Description

A compelling blend of true crime and memoir tracing the authors investigation into the kidnapping and murder of her great-grandfather in 1980s Louisiana and the reverberations on her family and community throughout the decades

Riveting and atmospheric, Home of the Happy is also a heartfelt grappling with a trauma in the authors family and her attempts to unravel its secrets once and for all. LaHaye Fontenots writing is urgent, fueled not just by a desire for justice but by love for her ancestors and the Cajun community of south Louisiana. A must-read for true crime and mystery fans. Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Pines

On January 16, 1983, Aubrey LaHayes body was found floating in the Bayou Nezpique. His kidnapping ten days before sparked the biggest manhunt in the history of Evangeline Parish. But his descendants would hear the story as lore, in whispers of the dreadful day the FBI landed a helicopter in the familys front lawn and set out on horseback to search for the seventy-year-old banker.

Decades later, Aubreys great-granddaughter Jordan LaHaye Fontenot asked her father, the parish urologist, to tell the full story. He revealed that to this day, every few months, one of his patients will bring up his grandfathers murder, and the man accused of killing him, John Brady Balfa, who remains at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola serving a life sentence. Theyll say, in so many words: Dr. Marcel, I really dont think that Balfa boy killed your granddaddy.

For readers of Maggie Nelsons The Red Parts and Emma Copley Eisenbergs The Third Rainbow Girl, Home of the Happy unravels the layers of suffering borne of this brutal crimeand investigates the mysteries that linger beneath generations of silence. Is it possible that an innocent man languishes in prison, still, wrongly convicted of murdering the authors great-grandfather?

Author: Jordan LaHaye Fontenot
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: 04/01/2025
Pages: 336
Weight: 1lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.93d
ISBN: 9780063257962
Language: English