November Road by Lou Berney

November RoadNovember Road by Lou Berney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book won a Silver Dagger award as the best thriller that year. I can’t agree. The plot is preposterous. Bad organized crime guys in New Orleans supposedly arranged for the assassination of JFK. Then they proceed to try to kill off every one of their minions involved in the deal. The person they send to clean up the mess in Dallas is a charmer named Frank Guidry. Then another thug is sent to take him out. The book becomes a long chase scene across the country. I hate crime books where the bad guys kill their own people. That just is so inaccurate it’s ridiculous. No one would ever work for them or join a gang. Yes, I have experience in law enforcement, so I know. It’s all about loyalty to the gang. No one is ever expendable unless they turn state’s evidence.

At this point in the plot I ran into another problem: from then on this book is too much like another Berney book I recently read, Dark Ride. I really liked that one, but I realize now it was mostly a copy of this one, at least the second half. The main character develops a kind heart for a damsel in distress with two kids in a perilous domestic situation and proceeds to disregard his own safety to make sure they are safe. Basically antihero becomes hero. In both books there’s plenty of bloodshed, which I don’t consider a good point, but its much more excessive in this one. If I’d read these in the other order I might have reversed the ratings, but I doubt it. I do like the author’s writing, but this plot is even less plausible than Dark Ride.

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