Overview

There are many reasons why we take chances. We find ourselves making decisions we know might be dangerous on some level, yet there is something which urges us to go ahead, insisting that the consequences really won't be that serious. Chet Norem is no exception. He's a banker and confident in his skills in the realm of finance that have helped him arise from an earlier fall from grace to land in a comfortable life as president of the International National Bank in Harlowton, Montana. It's a small bank in a small town, but Chet is content there where he has earned the respect of employees and residents alike. The only fly in the ointment of his current life is his childhood friend Charlie, who always turns to Chet in times of trouble... which means often. HARLO is the story of a man who has made some unfortunate decisions in the past and is about to do so again, despite the possible results, some of which he has considered, and others that could go far beyond any he may have imagined. Brian Petersen has crafted characters for this story with all the qualities and quirks that paint a colorful picture of small town life and who affect both Chet's past and his future. You will not regret meeting Chet Norem.

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9781941052761

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Reviews

Once again, Brian Petersen has crafted a taut, intelligent novel populated with flesh-and-blood characters who navigate the high stakes and low treachery, the boozy cowboy raunch and the smug Armani-clad pomp jockeying behind the dusty facades of a small-town American main street. In his hero, fallen banker Chet Norem, Petersen embodies the competing impulses to do right and to screw up in style, and the dawning realization that cleverness isn't wisdom and lust isn't love. As in his previous novel, Petersen weaves pulse-revving action with meditations on art, commerce, friendship, family, repairs and redemption, and again the big star is the language: the wordplay, the humor, and the sublime depictions of the natural world. -Steven Finney, writer, editor, translator, University of North Dakota. With an art lover's eye and a deep feeling for the people of the West, Petersen draws on muses and mentors to tell a story of money and land, cowboys and gunsels, lust and loss in Chet Norem's town of Harlo, Montana. The tragicomic rompings of Chet's world stomach-churning fights and doubt, the disappointment and solace he finds in the evolving West-make a full-force tale, and Petersen has wrapped the players in his heart-cloth.-Greg Booth, Rancher and Quarter Horse breeder in Minnesota.

Author Information

Raised in a small town banking family in North Dakota, Brian Petersen saw firsthand the relationships and work among the bank and staff, the business people, and the public to keep the town and surrounding community going. He learned that the banker was crucial in supporting customers through the best of times and the worst, and crucial in keeping an isolated small town afloat. He saw bankers as the hard working, kind, and ethical backbone of the community, along with a few outliers. The author has spent years gathering stories from friends in small towns and has been able to adapt these stories for his varied writing career. Petersen has worked as a bank teller, bartender, bookstore clerk, workover-rig floorhand, ranch-hand, artist assistant, journalist, and volunteer fishing guide. His first novel VANISH is set in a small town in North Dakota and the struggles of the residents with the boom and bust cycles of the energy industry.Petersen lives in Montana.

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