Here’s the set-up for A LOVELY, INDECENT DEPARTURE:

Parents are charged with teaching their children right from wrong, but above all else is caring for their general welfare and when Italian immigrant Anna Miller loses her five-year old son, Oliver, in a custody dispute with his father she does the unthinkable and kidnaps him. They flee rural North Carolina for Italy and with her family’s help disappear into her native homeland. Months pass with no sign of the mother and son. The boy’s guileful and mean-spirited father, Evan Meade, turns to a private investigator when the ineffective efforts of the federal authorities working alongside the local sheriff, Monroe Rossi, fail to track them down. But even as the search draws them closer to Anna, Evan’s true nature betrays itself and the question to what’s in the child’s best interest becomes not so clear anymore.

At the center of the search for the missing boy is Sheriff Rossi, the embattled lawman, a divorced father himself whose black-and-white brand of upholding the law has lent much to his method of parenting. His frustration and obligation to both his community and his estranged family deepens the closer he comes to all of those involved, but at greater risk to his life’s work is the blurring of the line that occurs between law and justice. Stuck in the middle of this is Oliver, who battles his mother and others while trying to come to grips with this strange new world in which he has been thrust.

Objectively detailed, deftly and gracefully written in a voice that refuses to intrude on the minds of its characters, A Lovely, Indecent Departure is a literary thriller capturing in stark detail an intoxicating world turned upside down.

About the Author

Steven Lee Gilbert was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana but considers his childhood home the green, rolling foothills of East Tennessee and the southern Appalachia mountains, settlement to all sorts of interesting people, composites of which can be found throughout his writing. Most of his adulthood he’s spent in the Sandhills and Piedmont of central North Carolina, where he lives now with his wife and family.

Steven received his B.A. in English from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, after which he was commissioned and served four years as an officer and paratrooper in the U.S. Army. While in school he had the pleasure of learning from Wilma Dykeman and in 2007 had the opportunity to work with Barry Hannah, both of which greatly influenced his writing. The next year, Steven was awarded a Durham Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant for Literature. He has also received recognition for his work as a writer from the Tennessee Writers Alliance.

You can read more about him at www.stevenleegilbert.com.

Comment from Steven:

Hi there! If you’re a reader or a writer or just someone who likes to talk I’d love to hear from you. Outside of writing I enjoy the outdoors, hiking, camping, running, and would be a passionate fly fisherman if I lived closer to trout. Feel free to email me with comments and suggestions. Thanks for reading!

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