Praise for Artifacts... "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 Evan's debut, a tale of greed, archaeology, romance and murder...." -Publishers Weekly "Evans...makes excellent use of her archaeological subject matter, weaving past and present together in a multilayered, compelling plot." -Booklist Faye Longchamp has lost nearly everything except for her determination to hang onto 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 or how her descendants hung onto it through Reconstruction, world wars, the Depression, and Jim Crow. But Faye has inherited 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 selling them on the black market. But instead of pot shards and arrowheads, she uncovers a woman's shattered skull. If Faye reports the 40-year-old murder, she'll reveal her illegal livelihood, risk jail...and Joyeuse. So she probes into the dead woman's history, unaware that the past is rushing toward her like a hurricane across deceptively calm Gulf waters.... Mary Anna Evans indulges her love for history and storytelling by writing the award-winning Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries. She is a mother of three, a licensed professional engineer, and an avid amateur musician. www.maryannaevans.com
Artifacts
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First Sentence
Faye Longchamp was digging like a pothunter and she hated herself for it. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
Faye Longchamp was digging like a pothunter and she hated herself for it. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Mark Baker
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
Faye Longchamp hates what her meager means have led her to. An assistant at an archeological dig by day, she behaves like a pothunter at night, digging for any artifact she can find and sell. Always on her mind is the need to pay the property taxes on her ancestral home. One valuable item is all that separates her from keeping her property safe for another year.
One evening's dig turns up a skull. Intrigued by this unexpected find, Faye takes an earring and begins to look into local stories of missing girls.
The next morning, Faye arrives at the dig site to find two students missing. When things begin not to add up, Faye gets concerned. When their bodies are found, the dig shuts down. How can Faye earn much needed money now?
Meanwhile, Faye is on a quest to gain back the rest of her ancestral lands. And there's another pothunter loose in her neck of the woods. Will he ruin a good site? Will his digging get her arrested for her illegal work as well?
This book is very literary in style and not like the mysteries I'm used to reading. As such, I started to get very frustrated with it. The story had too many threads and the cast of characters was a little hard to keep straight. Furthermore, Faye's questionable morals also rankled me. But as the story progressed, I began to sort things out and got hooked. The plot may have bitten off one or two sub-plots more then it really needed, but they all come together well. Faye grew into a character I couldn't help but love. And I just couldn't put the book down when I reached the climax.
I'm glad I stuck it out and finish the book. It was well worth the time and energy invested in it. I will most certainly be getting the next one.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Maggie Mae
Format:Paperback
Archaeology student Faye Longchamp is struggling to keep her ancestrail home of Joyeuse on Florida's northern gulf coast by illegally digging up artifacts on federal lands and selling them on the black market. However, one day she unearths a human skull and it doesn't look like it's been in the ground for a couple hundred years, more like only three or four decades, so it's not fresh, but not an artifact either, and judging by the head wound, this woman met a violent end. She decides to try and find out who the dead woman was on her own, as she can hardly go to the police and confess that she'd found the skull by illegally pot-hunting.
Then the next day two students on a legitimate dig she'd been working on wind up missing, then their bodies are found in shallow graves and she has to wonder if their deaths are tied in with her own dead person. And, of course, there is a very bad guy out there who wants to keep this all quiet, so Faye is in a spot of trouble.
ARTIFACTS won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence in Mystery and it is easy to see why. This is a story that will keep any mystery buff glued to his chair till the reading is finished. A darned good debut, one you won't be able to put down, that what this book is.
Then the next day two students on a legitimate dig she'd been working on wind up missing, then their bodies are found in shallow graves and she has to wonder if their deaths are tied in with her own dead person. And, of course, there is a very bad guy out there who wants to keep this all quiet, so Faye is in a spot of trouble.
ARTIFACTS won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence in Mystery and it is easy to see why. This is a story that will keep any mystery buff glued to his chair till the reading is finished. A darned good debut, one you won't be able to put down, that what this book is.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars
60 reviews
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding!
15 Jun 2003
By Elizabeth Slater
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
A debut novel by Mary Anna Evans, this is wonderful mystery set in the panhandle of North Florida. Faye Longchamp is, at heart, an archeologist. However, she is driven to illegal digging to save Joyeuse, her ancestral home. While engaging in this activity, Faye, with her companion Joe (yum, yum!), uncover a body on one of the nearby islands. When they go back to examine it, the body had disappeared. Why? Who else knew?
Meanwhile, at the respectable dig where Faye is assisting a former professor, two of the students left on the island overnight disappear.
What is happening in Faye's quiet corner of the world? How could she keep Joyeuse? How could she keep Joyeuse hidden???
Who else was digging illegally?
I loved this book, and cannot wait for the next installment. I was pleasantly surprised with Ms. Evans first novel, and I continue to look forward to Faye's next adventure.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
exciting and colorful amateur sleuth novel
12 May 2003
By Harriet Klausner
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
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.
Harriet Klausner
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Heroine Who isn't Afraid of Bending the Law a Bit, How Sweet
26 Dec 2005
By Maggie Mae
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Archaeology student Faye Longchamp is struggling to keep her ancestrail home of Joyeuse on Florida's northern gulf coast by illegally digging up artifacts on federal lands and selling them on the black market. However, one day she unearths a human skull and it doesn't look like it's been in the ground for a couple hundred years, more like only three or four decades, so it's not fresh, but not an artifact either, and judging by the head wound, this woman met a violent end. She decides to try and find out who the dead woman was on her own, as she can hardly go to the police and confess that she'd found the skull by illegally pot-hunting.
Then the next day two students on a legitimate dig she'd been working on wind up missing, then their bodies are found in shallow graves and she has to wonder if their deaths are tied in with her own dead person. And, of course, there is a very bad guy out there who wants to keep this all quiet, so Faye is in a spot of trouble.
ARTIFACTS won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence in Mystery and it is easy to see why. This is a story that will keep any mystery buff glued to his chair till the reading is finished. A darned good debut, one you won't be able to put down, that what this book is.
Then the next day two students on a legitimate dig she'd been working on wind up missing, then their bodies are found in shallow graves and she has to wonder if their deaths are tied in with her own dead person. And, of course, there is a very bad guy out there who wants to keep this all quiet, so Faye is in a spot of trouble.
ARTIFACTS won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence in Mystery and it is easy to see why. This is a story that will keep any mystery buff glued to his chair till the reading is finished. A darned good debut, one you won't be able to put down, that what this book is.
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4.4 out of 5 stars
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