Book Review: The Long and Faraway Gone

Two parallel narratives, two different people, Wyatt and Julianna, whose lives are united by loss - the loss of their loved ones to separate crimes in the city of Oklahoma in 1986 that left them, their future altered forever. Twenty-five years later when Wyatt, now a seasoned private investigator, is asked to do a favour for a friend, his work takes him back to the past, the long and faraway gone place he had desperately shut off assuming a new identity in a different city ("You lived in the present tense, where the past has no power."), forcing him to relive the painful memories and dig deeper into the horrifying theatre massacre that left six of his friends dead.

The Long and
Faraway Gone

Julianna was just 12 years old when her older sister Genevieve disappeared at a state fair. She was never found, the case never solved. Struggling to cope up with her sister's loss, she never gave up either, trying to piece together the circumstances of her disappearance little realising the consequences to her life and her career, and most importantly the relationships she had forged over the years. And when she learns that the only prime suspect in the case is back in town after all these years, she seizes the only chance to arrive at the truth, ready to sacrifice anything and everything to get the answers.

Engrossing and compelling, author Lou Berney spins one of the best (philosophical) crime thrillers I've ever read. And I really liked the fact that he kept the interactions between Wyatt and Julianna random and let them achieve closure on their own, and in the process make peace with their respective pasts and let go off it (although I could sense the sexual tension between them both). Deeply meditative, poignant and wonderfully evocative, The Long and Faraway Gone is dark and noir done right. Highly recommended!