The Home Place audiobook

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.

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.

“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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I felt like I really knew these characters, including one of the main characters, Montana itself, thanks to the vivid and keen description in this page-turner. This was definitely a book I didn't want to put down. Carrie La Seur somehow manages to relay complexities of family dynamics, land politics, addiction and law in just a few perfect sentences. She makes it look easy, but so do Olympic gymnasts.You know I'm nuts for a book when I start casting the movie of it in my head. I'd love to see someone like LeeLee Sobieski or Maria Bello to play the lead role of Alma, our "Montana escapee" living the big-city lawyer life in Seattle. They both have that ability to portray high intelligence, and a guarded personality that somehow lets you see the emotional depth behind the self-protection. I can easily see the complicated, wounded Vicky as Kate Mara. And the best rancher dude with brains and heart that I can imagine for Chance would be Timothy Olyphant:The main character of western Montana should be played by Montana herself of course.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Wonderful book that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Can't wait for her next book to come out!