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A review by bookapotamus
November Road by Lou Berney
3.0
So, I might be in the unpopular opinion minority of this one. Sorry friends. I'm not too big on conspiracy theories or historically heavy fiction, but I love thrillers and mysteries. So, I thought I'd give it a go. It wasn't a terrible book, but I just left feeling - well, meh. That about sums up my feelings - might just be a case of 'not the book for me.'
The story starts in New Orleans (I listened to the audiobook for this one- and oh boy do I love me a NOLA accent!) and Kennedy's assassination is just hitting the news - it's a rough time for the country and in particular, the few character we follow in this story. Frank Guidry is a mobster, who is someone connected to the murder of the president. He needs to get out of New Orleans immediately or face his own demise. Charlotte, a housewife, in Oklahoma, is desperate to leave her drunk husband and take her little girls to somewhere a better life for them all may await. The chance meeting of these two different characters is the best part of the story, but it all is a bit ho-hum to me. I felt a bit bored in some parts and wished there had been some more excitement.
We also follow snippets of Barone's journey, a henchman for the mob boss Carlo Marcello - tasked by Carlo to find Guidry on the run. The chase is clever, although some things come across to me as being a bit silly, and the love story - a tad unbelievable and somewhat forced. But the ear is brilliantly described with that old Hollywood mob movie feel, and I can imagine it made into a black and white movie for fans of those types of stories - mobsters and crime, love and betrayal.
It was a fairly solid story and the flow of their journey mapped out pretty well. You root for Charlotte to find her future, for both her and her children, and it's fun to see if Frank will get caught. A bit safe for me, a tad slow, but fans of these types of conspiracy and historical fiction books, I imagine will love the story.
The story starts in New Orleans (I listened to the audiobook for this one- and oh boy do I love me a NOLA accent!) and Kennedy's assassination is just hitting the news - it's a rough time for the country and in particular, the few character we follow in this story. Frank Guidry is a mobster, who is someone connected to the murder of the president. He needs to get out of New Orleans immediately or face his own demise. Charlotte, a housewife, in Oklahoma, is desperate to leave her drunk husband and take her little girls to somewhere a better life for them all may await. The chance meeting of these two different characters is the best part of the story, but it all is a bit ho-hum to me. I felt a bit bored in some parts and wished there had been some more excitement.
We also follow snippets of Barone's journey, a henchman for the mob boss Carlo Marcello - tasked by Carlo to find Guidry on the run. The chase is clever, although some things come across to me as being a bit silly, and the love story - a tad unbelievable and somewhat forced. But the ear is brilliantly described with that old Hollywood mob movie feel, and I can imagine it made into a black and white movie for fans of those types of stories - mobsters and crime, love and betrayal.
It was a fairly solid story and the flow of their journey mapped out pretty well. You root for Charlotte to find her future, for both her and her children, and it's fun to see if Frank will get caught. A bit safe for me, a tad slow, but fans of these types of conspiracy and historical fiction books, I imagine will love the story.