They’re Old Friends: A Guest Post by Lou Berney

From November Road to Dark Ride, Whiplash River and more, we’ve loved reading Lou Berney’s work for years. Now, two of our favorite characters are back — Shake and Gina take on the shadowy underbelly of Cambodia. Read on for Lou’s exclusive essay on the moment he knew he wanted to write Double Barrel Bluff and revisit his favorite duo.

Paperback $18.99

Double Barrel Bluff: A Novel

Double Barrel Bluff: A Novel

By Lou Berney

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Paperback $18.99

Acclaimed author Lou Berney returns — and brings a few fan-favorite characters out of retirement.

Acclaimed author Lou Berney returns — and brings a few fan-favorite characters out of retirement.

I can remember the exact moment when I decided to write Double Barrel Bluff. My wife and I were tourists in Cambodia, walking at dusk through a beautiful park in Siem Reap. We noticed the fruit hanging from all the trees and wondered what it might be. Some kind of big Asian pear? An exotic variety of mango?

And then the fruit began to squeak. It begin to flap. Hundreds—no, thousands—of bats burst from the trees and soared into the purpling sky. I was terrified and overjoyed. Because this, beauty and menace and surprise, was going to be perfect for a book.

Specifically, it was going to be perfect for my two-long running main characters, Shake and Gina, and for more of their dangerously entertaining adventures together.

I’ve always loved writing Shake and Gina. They’re old friends I can’t wait to spend time with. But for a long time after Whiplash River I couldn’t think of a story worthy of them. Cambodia solved that problem for me, and off I sent them to the other side of the world.

Here’s the twist in the story: my agent and publisher loved Double Barrel Bluff, but for business-related reasons too boring to recount, they decided to hold off on publishing the novel until after a couple of standalones, November Road and Dark Ride. So when I finally came back to Double Barrel Bluff last year, for one more pass on the manuscript, I expected Shake and Gina to be strangers to me.

They weren’t! To my surprise, it was like I’d never been away from Shake and Gina for even a minute. I was older and wiser now, but so were they, and I understood them more deeply than ever. And all three of us were down for some fun.

I learned a lot about writing novels from November Road and Dark Ride, and I was glad I could bring new paint colors to the stories of Shake and Gina. I think that’s what makes writing such a rewarding and, at times, magical process.