November Road by Lou Berney

December 2, 2019

November Road by Lou Berney

Frank Guidry is a trusted mob lieutenant for organized crime boss Carlos Marcello in New Orleans.  After President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Guidry finds that he is unwittingly involved in the assassination since he drove a Cadillac Eldorado to Dallas a few days earlier and left it near Dealey Plaza for his boss's hired sniper to use as a getaway car if necessary.  When two of his associates turn up dead, Guidry realizes that Marcello is killing off anyone who knows about his (Marcello's) involvement with the assassination, and that he (Guidry) needs to disappear fast.  As he races west to get away from the hitman who is hot on his trail, he encounters a woman named Charlotte traveling with two her children and their dog, stranded when their car broke down.  Guidry quickly decides that that they are just the camouflage he needs to get to Las Vegas undetected, never expecting to fall in love with Charlotte and visualize a new life with her and her family.

Since the day the Warren Commission issued their findings that John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a sniper (Lee Harvey Oswald) who was working alone, a majority of Americans have doubted the commission’s report.  In 1979, the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations issued their own report that the Kennedy assassination was most likely the result of a conspiracy.  Volumes have been written about who the real killer was, and conspiracy suspects include (but are not limited to) the CIA, the KGB, Fidel Castro’s Cuban government, and organized crime.

This is a work of literary fiction masquerading as a crime novel set against the backdrop of the Kennedy assassination, not an in-depth examination of the crime.  Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of books about the Mafia or organized crime, but Berney’s novel is based on the assumption that the assassination WAS a mob conspiracy.  In addition to an intriguing “what-if” plot, Berney’s characters are three-dimensional and fully-fleshed rather than being flat clichés.  Guidry isn’t a crude thug, but a thinking man who questions others’ and his own actions.  A heroic act is completely within his nature, and like any good noir character, Guidry is totally capable of unexpectedly falling for a good dame.  If you enjoy a complex historical thriller, I highly recommend November Road.