“Stellar...Hardy is a memorable hero with an extremely satisfying arc, and Berney draws the supporting players with equal care, wringing pathos from their interplay as much as the heartbreaking premise. Few readers will finish this unmoved.”
“The author has a gift for creating characters and stories that infuse even the most sordid corners of humanity with an unforced gentleness.”
“An original take on a familiar story...Hardy uses the amateur sleuth’s familiar tools—interviews, library research, surveillance, hacker chums—but makes them delightfully fresh."
“Outstanding...Berney delves deep to show Hardy as a three-dimensional character who, for the first time, is proving to himself thathe can rise to the occasion.”
“Hardly doesn’t get a transformational superhero moment; he just applies himself and improves. He learns that, against all odds and sensible advice, he can actually get stuff done. His path is messy and dangerous, but it’s also inspiring and ultimately heartbreaking. This is one of my favorite books of the year”
"Berney brings a compelling human touch to a story that grabs hold of the reader early and never lets go."
“Edgar-winner Berney (The Long and Faraway Gone) takes a familiar plot in unexpected directions in this moving novel. This is much more than just another conspiracy thriller.”
“(November Road) perfectly captures these few weeks at the end of 1963—all that was lost and all that lay tantalizingly and inevitably just beyond the horizon.”
“I am pleased to report that (November Road) does not just measure up to the buzz, it crashes through the ceiling, from its first paragraph or two – raucous, humorous, and just a little bit saucy – to its bittersweet ending.”
“Berney bends his notes exquisitely, playing with the melody, building his marvelously rich characters while making us commit completely to story ... Pitch-perfect fiction.”
“Berney's follow-up to The Long and Faraway Gone explores relationships between two complicated and realized characters. This literary crime thriller will please fans of Dennis Lehane or George Pelecanos and also satisfy a wider audience.”
“Berney's emotional, empathetic writing keeps the dynamic between these two lost souls intriguing, and it resonates on a larger scale, placed as it is against such a vivid backdrop.”
“When people say they want to read a really good novel, the kind you just can't put down, this is the kind of book they mean. Exceptional.”
“One of the most distinctive, unexpected crime novels of recent years.”
“This superior new novel from Edgar-winner Berney melds crime fiction with a tale about people reinventing themselves.”
“Incredibly well-written and deftly plotted, Lou Berney’s November Road is one of the year’s best novels. . . and a story readers will be talking about for a very long time.”
“One of the best crime novels I've read in ages.”
“The two key players in Lou Berney's superb regional mystery suffer from separate but equally crushing cases of survivor guilt…Berney tells both their stories with supreme sensitivity, exploring the 'landscape of memory' that keeps shifting beneath our feet, opening up the graves of all those ghosts we thought we'd buried.”
“A thoughtful exploration of memory and what it means to be a survivor. Elegiac and wistful…a mystery with a deep, wounded heart. Read it.”
“(Berney) has focused, very insightfully, on love, loss, and memory…a genuinely memorable novel of ideas.”
"Berney will raise a lump in the throats of many of his readers…the leads' struggles are portrayed with painful complexity."
"A tour de force…Berney has crafted a powerful tale that is also a great read."
"A dark, quintessentially cool noir novel that is both deeply poignant and very funny."
"This is crime fiction at its absolute best. Berney brings us a novel that is at once deeply insightful and beautifully written, simultaneously paying homage to the victims of crime and to the survivors left struggling to understand."
"The Long and Faraway Gone gives the reader a brightly lit look at open emotional wounds, yet never loses its humanity or humor."
"One of the best mystery novels – or best novels, period – I've read in a long time."
"Berney's plot takes as many sharp turns as San Francisco's famously curvy Lombard Street. His characters, especially the over-the-top Quinn and and pretty much every female in the book, are brilliantly drawn. Gutshot Straight made Booklist's 2010 Best Crime Novels list. Whiplash River should be a contender for this year's list."
"Berney takes his rightful place as heir to Elmore Leonard with this witty and nimble comedic thriller…The exotic locales are vibrant, the supporting cast larger than life, and the plot hums along without a wasted page."
"Some writers can make me laugh and some can make me gasp, but Lou Berney can make me do both at the same time, and then get me all misty too."
"Whiplash River is a grand slam. I loved loved loved this book! A funny, sexy, and thrilling caper, filled with characters you'd want to drink with. Read it now – you'll thank me later."
"Slick, sleek, and entertaining, Whiplash River is pure pleasure. I'm a snob for prose, and these words sing, managing to be at once both lean and evocative, confident and wry. Lou Berney is that kind of annoyingly skilled stylist who makes everything look easy."
"Virtually every character is memorable, and the chemistry between Shake and Gina is brilliant. The estimable Elmore Leonard might be very pleased to call Gutshot Straight his own."
"(A) crime page-turner with delicious comic overtones...Berney deftly combines Elmore Leonard's jazzy cool with Carl Hiaasen's understated humor."
"Fast, funny, and smart...The snappy dialogue and bad-guy stuff whizzes along and will be welcomed by fans of Elmore Leonard."
"A highly entertaining caper novel...Like Carl Hiaasen, Berney delights in the cartoonish. Like Elmore Leonard, he can drive a plot. What sets him apart is how well he evokes love, making the romance at the heart of this cinematic novel as compelling as the mystery."
"There are plot twists that are wondrously and skillfully navigated, one of the most unique MacGuffins I have encountered recently, and, perhaps most importantly, Gina, a strong, smart, attractive and dangerous woman who you won't soon forget. Nor will you forget Gutshot Straight."