Lou Berney

"When people say they want to read a really good novel, the kind you can't put down,
this is the kind of book they mean. Exceptional." – Stephen King

About Lou

Lou Berney has won the Edgar, Hammett, Steel Dagger, Barry, Macavity, Lefty, Anthony, and Oklahoma Book awards, and has been a finalist three times for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His novels include Crooks (Sept. 3, 2025), Dark Ride, November Road, and The Long and Faraway Gone. His short fiction has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. He lives in Oklahoma City.
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Crooks (Sept. 9, 2025)
Double Barrel Bluff (Shake Bouchon #3) (2024)
Dark Ride (2023)
November Road (2018)
The Long and Faraway Gone (2015)
Whiplash River (Shake Bouchon #2) (2012)
Gutshot Straight (Shake Bouchon #1) (2010)

Awards
Edgar (2016, finalist 2013), Hammet (2019), CWA Steel Dagger (2025, 2019), Barry (2019, 2016, finalist 2025, 2024, 2011), Macavity (2019, 2016), Lefty (2019, finalist 2016), Anthony (2019, 2016), Oklahoma Book Award (2019, 2016, finalist 2024), Los Angeles Times Book Prize (finalist 2016, 2019, 2024).

Photo of Lou Berney

A FEW DETAILS

My two older sisters liked to play school with me, whether I liked it or not, and so I learned to read, whether I liked it or not, at a very early age.

Between the ages of 12 and 19, I was fired from approximately nine different jobs. A representative sampling: newspaper delivery boy (dereliction of duty), grill cook (lying about my age to get the job), apartment complex maintenance man (general incompetence), photo darkroom attendant (dereliction of duty, general incompetence, inappropriate use of darkroom).

Since the age of 19, I have not been fired from a job.

A (very) small and incomplete sampling of my favorite writers, in no particular order: Kate Atkinson, Elmore Leonard, Kelly Link, Walter Mosley, Laura Lippman, Flannery O’Connor, Don Winslow, Megan Abbott, Rachel Kushner, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Louise Erdrich, Stephen Harrigan, Dorothy B. Hughes, Ivy Pochoda, Lynda Barry, Tod Goldberg.

A few excellent new/newish crime writers to check out: David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Angie Kim, S.A. Cosby, Erica Neubauer, Joseph Schneider, Nadine Nettmann, Wanda Morris.

ABOUT LOU

Lou Berney is USA Today best-selling author of seven novels, including Crooks, Dark Ride, November Road, and The Long and Faraway Gone. He has won the Edgar, Hammett, Steel Dagger, Anthony, Barry, and Macavity awards, and is a three-time finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize. He lives in Oklahoma City.

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