Lou Berney is the Edgar Award-winning author of five crime novels, all from William Morrow/HarperCollins, the latest of which, Double Barrel Bluff, will be published in November 2024. His short fiction has appeared in publications from The New Yorker to the Pushcart Prize anthology. He teaches at Oklahoma City University.
When did you first decide to become a writer, and what was the route to publishing your debut novel, Gutshot Straight, in 2010?
I wanted to be a writer since I was four or five years old—thanks to my two older sisters who liked to play school with me (whether I liked it or not). Not only did they teach me how to read, write, and love books, they encouraged me to invent my own stories and characters. I was hooked early and never looked back.
My first novel, Gutshot Straight, came out of the WGA strike in 2007. I was working as a screenwriter at the time, so all my projects were put immediately on hold. I had to do something during the bleak winter, so I decided to get back to my first love—novels. I had such a wonderful time writing Gutshot Straight, disappearing into the fictional world in a way you can’t do with screenplays, that I realized this was it, fiction was the medium for me.
Double Barrel Bluff, the third in a series starting with Gutshot Straight, came out this November. Can you tell us a little about the new book, and what inspired the series?
Double Barrel Bluff is about a married couple, a former getaway driver and a former con-woman, who have settled down to a peaceful life in a peaceful town. And then their life together gets turned upside down when their past, in the form of a murderous Armenian thug, shows up and sends them off on a fun but/and hair-raising adventure to Cambodia.
Readers often read to escape. I started (and continued) the Shake Bouchon series because it’s fun for a writer to escape too. These books are so enjoyable for me to write—it almost seems criminal!
Which authors do you particularly admire? Have any in particular influenced your writing style?
There are so many contemporary crime writers who inspire me. I love most writers with a singular voice and sensibility – writers you’d never mistake for anyone else. Kate Atkinson fits that bill, as do S.A. Cosby, Megan Abbott, Tod Goldberg, Ivy Pochoda, Laura Lippman, Walter Moseley, Angie Kim, Alex Segura...I could go on and on. It’s a great and glorious time to be a reader of fresh, inventive crime fiction.
Is there an international market in which your books sell particularly well?
I had a terrific response when I visited Italy and Spain on book tour, and I get great reader feedback from France and Japan. I haven’t yet been published in any Arabic-speaking countries —one of my novels is set in Egypt, so I hope I can crack that market soon!
