When a young rancher sets off to find his missing boy in 1950s Montana, seeming coincidence and vague clues lead him through a Dantean world of charred hills and forsaken prairie, past frozen wasteland and snow-bound settlements, finally into an improbable underworld populated by unsavory men. Along the way he is forced to confront the secrets of his family's past. Allegorical and allusive, Past the Desolate Places is a story of hope and heartbreak, of dark histories and the hard grip of fate. "Past the Desolate Places has a lyrical power of vivid prose, a voice that shows you things raw and then exposes what's beneath them...This is the sort of stuff editors used to fight for. And this book is evidence that it's still out there." -Frank Miniter, best-selling author of The Ultimate Man's Survival Guide