Synopses & Reviews
Faye Longchamp has lost nearly everything except for her quick mind and a grim determination to hang onto her ancestral home, Joyeuse, a moldering plantation hidden along the Florida coast. No one knows how Faye's great-great-grandmother Cally, a newly freed slave barely out of her teens, came to own Joyeuse in the aftermath of the Civil War. No one knows how her descendants hung onto it through Reconstruction, world wars, the Depression, and Jim Crow, but Faye has inherited the island plantation--and the family tenacity. When the property taxes rise beyond her means, she sets out to save Joyeuse by digging for artifacts on her property and the surrounding National Wildlife Refuge and selling them on the black market. A tiny bit of that dead glory would pay a year's taxes. A big valuable chunk of the past would save her home forever.
But instead of potsherds and arrowheads, she uncovers a woman's shattered skull, a Jackie Kennedy-style earring nestled against its bony cheek. Faye is torn. If she reports the forty-year-old murder, she'll reveal her illegal livelihood, thus risking jail and the lose of Joyeuse. She doesn't intend to let that happen, so she probes into the dead woman's history, unaware that the past is rushing up on her like a hurricane across deceptively calm Gulf waters...
Review
"Artifacts is a haunting, atmospheric story in which a mysterious island holds the clue to long-buried family secrets. Mary Anna Evans brings passion and insight to her subject and has written a modern southern gothic novel about a biracial woman's search for her heritage." --PJ Parrish, Edgar nominee and New York Times best-selling author of Thicker than Water
Review
"A fresh contemporary protagonist, Faye Longchamp gives the phrase ‘scraping to get by'a whole different meaning. Past and present merge in an intriguing story ably demonstrating that Miami doesn't have a monopoly on murder in Florida." --Aileen Schumacher, Anthony award nominated author of Rosewood's Ashes
Review
"Few corners of Florida remain unmined for crime fiction and now, happily, there's one less. The shifting little isles along the Florida Panhandle-hurrican-wracked bits of land filled with plenty of human history-serve as the effective backdrop for Evan's debut, a tale of greed, archaeology, romance and murder. The latest in a long line of courageous and resourceful women, Faye Longchamp can trace her mixed ancestry back to a slave and a once magnificent plantation house, Joyeuse, which she now claims by heritage and squatter rights and whose very existence is a closely guarded secret. Faye ekes out a living by illegally 'pothunting' and acting as an assistant on a legitimate archaeological dig, but her discovery of a human skull and the subsequent murder of two archaeology students threaten her precarious existence. While Evans stretches credulity with the sheer number of unlikely elements that make up the plot, including a mysterious Indian and a 19th-century diary, the rich setting and the lively characters that aid or bedevil Faye in her quest more than compensate. Readers should welcome this strong new heroine."-Publishers Weekly
Review
"Off the coast of the Florida Panhandle lay the Last Isles and on Joyeuse lies the antebellum mansion belonging to Faye Longchamp. It is badly in need of repairs but Faye barely can pay taxes and the last thing she wants is lose the home that has been in her family for generations. She earns the money to pay the taxes by illegally digging up artifacts on her land and the National Wild Refuge and selling them to collectors whom don't care about the source. Faye also works on an archeological dig on nearby Seagreen Island when two students in the group disappear. On a hunch, Faye starts digging and finds the two bodies, both shot to death. The dig is closed and Faye looks for artifacts on Water Island when she comes under attack by a man she thought was a friend and his partner who are digging up priceless Clovis artifacts. When she digs up the body of a young debutante who disappeared many years ago she comes to the attention a killer who intends to make Faye his fourth victim. Faye is biracial and doesn't feel as if there is a place for her in mainstream society, which is why she is determined to hold on too her land, the only place she believes she belongs. She doesn't realize she has two killers who want her dead before she discovers and reveals their secrets. ARTIFACTS is an exciting and colorful amateur sleuth novel that is rich in atmosphere giving the reader a picture of what it takes to live in an island culture."
--Midwest Book Review
Review
"The shifting little isles along the Florida Panhandle--hurricane-wracked bits of land filled with plenty of human history--serve as the effective backdrop for Evans's debut, a tale of greed, archaeology, romance and murder.... Readers should welcome this strong new sleuth." -- Publishers Weekly
"You will enjoy this book for the mystery story and the interesting history and archaeological information the author freely dispenses. Books from Poisoned Pen Press are always a good bet with an interesting twist be it a new author or an almost forgotten one." -- I Love a Mystery
"First-novelist Evans introduces a strong female sleuth in this extremely promising debut, and she makes excellent use of her archaeological subject matter, weaving past and present together in a multi-layered, compelling plot." -- Booklist
"Artifacts is a haunting, atmospheric story in which a mysterious island holds the clue to long-buried family secrets. Mary Anna Evans brings passion and insight to her subject and has written a modern southern gothic novel about a biracial woman's search for her heritage." -- PJ Parrish, Edgar nominee and New York Times best-selling author
"A fresh contemporary protagonist, Faye Longchamp gives the phrase 'scraping to get by' a whole different meaning. Past and present merge in an intriguing story ably demonstrating that Miami doesn't have a monopoly on murder in Florida." -- Aileen Schumacher, Anthony award nominated author
About the Author
Mary Anna Evans has degrees in Physics and Chemical Engineering, but her heart is in the past. Her background includes stints as an environmental consultant and a youth choir director. She has also worked offshore and wrapped gifts for pay. Writing lets her indulge her passion for history, archaeology, and architecture, while giving her a great excuse for making up stories. Simply put, writing novels is fun. Mary Anna lives in Florida with her husband, three children, at least sixteen musical instruments, and a cat. Artifacts is her debut novel.