November Road

Edgar-winner Berney (The Long and Faraway Gone) takes a familiar plot in unexpected directions in this moving novel. In 1963, Frank Guidry serves New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello as a fixer, assigned to take care of loose ends—permanently. In November of that year, Guidry is tasked with leaving a car in a Dallas parking lot near Dealey Plaza. After President Kennedy’s assassination, Guidry realizes that, because he provided the getaway vehicle for the real killer, he’s become a loose end, and he begins a desperate flight to evade execution. Eventually, he crosses paths with Charlotte Roy, an unhappy Oklahoma housewife, who has resolved to make a better life for herself and her two young daughters, away from her alcoholic husband, by starting afresh in California. While Berney creates nail-biting suspense by placing Marcello’s top hit man on Guidry’s trail, the book’s power derives from Charlotte, who finds hidden strength as she confronts unexpected challenges. This is much more than just another conspiracy thriller. Author tour. Agent: Shane Salerno, Story Factory. (Oct.)