The Long and Faraway Gone

by Lou Berney

REVIEW BY MEREDITH MCKINNIE

“The past had power. The past was a riptide. That’s why, if you had a brain in your head, you didn’t go in the water.”

Two mysteries rocked Oklahoma City in the late 80s. A movie theater robbery turned mass murder left one young man wondering why he survived when all his friends were executed in front of eyes. A teenage girl goes missing from the local fair, and her sister who waited hours on the stoop under the ferris wheel keeps asking what happened. Occurring only weeks apart, the crimes were never connected, but remain unsolved. 

Wyatt, now a private investigator in Las Vegas, has dedicated his life to solving mysteries, uncovering the truth, finding the why. He is smart, perceptive, quick on his feet, and lured back to Oklahoma City to investigate a case for a friend. Returning to his hometown where the unspeakable happened decades earlier, floods Wyatt with memories he had long since tried to suppress. He struggles with the reality of his past and how it is affecting his present. 

Julianna, now in her thirties, lives life with her sister’s ghost. She constantly imagines what her older sister would be doing, could be doing should she still be alive, and what she would think of the choices she’s made. Julianna can’t cope with the unanswered questions, replaying that day and every day since in her mind for the clues she might have missed. Still in Oklahoma City, Julianna chose not to escape the scene of the supposed crime, as if leaving would be giving up on her sister. 

The two stories are told in tandem, alternating chapters between Wyatt and Julianna’s perspective in present-day Oklahoma City, individually battling their demons and navigating a path forward. Berney doesn’t just tell stories; he weaves intricate patterns overlain with subplots and social commentary and the struggle with loss and the unknown. The novel has heightened plot scenes, but is most interesting in the characters’ introspection, the stories we tell ourselves to keep going. The themes of memory and loss are explored in depth and challenged at length. Berney uses his characters to force readers to imagine what they would do in similar situations. The novel is a quintessential crime drama, but with so much more for the curious sleuth reader who wants to try and figure out what happened before the true story reveals itself.