Lou Berney, the author Gutshot Straight and Whiplash River will introduce his latest, The Long and Faraway Gone on Tuesday, April 7 in the W. T. Bland Public Library at 6:30 p.m. and in the Leesburg Public Library on Wednesday, April 8 at 2 p.m.

Berney’s short fiction has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and the Pushcart Prize anthology, and he has written feature screenplays and created television pilots for, among others, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Focus Features, ABC, and Fox. He teaches at the University of Oklahoma and in the Red Earth MFA program at Oklahoma City University. His first novel, Gutshot Straight, was named one of the ten best debut crime novels of the year by Booklist and nominated for a Barry Award.

"The two key players in Lou Berney's superb regional mystery suffer from separate but equally crushing cases of survivor guilt…Berney tells both their stories with supreme sensitivity, exploring the 'landscape of memory' that keeps shifting beneath our feet." The Long and Faraway Gone, New York Times Book Review

The Long and Faraway Gone was an Amazon Best Book for February, in the categories of both Mystery/Thriller/Suspense and Literature/Fiction. It is a sharp, evocative crime novel set against the big-sky prairie sunsets of Oklahoma City, a tale of two unsolved cold cases and the survivors left behind, drawn back 25 years later to confront the harrowing mysteries that have defined their lives—and to finally discover the truth, no matter the cost.

The programs are free, sponsored in part by HarperCollins Publishers, the Lake County Library System, the Leesburg Friends of the Library and the Mount Dora Library Association. There will be book sales by Raintree Books and signing after the programs.