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The Home Place: A Novel
A successful lawyer is pulled back into her troubled family's life in rural Montana in the wake of her sister's death in this mesmerizing, emotionally evocative, and atmospheric literary novel
For a Terrebonne, the home place is the safe haven, the convergence of waters, the place where the beloved dead are as real as the living. . . .
The only Terrebonne who made it out, Alma thought she was done with Montana, with its cruel poverty, bleak winters, and stifling ways. Hard work and steely resolve got her to Yale, and now she's an attorney in a high-profile Seattle law firm, too consumed by her career to think about the past. But an unexpected call from the Montana police takes the successful lawyer back to her provincial hometown and pulls her into the family trouble she thought she'd escaped.
Her lying, party-loving younger sister, Vicky, is dead. The Billings police say that a very drunk Vicky wandered away from a party and died of exposure after a night in the brutal cold. The strong one who fled Billings and saved herself, Alma returns to make Vicky's funeral arrangements and see to her eleven-year-old niece, Brittany. Once she is back in town, Alma discovers that Vicky's death may not have been an accident.
Needing to make her peace with the sister she left behind, Alma sets out to find the truth, an emotional journey that leads her to the home place, her grandmother Maddie's house on the Montana plains that has been the center of the Terrebonne family for generations. She re-encounters Chance, her first love, whose presence reminds her of everything that once was . . . and everything that might be. But before she can face the future, Alma must acknowledge the truth of her own life—the choices that have haunted her and ultimately led her back to this place.
The Home Place is a story of secrets that will not lie still, human bonds that will not break, and crippling memories that will not be silenced. It is a story of rural towns and runaways, of tensions corporate and racial, of childhood trauma and adolescent betrayal, and of the guilt that even forgiveness cannot ease. Most of all, it is a story of the place we carry in us always: home.
For a Terrebonne, the home place is the safe haven, the convergence of waters, the place where the beloved dead are as real as the living. . . .
The only Terrebonne who made it out, Alma thought she was done with Montana, with its cruel poverty, bleak winters, and stifling ways. Hard work and steely resolve got her to Yale, and now she's an attorney in a high-profile Seattle law firm, too consumed by her career to think about the past. But an unexpected call from the Montana police takes the successful lawyer back to her provincial hometown and pulls her into the family trouble she thought she'd escaped.
Her lying, party-loving younger sister, Vicky, is dead. The Billings police say that a very drunk Vicky wandered away from a party and died of exposure after a night in the brutal cold. The strong one who fled Billings and saved herself, Alma returns to make Vicky's funeral arrangements and see to her eleven-year-old niece, Brittany. Once she is back in town, Alma discovers that Vicky's death may not have been an accident.
Needing to make her peace with the sister she left behind, Alma sets out to find the truth, an emotional journey that leads her to the home place, her grandmother Maddie's house on the Montana plains that has been the center of the Terrebonne family for generations. She re-encounters Chance, her first love, whose presence reminds her of everything that once was . . . and everything that might be. But before she can face the future, Alma must acknowledge the truth of her own life—the choices that have haunted her and ultimately led her back to this place.
The Home Place is a story of secrets that will not lie still, human bonds that will not break, and crippling memories that will not be silenced. It is a story of rural towns and runaways, of tensions corporate and racial, of childhood trauma and adolescent betrayal, and of the guilt that even forgiveness cannot ease. Most of all, it is a story of the place we carry in us always: home.
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First published July 29, 2014
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About the author
Carrie La Seur
8 books106 followersMontana environmental lawyer and writer. Outspoken outdoorswoman. "Completely solid." I give good book recommendations!
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October 6, 2018
so, this author decided to call me out for my review of her book:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carrie-...
i would love to respond to her there, but i'm not going to join facebook just for that. so - if you want to join me here, ms. le seur, for a fruitful discussion about gender and genre and exactly who is dismissing whom, feel free to disregard the warning about authors approaching reviewers on here, because i'm not looking for a fight, but i am curious about some of your assertions.
this is a novel about a successful, if tightly-wound, woman who returns to her rural hometown in montana after her younger sister's suspicious death and finds that why yes, you can go home again, but that home is loaded with secrets and dangers and too many memories.
alma left home as a teenager shortly after the death of both of her parents, and never looked back. she left behind a brother, a younger sister, and chance, a boy whose heart she broke. in her absence, her sister vicky went to stay with an aunt and uncle and grew into a wayward party girl, had a daughter of her own, and died one evening, of "exposure" when she drunkenly wandered out into the cold. her daughter brittany made several calls to family that evening, but for the first time, no one came to help - tired of vicki's drama and busy with their own lives and problems. there's plenty of guilt and regret to go around.
when alma arrives, she reconnects with the family she left behind - her grandmother, her aunt and uncle, her brother, brittany, and chance, now a strapping man with a daughter of his own, but conveniently, no wife. she learns that residents of the town, particularly the elderly, have been aggressively pressured to sell their land to a mining company, that her own family house, "the home place," has been targeted, and she begins to suspect that vicki's death may not have been accidental.
the good stuff:
this book has a really good sense of place. i am a fan of smalltown narratives, and she captures the insular DIY spirit and tradition very well, while also beautifully depicting the vast landscape of montana.
although alma made her escape and never regretted it, once she is back home she feels the pull of "home," and understands its appeal, and how difficult it is to articulate this appeal to an outsider. in a conversation with chance:
"Nobody from outside ever has had any idea what I come from...There's no way I could explain"
It's never occurred to her that it's possible to communicate between those two worlds.
"That's just it. How can you show what our lives are without demeaning the struggle people go through every day to keep one of these old places together, keep food on the table? How do you show how hard it is - not romanticize it - without discounting the richness? Or are we just an anachronism, like the Amish?"
also, this passage, which observes the tenacity of women who live on the sometimes unforgiving land:
Alma knows that Helen's passivity hides the same thing that led the wagons westward, the same nerve and sense of duty that drove her great-great-grandmother away from the fire on cold winter nights to midwife new mothers up and down the valley, riding into bitter storms on a great draft horse, never failing, never brought down by the fear and fatigue rode with her every mile. The years of deprivation and isolation made the women like winter aspens - bare of ornament, stark, giving the appearance of death, yet green and resilient at the core, and tied to the place and the people with a vast network of unseen roots. Eternal. The men have always been strong, but the women have been steel.
and this one, which acknowledges the relationship difficulties between two career-oriented, busy people, and the cracks that can eventually break people apart:
These aren't things they talk about, not part of the script. She might like to know, but it's too late. Jean-Marc is busy, and she'll let it pass, like a hundred moments in the past when she wanted to reach out to him and drew back because it would be too much work to know, to care. There is never enough time.
so, there are some solid moments of writing in this, some good insights and descriptions of the struggle between responsibility and desire, and how the past is always lying in wait.
the less good:
alma is just not a particularly likable or sympathetic character. nothing seems to really affect her, and she reads kind of flat. she's selfish and judgmental, yet somehow manages to attract and sustain the interest of loyal-hearted men. but for a reader, she's hard to connect to, and i don't think the author realized she was writing an antiheroine - i think we are meant to root for her. she lost my support when
the book is just kind of middlebrow. it's a perfectly fine for a book club where the wine is more of a draw than the book. it's like one of those books oprah used to choose for her book club when it first started - very "safe" women's fiction. it's a family mystery with nothing new and the old stuff is capably done; but there's no sparkle. it's fine - it will hold your interest, there's nothing glaringly bad about it, but it isn't bringing anything new to the table of the family mystery novel, and the resolution is a little too easy.
and here's the thing. i know that genre fiction has a stigma in some circles, and it doesn't appeal to as large an audience as whatever we are calling women's fiction these days, since that's apparently a sexist term, even though it is a recognizable subgenre of lit fic with its own appeal factors, but this should have had a fence slapped on the cover and been marketed as a romance novel.
there's not a lot of intercourse-having in it, but it seems to fulfill all of the other expectations of a romance novel. we have a love triangle: which just reduces them from characters to archetypes, and is definitely a convention for male characters within the romance genre.
the only thing that is different between this and the romance novels i have read is the pacing - romance novels tend to be faster-paced with fewer descriptive passages, but the story itself - the feisty heroine solving the crime single-handedly while men patiently wait for her attention, the way clues are casually dropped in conversations for her while the police can't seem to make any headway in the investigation, and a completely cartoonish mining-villain.
and i'm not saying that romance novels are bad - i am a kindly old readers' advisor who doesn't make qualitative judgments, but romance novels tend to be more episodic than contemplative, and generally a little less subtle in their characterization. and that villain is anything but subtle.
one last gripe, regarding the racial issues that are only superficially addressed in the book. kudos for accurately depicting the suspicion and resentment that occur in small, close-knit, mostly white communities towards their minority residents, in this case, native americans. and kudos for showing that alma is above all of that, in her familiarity with and respect for their culture and customs. but to have the native character be a part of this police force that she outsleuths doesn't seem to be doing him any favors. he is affable and competent and all, but he is basically just used as stock landscape, like most of the men in this book.
but i feel like i am being harsh. this book is not outstanding, but not terrible by any means. i just feel that if it were more honestly marketed as a romance novel, albeit a more ambitious romance novel than some, it would stand out more to its audience.
come to my blog!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carrie-...
i would love to respond to her there, but i'm not going to join facebook just for that. so - if you want to join me here, ms. le seur, for a fruitful discussion about gender and genre and exactly who is dismissing whom, feel free to disregard the warning about authors approaching reviewers on here, because i'm not looking for a fight, but i am curious about some of your assertions.
this is a novel about a successful, if tightly-wound, woman who returns to her rural hometown in montana after her younger sister's suspicious death and finds that why yes, you can go home again, but that home is loaded with secrets and dangers and too many memories.
alma left home as a teenager shortly after the death of both of her parents, and never looked back. she left behind a brother, a younger sister, and chance, a boy whose heart she broke. in her absence, her sister vicky went to stay with an aunt and uncle and grew into a wayward party girl, had a daughter of her own, and died one evening, of "exposure" when she drunkenly wandered out into the cold. her daughter brittany made several calls to family that evening, but for the first time, no one came to help - tired of vicki's drama and busy with their own lives and problems. there's plenty of guilt and regret to go around.
when alma arrives, she reconnects with the family she left behind - her grandmother, her aunt and uncle, her brother, brittany, and chance, now a strapping man with a daughter of his own, but conveniently, no wife. she learns that residents of the town, particularly the elderly, have been aggressively pressured to sell their land to a mining company, that her own family house, "the home place," has been targeted, and she begins to suspect that vicki's death may not have been accidental.
the good stuff:
this book has a really good sense of place. i am a fan of smalltown narratives, and she captures the insular DIY spirit and tradition very well, while also beautifully depicting the vast landscape of montana.
although alma made her escape and never regretted it, once she is back home she feels the pull of "home," and understands its appeal, and how difficult it is to articulate this appeal to an outsider. in a conversation with chance:
"Nobody from outside ever has had any idea what I come from...There's no way I could explain"
It's never occurred to her that it's possible to communicate between those two worlds.
"That's just it. How can you show what our lives are without demeaning the struggle people go through every day to keep one of these old places together, keep food on the table? How do you show how hard it is - not romanticize it - without discounting the richness? Or are we just an anachronism, like the Amish?"
also, this passage, which observes the tenacity of women who live on the sometimes unforgiving land:
Alma knows that Helen's passivity hides the same thing that led the wagons westward, the same nerve and sense of duty that drove her great-great-grandmother away from the fire on cold winter nights to midwife new mothers up and down the valley, riding into bitter storms on a great draft horse, never failing, never brought down by the fear and fatigue rode with her every mile. The years of deprivation and isolation made the women like winter aspens - bare of ornament, stark, giving the appearance of death, yet green and resilient at the core, and tied to the place and the people with a vast network of unseen roots. Eternal. The men have always been strong, but the women have been steel.
and this one, which acknowledges the relationship difficulties between two career-oriented, busy people, and the cracks that can eventually break people apart:
These aren't things they talk about, not part of the script. She might like to know, but it's too late. Jean-Marc is busy, and she'll let it pass, like a hundred moments in the past when she wanted to reach out to him and drew back because it would be too much work to know, to care. There is never enough time.
so, there are some solid moments of writing in this, some good insights and descriptions of the struggle between responsibility and desire, and how the past is always lying in wait.
the less good:
alma is just not a particularly likable or sympathetic character. nothing seems to really affect her, and she reads kind of flat. she's selfish and judgmental, yet somehow manages to attract and sustain the interest of loyal-hearted men. but for a reader, she's hard to connect to, and i don't think the author realized she was writing an antiheroine - i think we are meant to root for her. she lost my support when
the book is just kind of middlebrow. it's a perfectly fine for a book club where the wine is more of a draw than the book. it's like one of those books oprah used to choose for her book club when it first started - very "safe" women's fiction. it's a family mystery with nothing new and the old stuff is capably done; but there's no sparkle. it's fine - it will hold your interest, there's nothing glaringly bad about it, but it isn't bringing anything new to the table of the family mystery novel, and the resolution is a little too easy.
and here's the thing. i know that genre fiction has a stigma in some circles, and it doesn't appeal to as large an audience as whatever we are calling women's fiction these days, since that's apparently a sexist term, even though it is a recognizable subgenre of lit fic with its own appeal factors, but this should have had a fence slapped on the cover and been marketed as a romance novel.
there's not a lot of intercourse-having in it, but it seems to fulfill all of the other expectations of a romance novel. we have a love triangle: which just reduces them from characters to archetypes, and is definitely a convention for male characters within the romance genre.
the only thing that is different between this and the romance novels i have read is the pacing - romance novels tend to be faster-paced with fewer descriptive passages, but the story itself - the feisty heroine solving the crime single-handedly while men patiently wait for her attention, the way clues are casually dropped in conversations for her while the police can't seem to make any headway in the investigation, and a completely cartoonish mining-villain.
and i'm not saying that romance novels are bad - i am a kindly old readers' advisor who doesn't make qualitative judgments, but romance novels tend to be more episodic than contemplative, and generally a little less subtle in their characterization. and that villain is anything but subtle.
one last gripe, regarding the racial issues that are only superficially addressed in the book. kudos for accurately depicting the suspicion and resentment that occur in small, close-knit, mostly white communities towards their minority residents, in this case, native americans. and kudos for showing that alma is above all of that, in her familiarity with and respect for their culture and customs. but to have the native character be a part of this police force that she outsleuths doesn't seem to be doing him any favors. he is affable and competent and all, but he is basically just used as stock landscape, like most of the men in this book.
but i feel like i am being harsh. this book is not outstanding, but not terrible by any means. i just feel that if it were more honestly marketed as a romance novel, albeit a more ambitious romance novel than some, it would stand out more to its audience.
come to my blog!
October 23, 2015
There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. Dorothy GaleAlma Terrebonne is a successful Seattle-based corporate lawyer. She makes a nice living, has a handsome banker bf named Jean Marc, and a promising future that is hers for the taking. But when her little sister dies under suspicious circumstances she races home.
Vicky Terrebonne was a single mother in Billings, Montana. One freezing night, she left the semi-conscious group of substance abusers at her apartment, hoping to score some weed from her ex. Victoria’s frozen, face-down body was found the next day. As soon as her mother had headed out, 11 year old Brittany started calling family members, hoping someone would come to take her away before Vicky returned. When no help came she retreated, in an incredibly moving moment, to find comfort with her imaginary dog.
Maybe Thomas Wolfe was right, but Alma heads back to the place and family she had fled anyway. She figures it would only be a few days. But she plans to keep a keen eye out for the predatory sorts in her office who are eager to take advantage of her absence to steal cases from her. It is no secret that the prairie is not the only place with vultures.
Through Alma’s return we get the back story of the Terrebonne family. Alma and Vicky’s parents had died when Alma was 17 and Vicky several years younger. Vicky was taken in by her Aunt Helen and domineering Uncle Walt, but stays away from them now. She had a history of drug-abuse and was constantly calling on all possible family members for help, usually of the financial sort. Alma had managed a nifty escape to a northeast college, then law school and finally a career on the coast. There are plenty of family secrets to go along with the mystery of whether Vicky was the victim of circumstance or foul play.
to him, the home place is beyond quaint. It’s isolated, disconnected, abandoned—and she knows better than he does how many eccentricities it hides. Firearms and whiskey hidden in odd corners, violence and insanity just below the surface, the way that civilization can become nothing but a thin polish over the animal will to survive.Be it ever so humble, the home place of the title is a property that has been in the family for generations, rural, limited communications capacity, an outhouse, primitive. It was where her father and Uncle Walt had been raised. It is also a place where she and her sister had spent a lot of time as kids. It is the epitome of home, and offers the good earth that is the essence of the family name.
For a Terrebonne, the home place is the safe haven, the convergence of waters, the place where the beloved dead are as real as the livingIf home is such a wonderful thing, why do we refer to the unattractive as homely? The home place of Montana, in this portrait, is one that features long-term, unacknowledged PTSD, cooking of books and maybe an illegal substance or two, anti-gay bigotry, violence of various sorts, a dark view of the Mormons, shady business dealings and a somewhat cartoonish bully of a land agent who does everything but kick a dog trying to intimidate mostly elderly people into selling their land to a mining interest. La Seur also offers some description of the relationships between the white residents and the local Native American population, which includes the detective assigned to Vicky’s case.
La Seur is a Billings resident, so she knows of what she speaks in describing the place, and the interactions among its residents. The language she employs to give readers a sense of Montana begins at a very lofty place:
The cold on a January night in Billings Montana, is personal and spiritual. It knows your weaknesses. It communicates with your fears. If you have a god, this cold pulls a veil between you and your deity. It gets you alone in a place where it can work at you. If you are white, especially from the old families, the cold speaks to you of being isolated and undefended on the infinite homestead plains. It sounds like wolves and reverberates like drums in all the hollow places where you wonder who you are and what you would do in extremis. In this cold, you understand at last that you are not brave at all.This wonderfully spun passage goes on for a bit and remains glorious. Such rich description does have the occasional reprise, but it was disappointing that there was not more of it.
The author – from her FB page
La Seur also knows of the rape of landscape. Like Alma, La Seur is an attorney, a working class girl who managed to become a Yale grad and Rhodes scholar. She founded the non-profit organization Plains Justice to give residents a voice to stand up against the power of big mining interests. I expect her descriptions of despoiled landscapes and the tactics of land agents come from personal experience,
So, we have a mystery, an onion of family secrets to be peeled back, some wonderful descriptions, a strong character in Alma, consideration of the best use of the land and what constitutes a home. What’s not to like?
I am particularly allergic to romance books. Although I read plenty of books that have romance in them, I would never read a book that was labeled romance. While there is not nearly the volume of romance here that one might find in an actual specimen of the genre, there was enough to trigger my gag reflex. Part of home for Alma is Chance Murphy (not nicknamed Last or Fat, so far as I know), a cowboy sort with a degree in electrical engineering, sensitive, tough. I think he came from the build-a-guy factory. I could see him introducing himself. “Why, howdy ma’am. My name’s Studly, Studly McMuffin,” as he touches two fingers to the front tip of his Stetson. Or maybe he has a red cape stowed somewhere. Alma is plenty tough, and the story is interesting enough. This not-so-lonely ranger, or at least the degree of him, was a distraction and a downer for me. I understand that his presence was not fluff, as he offered a second draw for Alma and allows for some more detail to her back story. Not only does she have to look at how involved she wants to be in raising her niece, but there is the question of whether she wants to take a chance on rekindling her just-down-the-road adolescent romance with mister perfect, and where she ultimately wants to hang her hat.
With all she knows about the legal world, and conflicts around mining rights on the high plains, combined with her evident ability to weave a story, La Seur has the raw materials that are needed to put together a dazzling sophomore effort. One is already under way. I am looking forward to it.
There is plenty of grit in this very promising freshman novel, enough to compensate for the mush. I get that not everyone starts to sneeze and wheeze when a female character gets the drools for some guy, so it may not irk you as much as it did me. The Home Place offers a detailed look at Big Sky country that is not all bison, trout, mountains and glaciers, a look that synchs pretty well with another recent Montana novel, Fourth of July Creek. La Seur does let us in on the appeal of the place. Whether for good, ill, or both, there probably is no place like home for most of us. So tracking Alma’s decision process should ring at least some bells for plenty of readers. You will learn a bit about a place you most likely do not know well, get to unravel a few mysteries at the same time, and you won’t have to leave the comfort of you-know-where to do it.
This review is cross-posted at Cootsreviews.com
Review posted - April 18, 2014
Pub date - July, 2014
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages
A profile of La Seur from The Rhodes Project
La Seur also posted several energy-related vids on youtube that might be of interest
A quote from Carrie
It doesn't matter if our elected leaders understand the seriousness of climate change if they lack the balls to face down [the] fossil industry. (4/11/14)October 6, 2014 - Apparently the author took umbrage at some of this review, and Karen Brissette's as well.
April 21, 2014
Well yes, I love this book. I wrote it, over nights and weekends and vacations, for most of the last ten years. It's like a firstborn child: you put everything into it, you know its flaws very well, but you couldn't love it any less and you're so proud to see it out in the world. I hope you'll love it too.
May 10, 2020
I’d been wanting to read this book for years and am so happy I finally picked it up. It really is a fusion of genres: murder mystery, family drama, upmarket/literary fiction with an incredible sense of place, and a love story all wrapped into one.
I’m a sucker for books with setting as character, and particularly loved the author’s note in which she explained her connection to her home state of Montana (also the setting of this book), “Let us stand on bare earth with bare feet and know what we are, who we are, where and from whom we come. Then let us evolve.”
This novel, indeed, answers these questions for the main character, Alma. Fine examples of atmospheric setting and lovely writing:
The leafless trees bow over before it, but the pines, the native ladies, merely part their heavy skirts and let the wind come through, lifting the featherweight of snow from their boughs…
The years of deprivation and isolation made the women like winter aspens—bare of ornament, stark, giving the appearance of death, yet green and resilient at the core, and tied to the place and the people with a vast network of unseen roots.
Her body is part of the texture, made of this land and the good, sweet water, healed by the herbs, raised on the stories, grown on the plants and animals, quickened by the air.
The novel isn’t heavy on the nature descriptions, but I point them out because I so enjoyed them. This is, at its heart, a character-driven novel focused on Alma’s growth, her past, and her search for the truth. Other external forces against the land play a part in the novel as well. And for that reason, I connected with this book in a different way: I saw parallels to my own Arizona mining town, where natural resource exploration – and exploitation – is constant (and unnerving, as the beautiful mountains in front of my home seem to be under constant threat of mining development).
While one part of the plot was somewhat expected, it was pleasantly predictable in that I hoped for the outcome the author penned. That said, there are plenty of surprises and interesting revelations in this book. I had the privilege of listening to the author speak at the Tucson Festival of Books years ago, and she is fascinating – Ivy law school educated, but drawn back to her roots in Montana. This book was, in many ways, her homecoming as well.
I’m a sucker for books with setting as character, and particularly loved the author’s note in which she explained her connection to her home state of Montana (also the setting of this book), “Let us stand on bare earth with bare feet and know what we are, who we are, where and from whom we come. Then let us evolve.”
This novel, indeed, answers these questions for the main character, Alma. Fine examples of atmospheric setting and lovely writing:
The leafless trees bow over before it, but the pines, the native ladies, merely part their heavy skirts and let the wind come through, lifting the featherweight of snow from their boughs…
The years of deprivation and isolation made the women like winter aspens—bare of ornament, stark, giving the appearance of death, yet green and resilient at the core, and tied to the place and the people with a vast network of unseen roots.
Her body is part of the texture, made of this land and the good, sweet water, healed by the herbs, raised on the stories, grown on the plants and animals, quickened by the air.
The novel isn’t heavy on the nature descriptions, but I point them out because I so enjoyed them. This is, at its heart, a character-driven novel focused on Alma’s growth, her past, and her search for the truth. Other external forces against the land play a part in the novel as well. And for that reason, I connected with this book in a different way: I saw parallels to my own Arizona mining town, where natural resource exploration – and exploitation – is constant (and unnerving, as the beautiful mountains in front of my home seem to be under constant threat of mining development).
While one part of the plot was somewhat expected, it was pleasantly predictable in that I hoped for the outcome the author penned. That said, there are plenty of surprises and interesting revelations in this book. I had the privilege of listening to the author speak at the Tucson Festival of Books years ago, and she is fascinating – Ivy law school educated, but drawn back to her roots in Montana. This book was, in many ways, her homecoming as well.
September 13, 2014
“The cold on a Saturday night in Billings, Montana, is personal and spiritual . . .”
I was completely hooked by The Home Place even before I had it in my hands. Just reading the hauntingly beautiful opening pages sampled on Amazon made me almost desperate to go on, and I recommend trying that if you might be interested because the finished book fully met all my hopeful expectations based on that passage--if you enjoy the first section I think you’ll love the book.
After the death of her parents, Alma escaped as far away from her Montana home, high school boyfriend, and extended family as she could by leaving for an East Coast college, but it’s not that she hated the place or people. She loved both but, overwhelmed by her loss, she turned herself into another person, a driven and highly successful Seattle lawyer living with her French Canadian lover. When Alma’s troubled younger sister dies in questionable circumstances she comes home to take care of her niece and investigate.
The “home place” of the title is the rustic, isolated farm house her family lived in for generations, though it’s deserted now and an aggressive mining company representative is pressuring Alma’s grandmother to sell. When Alma moves back into the home place with her niece to try to sort out what happened to her sister and what’s going on in her family she’s down the road from the ranch of the boyfriend she abandoned years ago and so necessarily but uneasily back in his life.
As a literary psychological thriller very grounded in its location,The Home Place reminds me of novels by Tana French and Julia Heaberlin, though the austere beauty of its Big Sky Midwestern setting is far from French’s Dublin. Full of tension and suspense and without an ounce of saccharin this is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year.
I was completely hooked by The Home Place even before I had it in my hands. Just reading the hauntingly beautiful opening pages sampled on Amazon made me almost desperate to go on, and I recommend trying that if you might be interested because the finished book fully met all my hopeful expectations based on that passage--if you enjoy the first section I think you’ll love the book.
After the death of her parents, Alma escaped as far away from her Montana home, high school boyfriend, and extended family as she could by leaving for an East Coast college, but it’s not that she hated the place or people. She loved both but, overwhelmed by her loss, she turned herself into another person, a driven and highly successful Seattle lawyer living with her French Canadian lover. When Alma’s troubled younger sister dies in questionable circumstances she comes home to take care of her niece and investigate.
The “home place” of the title is the rustic, isolated farm house her family lived in for generations, though it’s deserted now and an aggressive mining company representative is pressuring Alma’s grandmother to sell. When Alma moves back into the home place with her niece to try to sort out what happened to her sister and what’s going on in her family she’s down the road from the ranch of the boyfriend she abandoned years ago and so necessarily but uneasily back in his life.
As a literary psychological thriller very grounded in its location,The Home Place reminds me of novels by Tana French and Julia Heaberlin, though the austere beauty of its Big Sky Midwestern setting is far from French’s Dublin. Full of tension and suspense and without an ounce of saccharin this is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year.
October 12, 2014
Started out strong but then ended up being a romance.
Weird.
Weird.
October 26, 2018
There is a lively discussion on GR about whether this book is a mystery, a romance, a family story. Well, why can't it be all of those things? There's no doubt that all those plot lines intersect across the book. I liked the story but what I really, really liked was the author's strong sense of place. She made southern Montana come alive for me, with its huge landscapes, towering mountains and vast skies. This was the best part of a pretty good book.
May 17, 2015
The ultimate in family dynamics. Rape, murder and romance. Some members of the Tennebonne family want to maintain the Home Place and it's mineral rights. A first love comming full circle to total commitment. The author did such a wonderful job, bringing the reader to Montana and all the places familiar to her. I loved the book
August 3, 2014
Beautiful writing. Some of the descriptions are poetic. It's probably more a three star for most readers. But I just could not connect to Alma, nor the initial tale of sorry parenthood by her deceased sister. Plot seems the typical dysfunction cliché, and Montana more the star than the people are who live there.
February 9, 2018
This is one of those books I found through a friend. I am so glad I did. It is a mesmerizing story of family, secrets, lies and devotion to a place and land that never stops. Alma’s story is riveting.
September 10, 2014
The accolades and reviews for this book has left me bewildered and confused. I am unsure why this book received so much praise, cause this book was extremely forgettable, trite and typical. Despite the poor character development,nothing about this novel made me want to continue reading after the first chapter. All of the paragraphs jumbled together without no sense of direction, felt like I was reading a long movie script without including the character names. Most importantly that contributed to the low rating was the undefined plot, it just kept going on and on and on and on about useless information that did not add anything significant. It just was not cup of tea or choice of beverage , two for effort but that is about it.
October 15, 2014
Way too predictable and cliche. Characters weren't well-built, and therefore not very likable. The city girl with her protein drinks and insane schedule, the suave and passive French boyfriend, the ruggedly-handsome, broken-hearted cowboy... please. It was just too much. If there wasn't a mystery to it, and it was merely the girl-comes-home-and-finds-herself story, I'd have ditched it right away.
April 29, 2014
In clear, lovely prose, LaSeur draws an entire matrix of tensions - territorial, familial, romantic, internal. An honest portrait of a new wild west, every character spoke to me, felt familiar. A smart, surprising read.
June 4, 2021
3.5 star
This book was slow and quiet mystery + family drama in the small town. It's not bad. Writing is great, characters are well made. Just slow. I took to finish about 2 weeks. Last 50 pages are fast building page turner. It was little shocking how to close murder case. But I was satisfied on the drama line.
This book was slow and quiet mystery + family drama in the small town. It's not bad. Writing is great, characters are well made. Just slow. I took to finish about 2 weeks. Last 50 pages are fast building page turner. It was little shocking how to close murder case. But I was satisfied on the drama line.
January 31, 2018
At its heart The Home Place is a decent enough story. It focus on a somewhat rural town outside of Billings, Montana that main character Alma Terrebonne once calmed home. For Alma, this place is full of painful memories - her parents death, siblings that have struggled to find their niche, sullen extended family, and a secret she keeps from an old boyfriend. When she receives word that her sister has been found dead, she returns from her new home in Seattle to get to the truth. The problem with the book is, we've all been here before many, many times. I could name you several books that in some way have or another have a similar premise. I hate to say it, but to me the book is often cliche at times the way you have this successful person that moves away to the big city only to return and discover the truth.
I think the worst part for me was (spoiler alert) Alma falls back in with her old boyfriend, Chance. Could you have a more stereotypical name for this ex-rodeo rider? But toward the end of the book on the same day that Alma has just buried her sister, Chance (in my opinion) takes advantage of Alma and they end up having sex in the old pickup they use to have sex in back in their old high school days. It comes off as consensual but still a really asshole thing to do considering SHE'S JUST BURIED HER SISTER! This is right before they have dinner with Chance's family and Alma's boyfriend from Seattle who has come to Montana for the funeral. Of course, everyone notices and later than night when Alma and her Seattle boyfriend are alone, he forces himself on her. In my mind, it's rape. The sex is non consensual, she may not say no but she most definitely doesn't say yes. Keep in mind that this is A) a couple hours after banging her old boyfriend and B) that SHE'S JUST BURIED HER SISTER!
The book plays out the same old way things always do, we figure out who did it, all the people that stand in Alma's way get their comeuppance, and of course, they all live happily ever after. Yawn.
I think the worst part for me was (spoiler alert) Alma falls back in with her old boyfriend, Chance. Could you have a more stereotypical name for this ex-rodeo rider? But toward the end of the book on the same day that Alma has just buried her sister, Chance (in my opinion) takes advantage of Alma and they end up having sex in the old pickup they use to have sex in back in their old high school days. It comes off as consensual but still a really asshole thing to do considering SHE'S JUST BURIED HER SISTER! This is right before they have dinner with Chance's family and Alma's boyfriend from Seattle who has come to Montana for the funeral. Of course, everyone notices and later than night when Alma and her Seattle boyfriend are alone, he forces himself on her. In my mind, it's rape. The sex is non consensual, she may not say no but she most definitely doesn't say yes. Keep in mind that this is A) a couple hours after banging her old boyfriend and B) that SHE'S JUST BURIED HER SISTER!
The book plays out the same old way things always do, we figure out who did it, all the people that stand in Alma's way get their comeuppance, and of course, they all live happily ever after. Yawn.
September 2, 2014
She thought she had escaped her broken family and the detritus of her life in Billings, Montana. But Alma Terrebonne, a successful lawyer living in Seattle, finds herself roped back into the family left behind, with all of its lies, secrets, and crippling memories.
On an early Sunday morning in January, a phone call takes Alma back, to the sad consequences of her sister Vicky's party-loving life, and the eleven-year-old niece who needs her.
How will Vicky's death change everything about Alma's life? Will the old family homestead bring back good memories as well as bad? And who, if anyone, has taken Vicky from them? Her brother Pete and her grandmother Maddie, as well as the bitter and angry aunt and uncle, Walt and Helen, will arouse the bitterness of the past, as well as bring more questions in the present.
I could not stop turning the pages, as secret after secret is revealed, and then, just as I finally started to suspect what would come next, the stunning surprise was more malevolent than I had imagined.
The author takes the reader along for a ride as we explore the Big Sky country, with the gorgeous land, and as we learn of the threats that landowners are facing from those who wish to grab their mineral rights, we feel a righteous indignation for those who stand firm to protect what is theirs. "The Home Place: A Novel" is an evocative tribute to family, its bonds, and the heritage that allows them to stay connected, despite the secrets that often threaten to damage them all. Recommended for those who enjoy family drama, a little mystery, and the thrill of uncovering the secrets of the past. 4.5 stars.
On an early Sunday morning in January, a phone call takes Alma back, to the sad consequences of her sister Vicky's party-loving life, and the eleven-year-old niece who needs her.
How will Vicky's death change everything about Alma's life? Will the old family homestead bring back good memories as well as bad? And who, if anyone, has taken Vicky from them? Her brother Pete and her grandmother Maddie, as well as the bitter and angry aunt and uncle, Walt and Helen, will arouse the bitterness of the past, as well as bring more questions in the present.
I could not stop turning the pages, as secret after secret is revealed, and then, just as I finally started to suspect what would come next, the stunning surprise was more malevolent than I had imagined.
The author takes the reader along for a ride as we explore the Big Sky country, with the gorgeous land, and as we learn of the threats that landowners are facing from those who wish to grab their mineral rights, we feel a righteous indignation for those who stand firm to protect what is theirs. "The Home Place: A Novel" is an evocative tribute to family, its bonds, and the heritage that allows them to stay connected, despite the secrets that often threaten to damage them all. Recommended for those who enjoy family drama, a little mystery, and the thrill of uncovering the secrets of the past. 4.5 stars.
July 9, 2014
A terrific book, in which Montana's icy snow-bound beauty is as much of a character as the protagonist, Oxford-educated mergers-and-acquisition lawyer Alma Terrebonne. Drawn back home by the death or perhaps murder of her ne'r-do-well younger sister, found frozen, face down in a Billings snowbank, Alma faces for the first time the cold truth about her family. Perhaps no other author has captured so chillingly, the feelings of loss, responsibility and dread when returning home of someone who's managed to escape by leaving family and home behind. A must read.
January 16, 2014
A little slow at first, but this turned out to be a good, solid family saga, with a touch of romance, wrapped around a mystery that needed solving. It takes place in my home state of Montana, so the descriptions of people and places were familiar, and written well. I liked the main characters, and the mystery angle was handled well, with lots of false leads, twists and turns.
February 7, 2021
Alma is called home to Billings, Montana from Seattle for the worst possible reason. A death in the family. A family that has already been decimated by life overflowing with tragedy. It is the last place she wants to be, especially during the final stages of a case that can make her career as a lawyer in her high stress job. Guilt and a sense of duty bring her home to deal with her younger sister's sad, and yes, suspicious death. What's a little more stress in a competent young woman's life? She gives herself six days to deal with the necessaries for Vickie and the twelve year old daughter Brittany she has left behind. Once there she must face her hard-hearted Uncle Walt and the ever-ailing Helen, his wife. Her brother Pete, winds up surprising her beyond imagination. There is also a disgusting businessman trying to buy her family's old homestead by hectoring her sweet grandma Maddie, now that Vickie is gone, and a Native American detective who steadily works the case of homicide versus accidental death. And Chance. Hey, the story is in Montana, someone's got to be named Chance! And yes, he was a rodeo star and has now been humbled (or smoothed out) by life.
There was so much packed into this wonderfully told story, and I loved reading every part of it. Alma gets body slammed by facing her hometown again. A lesser person may have been destroyed by that, but she proves she is a survivor. There are scenes where I had to suspend judgment and accept that justice sometimes gets complicated. Best of all, the author maintained reverence and awe for Montana in her prose, and the story ends just the way I wanted it to, for all the right reasons, and without tying everything up in a bow.
The details of the bleakness of Billings and the hardness of many residents who can trace their lineage back centuries, is part of the draw of the story. I have visited Billings only once, but it made me a little sad. There was a women's prison right smack in the middle of town! However in the backmatter of her book Carrie La Seur gives a walking tour of her true hometown, Billings. Now I want to go back just to explore every step she suggests.
The book is written in an unusual tense that took me by surprise, but the beautiful prose quickly helped me get used to it. I highly recommend this gritty story filled with Big Sky beauty and the pain that vast blue firmament can command.
There was so much packed into this wonderfully told story, and I loved reading every part of it. Alma gets body slammed by facing her hometown again. A lesser person may have been destroyed by that, but she proves she is a survivor. There are scenes where I had to suspend judgment and accept that justice sometimes gets complicated. Best of all, the author maintained reverence and awe for Montana in her prose, and the story ends just the way I wanted it to, for all the right reasons, and without tying everything up in a bow.
The details of the bleakness of Billings and the hardness of many residents who can trace their lineage back centuries, is part of the draw of the story. I have visited Billings only once, but it made me a little sad. There was a women's prison right smack in the middle of town! However in the backmatter of her book Carrie La Seur gives a walking tour of her true hometown, Billings. Now I want to go back just to explore every step she suggests.
The book is written in an unusual tense that took me by surprise, but the beautiful prose quickly helped me get used to it. I highly recommend this gritty story filled with Big Sky beauty and the pain that vast blue firmament can command.
July 17, 2022
I wanted to read a book set in Montana and this fit the bill. Plotting was good, but the writing felt jumpy - like the author forgot where she last left her characters and didn't build the proper bridge to explain how they got from one place to another. Makes me long to be an editor again, my missed opportunity dream career before I found libraries.
September 1, 2019
Author Carrie La Seur's debut work, "The Home Place", is an atmospheric, involving tale of a woman's involuntary return to her past. Attorney Alma Terrebonne has created a tightly-scheduled, neatly-ordered life for herself with a successful career in Seattle. With everything in its proper place, she can immerse herself in her work, pushing herself hard enough to keep haunting memories of her Montana youth at bay. A phone call changes all that when she is informed that her troubled younger sister, Vicky, has been found dead from exposure after a fall and a serious head wound. Flooded by regrets and guilt over her broken relationship with her sister, Alma heads back home to bring order to the chaos Vicky has left behind, and that includes finding a suitable place for Vicky's daughter, Brittany. As Alma reconnects with family and friends, and the home place itself, she begins to sense that her sister's death may not have been an accident. Caught between two worlds, Alma's heart is further confused by her feelings for Chance Murphy--the first love who never really let go. Drawn by the inescapable lure of the land and the legacy of her family's history, Alma must choose where her future lies. Can she let go of her life in Seattle and make a life in Montana, the very place from which she has run for so many years? Can she embrace her heritage as a Terrebonne and truly find peace at the home place?
Book Copy Gratis Amazon Vine
Book Copy Gratis Amazon Vine
May 23, 2014
When San Francisco attorney Alma returns to Montana, a twisty-turny death investigation soon begins to look like a murder investigation. Alma's sister, Vicky, always the bad girl, has now come to a bad end, and the potential suspects are numerous.
There's a meth dealer, Vicky's ex-husband, and a pushy mine representative trying to acquire mineral rights.
Alma has been estranged from her sister, and her brother Pete, and other family members, and as soon as she sets foot on the tarmac in Billings, Montana, she remembers why. "Violence and insanity just below the surface."
Forming their own opinions are Alma's high school sweetheart, Alma's current boyfriend, and a cagey detective just looking for the truth.
At times, the narration reads like a screenplay, "Alma thanks Jayne and moves toward the front door. Brittany is ready and waiting when Alma swings by the home place to pick her up." Other times, her use of alliteration, "She looks down. Feels foolish. Shivers. Sighs, Snaps herself away from the sight." paints vivid pictures for the reader.
The story ends with a version of truth and a promise of better times. And a reminder that "home" is always the place where you grew up.
I read this as an e-book courtesy of Harper Collins and Edelweiss.
There's a meth dealer, Vicky's ex-husband, and a pushy mine representative trying to acquire mineral rights.
Alma has been estranged from her sister, and her brother Pete, and other family members, and as soon as she sets foot on the tarmac in Billings, Montana, she remembers why. "Violence and insanity just below the surface."
Forming their own opinions are Alma's high school sweetheart, Alma's current boyfriend, and a cagey detective just looking for the truth.
At times, the narration reads like a screenplay, "Alma thanks Jayne and moves toward the front door. Brittany is ready and waiting when Alma swings by the home place to pick her up." Other times, her use of alliteration, "She looks down. Feels foolish. Shivers. Sighs, Snaps herself away from the sight." paints vivid pictures for the reader.
The story ends with a version of truth and a promise of better times. And a reminder that "home" is always the place where you grew up.
I read this as an e-book courtesy of Harper Collins and Edelweiss.
December 15, 2014
An intriguing character study set against the backdrop of rural Montana. It's a haunting story, and tone is important. Listen to the wonderful audio version read by Andrus Nichols--she evokes the landscape, characters, and tone beautifully. There are some plot issues--characters and plot lines left hanging--but the polished, lyrical prose; the compelling pace (time/date stamps head chapters to help us remember all this takes place in just days); the interesting characters; and the fully realized draw of the Home Place make this excellent listening. While the ending is expected, there's also an interesting twist.
August 11, 2014
A nicely done debut mystery involving the death/murder of a woman with a young daughter living in Montana. Her sister, who is a lawyer on the west coast, must leave her job for a bit to help put family affairs in order while doing a little snooping into her sister's death. Two things become readily apparent. First, there is more than meets the eye with her sister demise and second "the home place" has some attractions and pull upon her that she never realized. There are three main twists of which I guessed one in advance so that is a good thing. The book is well worth reading.
July 13, 2014
When Alma returns to Montana for her sister's funeral she runs into all the reasons she left many years ago. Her niece, Brittany needs someone to love her and Alma needs to figure out if her sister Vicky was murdered or died in a drunken stupor. As a lawyer in the middle of a major case, she plans to attend the funeral and return to Seattle but things don't work out that way. A great story that proves you can go home again and blood is thicker than water.
February 27, 2015
Typical plot: super driven city girl goes back to her Montana roots to investigate her sisters death. Turns out- it's a homicide! GASP! As she uncovers the mystery behind the death, she uncovers all the emotions she left behind- including the lost love. Don't read this book if you are looking for something deep and moving. Bor-ing....
August 12, 2017
Ugh. Cookie-cutter, predictable. Ridiculous reveal at the end. I'm always a little suspicious when an author has either been a lawyer or doctor first and taken up writing second. Over-achievers. It makes me want to re-focus my attentions on those authors who have only ever wanted to write and have had to scratch out a living in the early days of their careers to do it.
March 3, 2015
What a soap opera. What was supposed to be a story about family ties and secrets got waylaid by a cringe-worthy romance. Picture love interest Chance Murphy as one of those strapping men on the cover of a harlequin romance novel — and as one-dimensional, to boot. Steer clear.
March 23, 2014
I enjoyed the setting of this book. The mystery itself was crafted well and revealed at a satisfying pace. However, the romance and easy denouement felt too silly.
June 8, 2014
Don't they say "you can't go home again"? Well,maybe you can! A great story - loved it. Thanks to Goodreaads for the book!
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