It was a call Alma never wanted to get, but always thought would come – her sister was dead. The officer who called was short on details other than Alma’s teenaged niece was there at the scene and saw her mother dead on the ground. Alma makes quick plans to come home to deal with the aftermath – to care for not only her niece, but her grandmother who is in poor health, as well as The Home Place.
Carrie La Seur’s debut novel The Home Place delivers a poignant tale about generational trauma and the ecological impact greed is having on some of the last large swaths of undeveloped land in our country. A 2014 Strand Critics Award nominee, this book is part murder mystery and part family drama. La Seur’s writing is influenced heavily by her time in Montana as an environmental lawyer, but her writing spans beyond just the environmental to the pain of substance abuse, child neglect, and more. This is a book about not letting your past dictate your future and the importance of family support.
I give The Home Place 4 out of 5 stars. I was mesmerized by the descriptions and narrative around the death investigation, but also in the descriptions of the family homestead. Maybe it’s because I just read Bad River by Marc Cameron, but this has the slight literary noir feeling of a domestic thriller while giving the romance and family drama feels that I love. I did find some of the characters hard to connect with fully, but that may have been the intention of the writer, giving more mystery in their backstories to fuel the mystery of the story.
This is a great book for anyone interested in the mining operations in this region. While not explored in detail, the strong-arm tactics are a pivotal part of this plot. This would also be a great weekend read – once I started, I couldn’t put it down! With discussions around death, substance abuse, sexual assault, and parental loss, I would direct this book to more mature readers over 16.
I chose The Home Place for the US States reading challenge prompt “Montana”. I had a few great books come up in my search for novels set in the state but chose this one solely because of the cover artwork – it’s stunning! Do you choose books based on the cover? Would this cover had made you choose it, too?
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What I’m Reading
- Current print book: The Pool House, Tasmina Perry
- Current audio book: Size 12 is Not Fat, Meg Cabot
- Book I’m most looking forward to: Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow
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