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Lou Berney (born 1964) is an American crime fiction author who has published six books since 1991. For his works, Berney has won multiple awards including an Anthony Awards, Barry and Edgar Awards for The Long and Faraway Gone. With November Road, Berney won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger while also winning additional Anthony and Barry awards. Apart from writing, Berney was a screenwriter whose written film, Angels Sing, was released in 2012. Berney has also taught at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma City University during the 2010s.
Following Gutshot Straight, Berney released Whiplash River in 2012 as a followup book for his Shake Bouchon series. His last Bouchon book, Double Barrel Bluff, was not released during the scheduled 2020 release. Outside of series, additional books published by Berney were The Long and Faraway Gone in 2015 and November Road in 2018. That year, November Road was planned for a movie adaptation when Lawrence Kasdan bought the book's film rights. During 2020, Berney abandoned an unfinished book he started in the late 2010s. Dark Ride was released by Berney in 2023.
Apart from his works, Berney was a writing teacher throughout the 2000s. In 2011, Berney began teaching creative writing for Oklahoma City University. He continued to teach at Oklahoma City during the 2010s while also teaching with the University of Oklahoma.
For The Long and Faraway Gone, Berney thought about using the Oklahoma City bombing before choosing different events that occurred in Oklahoma City. Berney based his book on murders that occurred at a Sirloin Stockade during the late 1970s and the disappearances of two children at the Oklahoma State Fair during the early 1980s. With November Road, Berney based his book on the conspiracy theory that the New Orleans crime family were behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Berney intended to have the main characters meet each other in a town before he decided to have them meet during their individual travels.
That year, Berney received the 2016 Macavity Award in the Best Mystery Novel category. In the Best Paperback Original categories for 2016, Berney also won the Anthony, Barry, and Edgar awards. The Long and Faraway Gone was on the longlist for the Dublin Literary Award in 2017.
For November Road, Berney received the Hammett Award in 2019. In the Best Novel category, Berney received the Macavity and Anthony Awards in 2019. At the Barry Awards, Berney won the 2019 Best Mystery/Crime Novel category and was nominated for the Best Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade award in 2020. In awards held by the Crime Writers' Association during 2020, November Road was a Gold Dagger nominee and won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger. At the Oklahoma Book Awards, both The Long and Faraway Gone and November Road won the fiction category during the 2010s.
Dark Ride was Longlisted for the 2025 International Dublin Literary Award.
Writing process and themes
At the beginning of his writing process, Berney focuses on creating the backgrounds of people he plans to write about. He then moves on toward the book's events. For his books, Berney uses a laptop and types them out at a coffeehouse in Oklahoma City. With his two Shake Bouchon books, Berney chose Panama and Egypt as locations. While listing authors that made up his career, Berney said Elmore Leonard was "a huge influence."
Nominations and awards
Before working in screenwriting, Paramount Pictures awarded Berney a fellowship. With Gutshot Straight, Berney was nominated for the 2011 Barry Award in the Best First Mystery/Crime Novel category. In 2013, Whiplash River received a nomination for the Best Paperback Original category as part of the Anthony Awards and Edgar Awards. With The Long and Faraway Gone, Berney was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller in 2016.
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