The Home Place, by Carrie LaSeur

This book has it all:  an amazing combination of mystery, romance and family dysfunction, with dark secrets from the past.  Above all, it’s an ode to kind of pull that brings you back to the place you grew up, even after you’ve tried to leave it.  I have felt this pull myself drawing me back to our family ranch in Colorado.

In this case, The Home Place is a ranch east of Billings, Montana.  The author has a gift for evoking its hold on her protagonist, Alma, a successful young Seattle attorney who has tried to escape it.  Alma returns to Billings for the funeral of her drug-abusing younger sister, Vickie, who has died under mysterious circumstances.  During the next six days, Alma tangles with an unscrupulous oil developer trying to acquire her family’s home place, a brutal uncle and his sickly wife, her gay brother, and her degenerate sister’s circle of unsavory friends.  As she works to solve the mystery of her sister’s death, she must find a way to take care of her seven-year old orphaned niece, and choose between her Seattle boyfriend and her Billings high school sweetheart, a rancher named Chance Murphy.

Carrie LaSeur is adept at weaving back-story into the unfolding present in a way that doesn’t detract from the drama.  As an author myself, I was captivated by the way she uses gestures and expressions to convey emotion and by her use of images like this one describing tough frontier women as 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.”  And her opening lines personifying the cold in Montana gave me, well, chills.

I couldn’t disagree more with the reviewers who dismiss this book as a romance novel disguised as literary fiction.  It’s got a bit of romance, to be sure, but it is so much more than that.  I give it five stars.

One of my favorite authors may be coming your way. If you live in any of the cities listed below, be sue to attend Laura Pritchett’s reading and book signing event. She’s a prize-winning author from northern Colorado, and is a neighbor of ours. Two of her previous books are among my favorites: Hell’s Bottom, Colorado and Stars Go Blue. Many of the same characters populate both stories, including an Alzheimer’s victim to tries to avenge the murder of his daughter before his disease makes it impossible. Very gripping. I haven’t yet read her new book, Red Lightning, but it sounds great as well: a woman who abandons her baby daughter to smuggle illegal aliens seeks redemption.

June 20, 5 pm, Skylight Books Los Angeles, CA 
June 26, 2 pm, BookPeople of Moscow, Idaho
June 27, 7 pm Auntie’s Books, Spokane, WA
June 28, 3 pm, Elliott Bay Books, Seattle, WA
June 29, 7:30 pm Powell’s Bookstore Hawthorne Portland, OR
July 1, 7 pm,  Book Bar, Denver, CO
July 13, 7 pm, Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA
July 14, 7 pm, Powerhouse Arena, Brooklyn, NY

In cooperation with Loveland’s Historic Preservation Month, I will be leading a tour of sites described in my award-winning historical novel, Mariano’s Crossing on Sunday, May 17, 2015.  The tour is sponsored by the Heart-J Center for Experiential Learning at Sylvan Dale Ranch.

The event will begin with brunch at Sylvan Dale, followed by a presentation and a walking tour of the ranch grounds, including Indian tipi rings and the remains of the original Alexander homestead dugout, which was exposed by the 2013 flood.  We’ll end with beverages and snacks and a presentation on the history of Sylvan Dale and the great floods of 1976 and 2013. In between, the group will visit the site of the old Weldon School, the Medina Cemetery, Namaqua Park (Mariano’s original Crossing) and Red Ridge, the novel’s imagined location of John Alexander’s hideout and Lena’s secret gravesite.

The Red Ridge segment of the tour will be available only to participants who have their own four-wheel drive vehicles, who can car-pool with someone else, or who choose to climb the last half-mile on foot (calculate a half-hour fairly steep hike up an old quarry road bed).  Those who are unable to join the Red Ridge segment will return to Sylvan Dale for happy hour before the late afternoon program. 

Cabins are available for optional bed-and-breakfast stays for anyone who would like an overnight spring get-away.

I look forward to your joining us!

David M. Jessup

970-481-8342

PS. For those not able to join the tour, please consider attending a “virtual tour” (my Fact-to-Fiction slide presentation) at 5:00 PM on Thursday, May 7, at the Loveland Museum, 503 N. Lincoln Ave. No charge, no RSVP necessary.

COST:  $79.00, paid in advance.  Includes full brunch, late afternoon snacks, meeting facility and tour.  Optional Bed-and-breakfast overnight “spring getaway” stay available for $110/night (double occupancy).

REGISTRATION:  On-line at http://www.heartjcenter.org/marianos-crossing-tour.html,

Or send a check to National Center for Craftsmanship (fiscal sponsor of Heart-J Center, at PO Box 150, Masonville, CO 80541, with “HJC book tour” in memo line.   Questions?  E-mail davidj@sylvandale.com, or call (970) 481-8342.  

SCHEDULE:

12:00 Noon.  Full brunch in the Sylvan Dale Heritage Room.

12:30 PM.  Historic photo slide presentation Mariano’s Crossing – From Fact to Fiction. Heritage Room, Sylvan Dale Ranch.

1:00 PM.  Walking tour of main ranch grounds, including the original William Alexander Homestead, the original bridge location, old barn, Indian tipi rings, and view of Mt. Alexander.

2:00 PM.  Depart for driving tour, car caravan to the Weldon School ruins, Marianna Butte, Medina Cemetery, and Mariano’s Crossing near Namaqua Park.

4:00 AM.  Red Ridge, the “Hideout,” overlooking the river valley below. (hikers and 4-wheelers only. Others return to main ranch for happy hour). 

5:30 PM. Beverages and snacks at Sylvan Dale Heritage Room, with presentation on the history of Sylvan Dale and the great floods of 1976 and 2013.

Optional: Overnight Bed and Breakfast “spring get-away” stays available at Sylvan Dale. $110/night.