Places That Are Gone

<p>For Bennett Wilder every day is the same-head to work do his job and come home to his increasingly distant wife. As a man who values routine Bennett surprises even himself when he picks up Liz Messina a pretty hitchhiker on his morning commute. As he quickly learns she's got a young child a dark past and a debt that needs to be repaid-or else.</p><p>Even though he knows it's risky he decides to take a chance and help Liz out. But when her trouble turns out to run even deeper than he realizes Bennett and Liz find themselves facing off against dangerous drug dealers and fighting for their lives. Bound by bloodshed and facing a road full of wrong turns ahead Bennett calls on an old friend with ties to a past he would rather leave hidden as he and Liz try to decide how far they'll go to turn the tables on their pursuers-and if they're lucky save their own lives.</p><p></p><p>Set in Northern Virginia in the 1980s Places That Are Gone is a dark twisted tale of sex drugs and murder all woven into the zeitgeist of our nation's capital. Meshing urban grit and suburbia-with a generous dollop of nostalgia-Milani compellingly exposes the intrigue behind every locked door our secret desires and fears the what-ifs and the meandering paths we take to find the truth.</p><p class=ql-align-right>--I.S. Berry author of <em>The Peacock and the Sparrow a</em> New Yorker and NPR Best Book of the Year and winner of the Edgar Award for Best First Novel</p><p></p><p>The combination of different points of view and Milani's exquisite lean sometimes lyrical prose unwinds a revelatory story of crime murder and innocence lost. Milani's Places That Are Gone is a superb tale of dashed hopes lost direction lust and consequences--which often can be harsh.</p><p class=ql-align-right>--BookTrib</p><p></p>