to pull themselves away from the past. This book is both hopeful and sad, and Berney did such a great job shifting perspectives between Julianna and Wyatt, and from past to present.
I had never heard of Berney before, but I am definitely interested in reading his earlier books. He's a tremendously talented storyteller, and The Long and Faraway Gone was just a fantastic book.
See all of my reviews (and other stuff) at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
November 27, 2015
2.5★
I was underwhelmed with this one. Two tragic events in two different lives that have haunted and twisted the years that follow. Both of the victims still searching for answers. Throw in a new PI case for one of the protagonists and we have a constant going back and forth between then and now, sometimes from one paragraph or sentence to another which I found annoying. Two case histories and three present day searches for answers which have nothing in common and barely intersect. Julianna's interactions with the man she is convinced knows what happened to her sister were unbelievable and stupid. It was too long as I was losing interest by the midway point, counting pages, thinking it would be better experienced on film. It well portrayed how trauma and loss in the past infects everything in the present and how emotionally difficult navigating life becomes. I just did not connect well with these characters and so could not get personally invested in how it would all be neatly wrapped up at the end accept for that postscript from the point of view of the sister long gone. That was a really nice touch.
I was underwhelmed with this one. Two tragic events in two different lives that have haunted and twisted the years that follow. Both of the victims still searching for answers. Throw in a new PI case for one of the protagonists and we have a constant going back and forth between then and now, sometimes from one paragraph or sentence to another which I found annoying. Two case histories and three present day searches for answers which have nothing in common and barely intersect. Julianna's interactions with the man she is convinced knows what happened to her sister were unbelievable and stupid. It was too long as I was losing interest by the midway point, counting pages, thinking it would be better experienced on film. It well portrayed how trauma and loss in the past infects everything in the present and how emotionally difficult navigating life becomes. I just did not connect well with these characters and so could not get personally invested in how it would all be neatly wrapped up at the end accept for that postscript from the point of view of the sister long gone. That was a really nice touch.
June 9, 2024
My introduction to the fiction of Lou Berney is The Long and Faraway Gone. Published in 2015, this is a unique and often very enthralling mystery that alternates between several mysteries, of the professional and personal variety, of two characters: a private detective on a job who returns to city he inexplicably survived a movie theater massacre in, and a nurse haunted by the disappearance of her older sister from a state fair when she was twelve years old.
Born and raised in Oklahoma City, Berney sets most of the action there and gets tremendous value from his location, with a landscape flatter than most scenic American cities, where the strange stands out a little more. The most compelling portions of the book involve how and why Wyatt Rivers--a smart-ass who's very good at digging up secrets--was spared in the armed robbery in which six of his co-workers were murdered, and the disappearance of Genevieve Rosales from the annual state fair, a scary environment where transiency and access to freeways make investigating crimes extremely difficult.
Genevieve's vanishing haunts her younger sister Juliana, and as most novels that alternate between storylines, I wanted to get back to Wyatt's chapters. Juliana, as an amateur detective, is reduced to stalking a carny who's been released from prison and she remains convinced knows more about her sister's unsolved disappearance then he's admitted. She's out of her element and Berney seems a bit unsure of how to make her as compelling as Wyatt, who not only survived a trauma in his youth but is actively working an equally baffling harassment case for a young woman who owns a nightclub in OKC someone badly wants her to vacate.
The writing is energetic, dialogue sharp, and characters leap from the page. Wyatt's move theater co-workers are every co-worker I've ever shared a shift with. The novel is anchored by two terrifying crimes, one of which I was drawn into much more than the other. Berney springs a good twist near the end--for readers who appreciate those--and the details he's able to share regarding OKC were wonderful, with the coffeeshops filled with music majors and the tornado sirens tested Saturdays at noon. I would've liked the two storylines integrated better, but both are well-written meditations on memory and how unreliable a tool it is for processing that which may ultimately be unknowable.
Born and raised in Oklahoma City, Berney sets most of the action there and gets tremendous value from his location, with a landscape flatter than most scenic American cities, where the strange stands out a little more. The most compelling portions of the book involve how and why Wyatt Rivers--a smart-ass who's very good at digging up secrets--was spared in the armed robbery in which six of his co-workers were murdered, and the disappearance of Genevieve Rosales from the annual state fair, a scary environment where transiency and access to freeways make investigating crimes extremely difficult.
Genevieve's vanishing haunts her younger sister Juliana, and as most novels that alternate between storylines, I wanted to get back to Wyatt's chapters. Juliana, as an amateur detective, is reduced to stalking a carny who's been released from prison and she remains convinced knows more about her sister's unsolved disappearance then he's admitted. She's out of her element and Berney seems a bit unsure of how to make her as compelling as Wyatt, who not only survived a trauma in his youth but is actively working an equally baffling harassment case for a young woman who owns a nightclub in OKC someone badly wants her to vacate.
The writing is energetic, dialogue sharp, and characters leap from the page. Wyatt's move theater co-workers are every co-worker I've ever shared a shift with. The novel is anchored by two terrifying crimes, one of which I was drawn into much more than the other. Berney springs a good twist near the end--for readers who appreciate those--and the details he's able to share regarding OKC were wonderful, with the coffeeshops filled with music majors and the tornado sirens tested Saturdays at noon. I would've liked the two storylines integrated better, but both are well-written meditations on memory and how unreliable a tool it is for processing that which may ultimately be unknowable.
September 17, 2017
I will start with saying that this was a really good book with a very interesting story or stories since it is actually two stories that parallel each other even though they take place in the same town.
Wyatt returns twenty-fives later to Oklahoma City. He has changed his name so we do not know among the people in the movie theater he was. If it weren't for his latest case would he probably have stayed as far away from Oklahoma City that could, but he owned a friend a favor so he is in the city and the memories come back. He can't let the movie theater murders while he investigates his case and he soon begins to question things about it.
Meanwhile, in the city is Julianna, the little sister of Genevieve. Genevieve disappeared a while before the murders and Julianna has never been able to let it go completely. Then, she finds out that the person that the police suspected the most for the disappearing is back in town.
It was really engrossing following these two lost souls in the city each with their own memories of a night twenty-five years earlier. I thought in the beginning that they would have more interactions, but the random encounters were much more interesting than that they would somehow meet and start to work together or something.
They are both damaged people, both with one memory that has shaped their lives, but not really able to live the lives to the fullest because they can't let the past go. Wyatt is asking a simple question; why? Why did he survive? Julianna is wondering what happened to her sister, why did disappear? Did someone take her?
A great read, I enjoyed it immensely!
I received this copy from the publisher through NetGalley and from TLC Book Tours in return for an honest review!
Wyatt returns twenty-fives later to Oklahoma City. He has changed his name so we do not know among the people in the movie theater he was. If it weren't for his latest case would he probably have stayed as far away from Oklahoma City that could, but he owned a friend a favor so he is in the city and the memories come back. He can't let the movie theater murders while he investigates his case and he soon begins to question things about it.
Meanwhile, in the city is Julianna, the little sister of Genevieve. Genevieve disappeared a while before the murders and Julianna has never been able to let it go completely. Then, she finds out that the person that the police suspected the most for the disappearing is back in town.
It was really engrossing following these two lost souls in the city each with their own memories of a night twenty-five years earlier. I thought in the beginning that they would have more interactions, but the random encounters were much more interesting than that they would somehow meet and start to work together or something.
They are both damaged people, both with one memory that has shaped their lives, but not really able to live the lives to the fullest because they can't let the past go. Wyatt is asking a simple question; why? Why did he survive? Julianna is wondering what happened to her sister, why did disappear? Did someone take her?
A great read, I enjoyed it immensely!
I received this copy from the publisher through NetGalley and from TLC Book Tours in return for an honest review!
March 25, 2016
This was such a hauntingly fantastic book, I read it a while ago and I still think about it. I can't believe it didn't get more attention! It's the tale of two different crimes and how it affects the future of the survivors. I think it would be particularly enjoyable for someone who is familiar with OKC as it's almost a central character in the story.
December 9, 2020
This is a terrific mystery, but it is also the story of two people unable to move on from past tragedies until they get some resolution. It's not surprising that this author also writes screenplays, because this book would make a wonderful movie. In fact there is enough going on in this book for an entire television mini-series. There are three intricately plotted mysteries here, linked primarily by their setting in Oklahoma City and tangentially by the involvement of a Las Vegas private detective named Wyatt.
All of the characters in this book are realistic and well developed, but my favorite was Wyatt who dealt with his pain with humor and intelligence. Nothing in this book was predictable. I found the ending of the book a little too tidy, but all in all this was a very enjoyable book and I would definitely like to read more by this author.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
All of the characters in this book are realistic and well developed, but my favorite was Wyatt who dealt with his pain with humor and intelligence. Nothing in this book was predictable. I found the ending of the book a little too tidy, but all in all this was a very enjoyable book and I would definitely like to read more by this author.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
January 6, 2019
4.5 Stars, rounded up.
My first read of 2019 was a near perfect book. It ticked all the right boxes: engaged me right away; never sagged in the middle; excellent writing and totally unputdownable. This is a mystery/crime novel and if that is a genre you enjoy reading, this is definitely one of the best I've read in a long time.
The story begins in the present- we meet Wyatt, a PI in Las Vegas, who goes back to Oklahoma City as a favor to a friend. Wyatt was the lone survivor of a massacre that took place in 1986 that was never completely solved. Going back brings back so many memories.
" The landscape of memory was like that. Sometimes the near seemed far, far away and the faraway was right beneath your feet."
We also meet Julianna whose sister went missing in 1986 and was never found.
" Was memory like a river that slowed over time to a trickle? Or was it like a house with many rooms that became a house with fewer rooms and then finally just a single room you could never leave."
Neither have been able to escape their past. Both are still feeling the reverberations of those crimes and both keep searching for answers. The author has done such a wonderful job of connecting past and present- both flow seamlessly throughout.
"There was a lesson here for Wyatt, wasn't there? He could walk out the far gate and out of the past. All he had to do was leave behind the dead and stop asking questions."
The people in this book are people you care about. I can hardly wait to read more by this author. I highly recommend this book!!
My first read of 2019 was a near perfect book. It ticked all the right boxes: engaged me right away; never sagged in the middle; excellent writing and totally unputdownable. This is a mystery/crime novel and if that is a genre you enjoy reading, this is definitely one of the best I've read in a long time.
The story begins in the present- we meet Wyatt, a PI in Las Vegas, who goes back to Oklahoma City as a favor to a friend. Wyatt was the lone survivor of a massacre that took place in 1986 that was never completely solved. Going back brings back so many memories.
" The landscape of memory was like that. Sometimes the near seemed far, far away and the faraway was right beneath your feet."
We also meet Julianna whose sister went missing in 1986 and was never found.
" Was memory like a river that slowed over time to a trickle? Or was it like a house with many rooms that became a house with fewer rooms and then finally just a single room you could never leave."
Neither have been able to escape their past. Both are still feeling the reverberations of those crimes and both keep searching for answers. The author has done such a wonderful job of connecting past and present- both flow seamlessly throughout.
"There was a lesson here for Wyatt, wasn't there? He could walk out the far gate and out of the past. All he had to do was leave behind the dead and stop asking questions."
The people in this book are people you care about. I can hardly wait to read more by this author. I highly recommend this book!!
June 13, 2015
The Hook - I picked this up on the recommendation of my GR friend JenniferM. In addition to her 5 star endorsement, she also mentioned that she could picture Edward Norton playing the main character, Wyatt in the movie. Ed Norton. You got me!
The Line –
”EDWARD O’KELLEY
1858-1904
THE MAN WHO KILLED
THE MAN WHO KILLED JESSIE JAMES”
Woven into the story this gravestone marker of Edward O’Kelley sent me on a quest to read more about him. This wikipedia site should provide enough information.
Edward Capehart O’Kelley
The Sinker – Told in dual timelines and outlining two separate tragedies in Oklahoma City, Long and Faraway Gone could be called cold case fiction, perhaps mystery, or as I see it, just a darn good story with characters that I cared about.
The book opens at the Pheasant Run Twin Theater in 1986. Bingham, the eighteen-year old manager and his limited night crew are performing last minute closing chores. Sitting in his office Bingham begins to fill out the next week’s schedule when there’s a knock on the door.
“He opened the door. A man stood there. Something was wrong with his face—his features were flattened and smoothed, like they’d been burned, like they’d melted together.
In the next instant Bingham realized the man had a pair of pantyhose pulled over his head. He had a shotgun in his hands.”
Skip ahead to 2012 where we meet Wyatt, now a private eye in Las Vegas, but once one of that night crew. He’s our eye to the past and the crime that was committed that long ago night. When a job snags him into returning home to help a friend, Wyatt will revisit circumstances of his life that haunt him to this day.
Tragedy two. We’re at the 1986 Oklahoma State Fair with sisters, seventeen-year-old Genevieve and her twelve year old Julianna. Genevieve has a flirtatious encounter with a carny resulting in a Pink Panther for Julianna and an invitation to Genevieve from the greasy haired guy to meet him after dark. At approximately 7:30PM, not even dark, Genevieve leaves Julianna sitting outside the rodeo tent, with ten bucks and the promise to be back soon. Genevieve is never seen again.
2012 – Julianna, now in her thirties is still seeking answers in the disappearance and likely death of her sister. Back in 1986 she wasn’t as naïve as her sister thought. Julianna knew Genevieve had problems, including a big drug one, but she also knew her sister loved her and wouldn’t just leave her.
The search for answers in order to make sense of the present, to bring closure to the past and to purge oneself of guilt are central themes in Long and Faraway Gone. The bit players that surround both Wyatt and Julianna’s lives and the events of both 1986 and 2012 make for fine reading.
In the hope of not giving away too much, another thing that interested me in Wyatt’s story was a similar event that took place in my early married years that led to questions of why; events that haunt for a lifetime even when things are seemingly explained.
Thank you JenniferM for introducing me to Lou Berney, a quirky, young up and coming author who writes with a sense of humor and an understanding of what makes us see the scene as well as the people. As for Ed Norton playing Wyatt in the movie, yes, I can see it too.
The Line –
”EDWARD O’KELLEY
1858-1904
THE MAN WHO KILLED
THE MAN WHO KILLED JESSIE JAMES”
Woven into the story this gravestone marker of Edward O’Kelley sent me on a quest to read more about him. This wikipedia site should provide enough information.
Edward Capehart O’Kelley
The Sinker – Told in dual timelines and outlining two separate tragedies in Oklahoma City, Long and Faraway Gone could be called cold case fiction, perhaps mystery, or as I see it, just a darn good story with characters that I cared about.
The book opens at the Pheasant Run Twin Theater in 1986. Bingham, the eighteen-year old manager and his limited night crew are performing last minute closing chores. Sitting in his office Bingham begins to fill out the next week’s schedule when there’s a knock on the door.
“He opened the door. A man stood there. Something was wrong with his face—his features were flattened and smoothed, like they’d been burned, like they’d melted together.
In the next instant Bingham realized the man had a pair of pantyhose pulled over his head. He had a shotgun in his hands.”
Skip ahead to 2012 where we meet Wyatt, now a private eye in Las Vegas, but once one of that night crew. He’s our eye to the past and the crime that was committed that long ago night. When a job snags him into returning home to help a friend, Wyatt will revisit circumstances of his life that haunt him to this day.
Tragedy two. We’re at the 1986 Oklahoma State Fair with sisters, seventeen-year-old Genevieve and her twelve year old Julianna. Genevieve has a flirtatious encounter with a carny resulting in a Pink Panther for Julianna and an invitation to Genevieve from the greasy haired guy to meet him after dark. At approximately 7:30PM, not even dark, Genevieve leaves Julianna sitting outside the rodeo tent, with ten bucks and the promise to be back soon. Genevieve is never seen again.
2012 – Julianna, now in her thirties is still seeking answers in the disappearance and likely death of her sister. Back in 1986 she wasn’t as naïve as her sister thought. Julianna knew Genevieve had problems, including a big drug one, but she also knew her sister loved her and wouldn’t just leave her.
The search for answers in order to make sense of the present, to bring closure to the past and to purge oneself of guilt are central themes in Long and Faraway Gone. The bit players that surround both Wyatt and Julianna’s lives and the events of both 1986 and 2012 make for fine reading.
In the hope of not giving away too much, another thing that interested me in Wyatt’s story was a similar event that took place in my early married years that led to questions of why; events that haunt for a lifetime even when things are seemingly explained.
Thank you JenniferM for introducing me to Lou Berney, a quirky, young up and coming author who writes with a sense of humor and an understanding of what makes us see the scene as well as the people. As for Ed Norton playing Wyatt in the movie, yes, I can see it too.
April 7, 2022
I have never read this author before but had read so many good reviews about this book. I had been wanting to give it a try and now I will definitely read mroe by this author. This book was so good. I did not want to start reading it. The writing was excellent and the characters were excellent. This is a story about two people who were involved in tragedies in their hometown of Oklahoma City in their earlier lives and how they both were still looking for answers. I thought by the end of the book, the author would connect the two characters more than he did, but he did not. They did cross paths a few times in the story but it was two seperate stories intertwined. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
April 25, 2015
Why me? Why did I survive when they are "all gone". Why? Why?
This novel is so specifically focused on six different unique and precise characterizations, that I could not go with my first 4 star rating instinct, but had to cave to a complete five by the end. It's nearly perfect. 4.5 star at least, with possibly a 1/2 star lost only in a minor degree to over length.
Rarely, rarely do crossover, but still basically mystery genre fare, those novels which include action or modern character studies in series forms, hit this level of superior psychological connection. This author is deeply skilled in peeling back layers of a personality, the crux of an inter-relationship between work-mates or friends or closest family. The invisible insecurities, the self-identity or self-guilt well disguised! Nuance of tone or connotation for place memory are sublimely perfect in this book. He grabs the perceived cognition, its placement, its lifespan in retrieval, its lasting fragment of rediscovery. All of Wyatt's or Julianna's memory exposed. Trauma shock mixed with giggling- exactly as it happens. Not just the visual flashes, or the aromas of recognition, nor the moments of stomach leaping step backs. But the fragments of those moments of your past that float out of your nightmares as you remember the worst you've survived on "THAT" day. He knows real people. He knows PTSD. He knows the "why me" of a "never the same again" victim. He knows the residue of separateness also buried within victims that physically survive, but have their emotional and intellectual "me" forever altered.
Once in a blue moon, do you come across a writer in accepted "lighter" entertainment print that connects all the features that Lou Berney has fused into this book. Fabulous plot of duo events exposed too. Both which intertwine in tensions and in reveals on even paces. Masterly!
The book is narrated by different characters in varying chapters. Most are from eyes of the two seekers for answers, Wyatt and Julianna- and both in respectively different searches. But both concern a 26 year old summer when their lives are altered beyond a severance.
And the most confusing to this review, is that when I started this book, after about 40 pages- I wouldn't have given it past a 3. The beginning was only a tiny string to pull on a humongous rocket. Beginnings are usually a good judge or accurate estimation of what might be coming up. Not this time!
Then there is Oklahoma City on top of it! Honestly, what a locale feel this novel holds. I want to see a movie made of this book with the Halloween Parade featured as our Chicago Van Steuben Day Parade was featured in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". I could see the Zombies on stilts with their huge heads and the Fair scenes of 1986 too. Or the zoo at the end. But not just, and always, the Bomb Memorial.
Now I have another author to add to the "read all of their's" list.
I highly recommend this read, although it has a harsh reality. I could cry thinking about Karlene going to Hawaii. The dreams we have we never get to live. The choices that perps take all away from their victims.
We had an event almost identical as this Movie Theater tragedy in my own town. It is the only multi-murder that ever occurred too. The numbers the same exact, the lone survivor- extremely similar. I wondered if the author used it for a model, that is how similar it was. It was in a Lane Bryant, not a Theatre- but a misfire on one. Our Wyatt has had her identity changed and has been relocated. Being a victim in the past myself, but on a lesser scale in degree and in numbers, I can't imagine how at 19 or 20 she could have done otherwise.
Lou Berney knows how it goes for victims. And he lets you connect to those after effects for those who have had their choices taken away forever by their "interesting" times.
This novel is so specifically focused on six different unique and precise characterizations, that I could not go with my first 4 star rating instinct, but had to cave to a complete five by the end. It's nearly perfect. 4.5 star at least, with possibly a 1/2 star lost only in a minor degree to over length.
Rarely, rarely do crossover, but still basically mystery genre fare, those novels which include action or modern character studies in series forms, hit this level of superior psychological connection. This author is deeply skilled in peeling back layers of a personality, the crux of an inter-relationship between work-mates or friends or closest family. The invisible insecurities, the self-identity or self-guilt well disguised! Nuance of tone or connotation for place memory are sublimely perfect in this book. He grabs the perceived cognition, its placement, its lifespan in retrieval, its lasting fragment of rediscovery. All of Wyatt's or Julianna's memory exposed. Trauma shock mixed with giggling- exactly as it happens. Not just the visual flashes, or the aromas of recognition, nor the moments of stomach leaping step backs. But the fragments of those moments of your past that float out of your nightmares as you remember the worst you've survived on "THAT" day. He knows real people. He knows PTSD. He knows the "why me" of a "never the same again" victim. He knows the residue of separateness also buried within victims that physically survive, but have their emotional and intellectual "me" forever altered.
Once in a blue moon, do you come across a writer in accepted "lighter" entertainment print that connects all the features that Lou Berney has fused into this book. Fabulous plot of duo events exposed too. Both which intertwine in tensions and in reveals on even paces. Masterly!
The book is narrated by different characters in varying chapters. Most are from eyes of the two seekers for answers, Wyatt and Julianna- and both in respectively different searches. But both concern a 26 year old summer when their lives are altered beyond a severance.
And the most confusing to this review, is that when I started this book, after about 40 pages- I wouldn't have given it past a 3. The beginning was only a tiny string to pull on a humongous rocket. Beginnings are usually a good judge or accurate estimation of what might be coming up. Not this time!
Then there is Oklahoma City on top of it! Honestly, what a locale feel this novel holds. I want to see a movie made of this book with the Halloween Parade featured as our Chicago Van Steuben Day Parade was featured in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". I could see the Zombies on stilts with their huge heads and the Fair scenes of 1986 too. Or the zoo at the end. But not just, and always, the Bomb Memorial.
Now I have another author to add to the "read all of their's" list.
I highly recommend this read, although it has a harsh reality. I could cry thinking about Karlene going to Hawaii. The dreams we have we never get to live. The choices that perps take all away from their victims.
We had an event almost identical as this Movie Theater tragedy in my own town. It is the only multi-murder that ever occurred too. The numbers the same exact, the lone survivor- extremely similar. I wondered if the author used it for a model, that is how similar it was. It was in a Lane Bryant, not a Theatre- but a misfire on one. Our Wyatt has had her identity changed and has been relocated. Being a victim in the past myself, but on a lesser scale in degree and in numbers, I can't imagine how at 19 or 20 she could have done otherwise.
Lou Berney knows how it goes for victims. And he lets you connect to those after effects for those who have had their choices taken away forever by their "interesting" times.
June 19, 2015
As far as a great absorbing beach read, this is a 5 star novel. It’s fast paced and funny. It’s a multiple mystery story with no obvious plot answers.
In the “Long and Faraway Gone”, two main characters are troubled from past events that occurred in their youth. Wyatt survived a movie theater carnage where he is the only theater worker left alive. Julianna’s older sister mysteriously disappeared while leaving a young Julianna alone and forgotten at the State Fair. Both Wyatt and Julianna are plagued by the question “why?” Twenty-five years after that summer that both these events occurred in Oklahoma City, Wyatt, who is now a PI, is hired to solve an entirely different current case in Oklahoma City. At the same time, Julianna is suffering from angst as to why her sister left her at the fair. While Wyatt is trying to solve his current case, the events of his high school life changing night overtake his attention.
Lou Berney does a great job of writing three different mysteries in one novel. He juggles between each mystery. It’s streamlined and melded into one great novel. Berney explores the human memory and the tricks our mind plays. He examines how traumatic events become a piece of our person whether we want the events to affect us or not. Finally, the guy is able to write a decent mystery plot…three mystery plots. I adore books like this for my summer reading.
In the “Long and Faraway Gone”, two main characters are troubled from past events that occurred in their youth. Wyatt survived a movie theater carnage where he is the only theater worker left alive. Julianna’s older sister mysteriously disappeared while leaving a young Julianna alone and forgotten at the State Fair. Both Wyatt and Julianna are plagued by the question “why?” Twenty-five years after that summer that both these events occurred in Oklahoma City, Wyatt, who is now a PI, is hired to solve an entirely different current case in Oklahoma City. At the same time, Julianna is suffering from angst as to why her sister left her at the fair. While Wyatt is trying to solve his current case, the events of his high school life changing night overtake his attention.
Lou Berney does a great job of writing three different mysteries in one novel. He juggles between each mystery. It’s streamlined and melded into one great novel. Berney explores the human memory and the tricks our mind plays. He examines how traumatic events become a piece of our person whether we want the events to affect us or not. Finally, the guy is able to write a decent mystery plot…three mystery plots. I adore books like this for my summer reading.
December 20, 2019
'The Long and FarAway Gone' by Lou Berney is engrossing as a character study as much as it is about a mystery. Both are sometimes unsolvable, yes?
The book follows several characters in alternating chapters, switching between 1986 and 2012. We meet:
-Wyatt Rivers, one of two main characters, private detective. His original name was Michael Oliver.
-Julianna Rosales, main character, nurse and grieving sister of the missing Genevieve.
-Bingham, manager of the Pheasant Run Twin Theater in 1986.
-Genevieve, charismatic and somewhat wild, a drug addict at age seventeen.
-O'Malley, charismatic, funny and very ambitious at age twenty-one, assistant manager at the Pheasant Run Twin Theater in 1986.
Wyatt has been sent to Oklahoma City from Las Vegas by his boss, Gavin, for an assignment. He is VERY reluctant, but he can't see his way to get out of the job. What he does is "do deep background on pending high-level hires" for the casinos. But his current assignment, more of a favor for Gavin, means driving by many neighborhoods very familiar to him in Oklahoma City, his hometown. He feels haunted and and a little upset seeing a lot of the places from his childhood again. Everything is a reminder of the awful night in 1986 when the theater was robbed. He was only sixteen at the time. Why was he left alive?
Julianna has never stopped looking for her sister Genevieve. The police are perfunctorily checking in with her every so often, updating her to the progress they are making in finding her. Not. There have been absolutely no clues discovered since her disappearance from a fair in 1986. Genevieve had told twelve-year-old Julianna to wait for her while she looked someone up. Julianna was still waiting for her five hours later. Genevieve never came back. What had happened to her? Julianna can't let it go. The latest update from the police officer currently assigned to her sister's cold case has given her inadvertently more clues to follow up - on her own and against the officer's advice. The 'clues' are extremely nebulous and possibly not relevant. Will these 'leads' lead to anything?
'The Long and Faraway Gone' is very good and well written! There are three mysteries, two main characters. The fact that the two past incidents occurred in Oklahoma City, the only shared similarity beween the two of the three cases, caused me to think the book is about deeper themes than the mysteries on the surface. Both mysteries are about cold cases which have never been cold for the two unrelated protagonists. This book really resonated with me, although I did not entirely like the architecture of two stories in one. The psychological journey of the characters fascinated me though. What should people do with unresolved traumatic baggage from the past? The process of the personal journey from the horrible mysteries of the past to the present are sometimes all one has to work with no matter the aching scars on the mind.
The book follows several characters in alternating chapters, switching between 1986 and 2012. We meet:
-Wyatt Rivers, one of two main characters, private detective. His original name was Michael Oliver.
-Julianna Rosales, main character, nurse and grieving sister of the missing Genevieve.
-Bingham, manager of the Pheasant Run Twin Theater in 1986.
-Genevieve, charismatic and somewhat wild, a drug addict at age seventeen.
-O'Malley, charismatic, funny and very ambitious at age twenty-one, assistant manager at the Pheasant Run Twin Theater in 1986.
Wyatt has been sent to Oklahoma City from Las Vegas by his boss, Gavin, for an assignment. He is VERY reluctant, but he can't see his way to get out of the job. What he does is "do deep background on pending high-level hires" for the casinos. But his current assignment, more of a favor for Gavin, means driving by many neighborhoods very familiar to him in Oklahoma City, his hometown. He feels haunted and and a little upset seeing a lot of the places from his childhood again. Everything is a reminder of the awful night in 1986 when the theater was robbed. He was only sixteen at the time. Why was he left alive?
Julianna has never stopped looking for her sister Genevieve. The police are perfunctorily checking in with her every so often, updating her to the progress they are making in finding her. Not. There have been absolutely no clues discovered since her disappearance from a fair in 1986. Genevieve had told twelve-year-old Julianna to wait for her while she looked someone up. Julianna was still waiting for her five hours later. Genevieve never came back. What had happened to her? Julianna can't let it go. The latest update from the police officer currently assigned to her sister's cold case has given her inadvertently more clues to follow up - on her own and against the officer's advice. The 'clues' are extremely nebulous and possibly not relevant. Will these 'leads' lead to anything?
'The Long and Faraway Gone' is very good and well written! There are three mysteries, two main characters. The fact that the two past incidents occurred in Oklahoma City, the only shared similarity beween the two of the three cases, caused me to think the book is about deeper themes than the mysteries on the surface. Both mysteries are about cold cases which have never been cold for the two unrelated protagonists. This book really resonated with me, although I did not entirely like the architecture of two stories in one. The psychological journey of the characters fascinated me though. What should people do with unresolved traumatic baggage from the past? The process of the personal journey from the horrible mysteries of the past to the present are sometimes all one has to work with no matter the aching scars on the mind.
October 14, 2022
This is my book of the year. I’ve tried half a dozen different times to write out the reason why, and I may have to stop trying. I’ll just say: it’s been the right book at the right time. I don’t think I’ve stopped reading it since I got my hands on it. A year ago, something happened to me and my friends that is eerily similar to the opening chapter—obviously with a much better outcome. But my year took a shift, one I had to accommodate, into a world that I had to learn, and re-learn, and am still learning what’s the same and what’s different.
And this book has something for me. Oklahoma City in 1986 and 2012 is what I needed in 2015. It speaks my language. It doesn’t give up answers easy. And when it does give up answers—more than I expected—they’re the right kind of answers.
I don’t think a book has affected me more in 2015. I know I haven’t needed one more. I’d say it tore me up, but really, it’s helped a little bit to put me back together.
And this book has something for me. Oklahoma City in 1986 and 2012 is what I needed in 2015. It speaks my language. It doesn’t give up answers easy. And when it does give up answers—more than I expected—they’re the right kind of answers.
I don’t think a book has affected me more in 2015. I know I haven’t needed one more. I’d say it tore me up, but really, it’s helped a little bit to put me back together.
March 18, 2015
I had so much hope for this book based on the reviews from Goodreads, but it just fell short for me overall. If only the main characters would have "collided" a little more or had their pasts intersected, then this could have been a better book.
I hate mysteries that have conclusions that come outta left field, like it was almost a stretch... Well at least that is how I felt with this one.
Ugh....the basis of the book was so intriguing and I wanted a "blow your mind" ending, but it just didn't happen.
I hate mysteries that have conclusions that come outta left field, like it was almost a stretch... Well at least that is how I felt with this one.
Ugh....the basis of the book was so intriguing and I wanted a "blow your mind" ending, but it just didn't happen.
February 2, 2019
3.5 stars
I enjoyed November Road so much, I was extremely keen to read something else by Berney. Luckily, my library had the ebook.
No matter what genre book I read, what I care most about is the characters. Although this is a mystery/crime novel, it's very character driven.
Two different stories are presented to us - one is that of Wyatt Rivers, a private investigator from Las Vegas and the other one is about Julianna Rosales - a nurse in Oklahoma City. They both had past experiences that were traumatic. Wyatt was the sole survivor in a robbery gone wrong when he was fifteen years old and worked in a local cinema house in Oklahoma. Julianna's older sister, Genevieve, disappeared without a trace from a fair, while the twelve-year-old Julianna was waiting for her sister to return so they could go home.
Wyatt is asked to help the niece of a client, so he has to return to Oklahoma, the city he'd left twenty-six years ago. What was supposed to be an in and out job, turns out to be more complex. Of course, being back in OC brings back memories, old and new. So not only is Wyatt working the case he was paid to, but he's also trying to untangle the mystery of why he was the only survivor of that robbery.
Alternatively, we hear about Julianna's unsettled life. Twenty-six years later, she still wants to know what had happened to her sister. When she's got a new lead, she pursues it. Will she finally get closure and some much-needed answers?
I'll have to make a confession - I'm a big sucker for stories that in the beginning seem parallel but then come together at the end, like pieces of the same puzzle. So, without giving away too much, I was disappointed that that wasn't the case for this novel as well. On the other hand, in total opposition to what I've confessed above, I admire the writer's determination to not tie up everything in a nice bow.
So, while I didn't enjoy this as much as November Road, it managed to reinforce my appreciation for Berney's writing, so I'll be reading more by him.
I enjoyed November Road so much, I was extremely keen to read something else by Berney. Luckily, my library had the ebook.
No matter what genre book I read, what I care most about is the characters. Although this is a mystery/crime novel, it's very character driven.
Two different stories are presented to us - one is that of Wyatt Rivers, a private investigator from Las Vegas and the other one is about Julianna Rosales - a nurse in Oklahoma City. They both had past experiences that were traumatic. Wyatt was the sole survivor in a robbery gone wrong when he was fifteen years old and worked in a local cinema house in Oklahoma. Julianna's older sister, Genevieve, disappeared without a trace from a fair, while the twelve-year-old Julianna was waiting for her sister to return so they could go home.
Wyatt is asked to help the niece of a client, so he has to return to Oklahoma, the city he'd left twenty-six years ago. What was supposed to be an in and out job, turns out to be more complex. Of course, being back in OC brings back memories, old and new. So not only is Wyatt working the case he was paid to, but he's also trying to untangle the mystery of why he was the only survivor of that robbery.
Alternatively, we hear about Julianna's unsettled life. Twenty-six years later, she still wants to know what had happened to her sister. When she's got a new lead, she pursues it. Will she finally get closure and some much-needed answers?
I'll have to make a confession - I'm a big sucker for stories that in the beginning seem parallel but then come together at the end, like pieces of the same puzzle. So, without giving away too much, I was disappointed that that wasn't the case for this novel as well. On the other hand, in total opposition to what I've confessed above, I admire the writer's determination to not tie up everything in a nice bow.
So, while I didn't enjoy this as much as November Road, it managed to reinforce my appreciation for Berney's writing, so I'll be reading more by him.
September 19, 2024
Two characters, two life changing events, two journeys to try to find answers to their past. Lou Berney’s skill at filling in his characters’ backgrounds gives the reader a full taste of the trauma that follows them into adulthood. Wyatt and Julianna separately search for answers to mysteries and in the end, cross paths in their hometown of Oklahoma City. Wyatt’s dialogue is snappy and humorous but meaningful. Julianna’s voice is one of desperation and frustration. This is a mystery but also a study of trauma which doesn’t always leave us with answers of “Why”.
I appreciate an untraditional “who done it” mystery and Berney has succeeded with a strong 4 star.
I appreciate an untraditional “who done it” mystery and Berney has succeeded with a strong 4 star.
January 19, 2018
In the summer of 1986, two tragedies rocked Oklahoma City: Six movie-theater employees were brutally killed in an armed robbery. A teenage girl vanished from the annual state fair. Neither crime was ever solved. We meet the sole survivor of these separate tragedies: Wyatt and Julianna, who both want answers to help them move beyond their horrific memories. Well written, but meandering at times. Original plot lines with unique and memorable characters. Parallel stories with some tangential overlap.
June 14, 2018
In the summer of 1986 a small movie theatre in Oklahoma City becomes a deadly crime scene following a botched armed robbery. All but one of the employees are murdered by masked gunmen. Flash-forward to present day and the lone survivor - Wyatt Rivers - is working in Las Vegas as a private investigator. Now, Wyatt travels back to OKC, the town he left all those years ago, to look into claims of harassment by the niece of a frequent client.
That same summer in that same city, a young woman vanishes while enjoying an evening at the State Fair. All these years later her sister, Julianna, is desperate for closure. She’s been living a stagnant life as a nurse, unable to move on emotionally from her sister’s disappearance. She still pokes and prods at the detective assigned to the case thinking that if she shakes hard enough, something will come loose and tumble to the ground. While the case is colder than moonlight on a tombstone, hope arises when someone believed to be a suspect suddenly resurfaces.
While the central mysteries drive the plot, Lou Berney’s novel is less about whodunit and more about how those left behind learn to cope with loss. There are some strong passages written here that illustrate the effect trauma can have on the mind, regardless of how much time has passed. Having avoided his hometown for nearly thirty years, Wyatt’s memories are triggered by the familiar, often stopping him in his tracks as the traumatic events race through his mind. I felt this was used to great effect. Rather than massive info-dumps, we get history woven into Wyatt’s current case.
That being said, the novel isn’t all gloom and doom throughout. Wyatt’s smarmy disposition allows some humor to come through helping to lighten tension; not unlike letting air out of a balloon. It helps to balance out Julianna’s weighty scenes as her obsession for closure has an adverse effect on her personal and professional life. I had a tough time with a few of her choices; even with her intense need for answers, one decision in particular left me scratching my head.
While the eventual revelation took me by surprise, I figured out the culprit behind Wyatt’s case early on, so I found the mystery itself to be somewhat weak. However, The Long and Faraway Gone had so many moving parts that it didn’t really dampen my experience. If you’re looking for a good non-series mystery novel, Lou Berney’s The Long and Faraway Gone is a solid choice.
That same summer in that same city, a young woman vanishes while enjoying an evening at the State Fair. All these years later her sister, Julianna, is desperate for closure. She’s been living a stagnant life as a nurse, unable to move on emotionally from her sister’s disappearance. She still pokes and prods at the detective assigned to the case thinking that if she shakes hard enough, something will come loose and tumble to the ground. While the case is colder than moonlight on a tombstone, hope arises when someone believed to be a suspect suddenly resurfaces.
While the central mysteries drive the plot, Lou Berney’s novel is less about whodunit and more about how those left behind learn to cope with loss. There are some strong passages written here that illustrate the effect trauma can have on the mind, regardless of how much time has passed. Having avoided his hometown for nearly thirty years, Wyatt’s memories are triggered by the familiar, often stopping him in his tracks as the traumatic events race through his mind. I felt this was used to great effect. Rather than massive info-dumps, we get history woven into Wyatt’s current case.
That being said, the novel isn’t all gloom and doom throughout. Wyatt’s smarmy disposition allows some humor to come through helping to lighten tension; not unlike letting air out of a balloon. It helps to balance out Julianna’s weighty scenes as her obsession for closure has an adverse effect on her personal and professional life. I had a tough time with a few of her choices; even with her intense need for answers, one decision in particular left me scratching my head.
While the eventual revelation took me by surprise, I figured out the culprit behind Wyatt’s case early on, so I found the mystery itself to be somewhat weak. However, The Long and Faraway Gone had so many moving parts that it didn’t really dampen my experience. If you’re looking for a good non-series mystery novel, Lou Berney’s The Long and Faraway Gone is a solid choice.
October 28, 2018
Purportedly, this novel is a crime novel, but a sentence somewhere in its middle describes it to a T: "....she had the same dense weave to her -- layers and layers." There are two story threads stemming from cold cases that originated in Oklahoma City in 1986, severely traumatizing Wyatt and Julianna, two people who were very young at that time. Shoot ahead 26 years. Wyatt, sole survivor of a robbery and massacre at his movie theater job, has changed his name, his identity, and moved on not only from Oklahoma, but also from any form of commitment. Julianna has remained put, but not a day goes by that she doesn't remember her charismatic older sister who seemingly fell off the face off the earth at the State Fair. A lesser writer would have these two stories intertwine, force the protagonists into a romance, and would have devolved into mediocrity. But with the inclusion of several other plot elements, a truly hilarious parade that makes me was to visit Oklahoma City on Halloween, and some very cleverly placed Easter Eggs, this is a thriller that transcends the genre.
April 21, 2015
THE LONG AND FARAWAY GONE
Lou Berney
I maybe should have made it a five!
THE LONG AND FARAWAY GONE is a book written by an extremely talented author. He teaches writing at the University of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma City University and is a successful television and film screen writer. This is one of the best crime fiction books I have read in a long time. I call it crime fiction, but it is in a category all its own with an intricate plot, original characters and fascinating story line.
Two tragedies occur in 1986 in Oklahoma City that remain unsolved. A mass murder of six movie theatre employees with one survivor and a teen age girl who vanishes from the state fair while her sister waits for her.
Twenty five years later the survivors are haunted by all the unanswered questions. The sole survivor of the movie massacre has changed his name moved to Las Vegas and is a private investigator until a case sends him to Oklahoma City despite his forebodings. The sister of the missing girl has never really given up on finding out what happened to her beloved sister.
When one of the original suspects resurfaces, hope rises that maybe they will finally have some answers.
The exceptionally crafted avenues the author takes the characters on is absolutely great writing, and introduces characters you would never dream.
An exceptional read.
Lou Berney
I maybe should have made it a five!
THE LONG AND FARAWAY GONE is a book written by an extremely talented author. He teaches writing at the University of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma City University and is a successful television and film screen writer. This is one of the best crime fiction books I have read in a long time. I call it crime fiction, but it is in a category all its own with an intricate plot, original characters and fascinating story line.
Two tragedies occur in 1986 in Oklahoma City that remain unsolved. A mass murder of six movie theatre employees with one survivor and a teen age girl who vanishes from the state fair while her sister waits for her.
Twenty five years later the survivors are haunted by all the unanswered questions. The sole survivor of the movie massacre has changed his name moved to Las Vegas and is a private investigator until a case sends him to Oklahoma City despite his forebodings. The sister of the missing girl has never really given up on finding out what happened to her beloved sister.
When one of the original suspects resurfaces, hope rises that maybe they will finally have some answers.
The exceptionally crafted avenues the author takes the characters on is absolutely great writing, and introduces characters you would never dream.
An exceptional read.
November 24, 2018
Lou Berney is an amazing writer.
This novel was brilliantly conceived and character rich.
It's a story of two haunted people.
Their paths never cross but they both have ghosts.
Unforgettable.
Five -count 'em- five stars!
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