November Road, by Lou Berney.
The assassination of President John F Kennedy in November
1963 has given birth to conspiracy theories galore, not to mention rafts of
published material, both fact and fiction guaranteeing the continued life of the
legend. Stephen King introduced the
supernatural element in his masterful novel of time travel in ’12.22.63; now we have Lou Berney’s version of the tragedy
in Dallas. And it is chillingly
plausible.
Frank Guidry is a fixer for Carlos Marcello, a ruthless
Louisiana crime boss whose reach is long and power absolute; Frank is his favourite because he’s very good
at his job, which is keeping even a sniff of trouble away from his merciless
employer, and for that he is well paid.
He’s handsome, a sharp dresser, and well-read enough to fool all kinds
of people. He loves being
indispensable. Until the unthinkable
Crime of the Century occurs: Kennedy is
murdered in Dallas, and Frank is despatched from New Orleans to Dallas with
instructions to dump a car hiding an incriminating weapon in the tide. Which he does, for a good soldier always
follows orders – until he realises that plans of disposal have been made for
him, too: he knows too much. Never mind that he would eat his teeth before
he would divulge that he has figured out that Oswald and Ruby were patsies and
that Kennedy’s murder was a mafia hit: sadly,
the only way his boss can be sure he won’t talk is to silence him forever.
Frank finds this morally outrageous. Is this any way to treat a 100% loyal employee? His only course of action is to go on the
run, which is fine – at first, until he hears that Paul Barone, a particularly
evil killer has been hired to find him and end his life as painfully as
possible: well, he’s not going to make
Barone’s job easy for him – he has friends in Las Vegas who will help him leave
the country, if he can get there in one piece.
And he does, with the help of a young woman and her two
little girls and their family dog;
Charlotte has left her drunken husband and is going to her aunt in Los
Angeles. Frank is not the only one on
the run, but a chance to pose as a family man will be the perfect disguise – he hopes.
Lou Berney’s characters leap off the page. His dialogue can be smart and funny, until
the reader is sideswiped by dramatic, jaw-dropping twists in the plot of a
great story in which there are few winners.
SIX STARS
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