Artifacts - Softcover

Evans, Mary Anna

3.9

2,675 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590580796 ISBN 13: 9781590580790

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2003

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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...

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Review:

"There are two mysteries included in Mary Anna Evans' first book along with a wealth of information on archaeological digs, legitimate and stealthy. The primary one involves a skull, complete with 60's style earring, and the murder of two graduate students close by. Sounds like a straight forward, follow the dots and connect the two, doesn't it? Well, this is where it gets complicated. The skull was discovered by Faye Longchamp while illegally pothunting on Federal Land. Fearing arrest if she admits what she was doing when she found the skull, Faye is afraid to report her find.

This brings us to the second mystery. Faye is the last of her family and sole owner of the family home, Joyeuse, a plantation hidden away on a small island off the coast of Florida. Faye, an archaeological student who knows better, has been illegally digging and selling artifacts, trying desperately to raise money to pay the back taxes and keep Joyeuse. The plantation came to Faye through her great-great grandmother, Cally, a newly freed slave. How and why Cally came by Joyeuse is the second mystery Faye feels compelled to solve.

Mary Anna Evans tells a good story. She fills ARTIFACTS with interesting people, not the least of whom is Faye Longchamp. The hunt in the past for the identification of the forty year old murder victim -- who she was and why she was killed and her body secreted -- involves Faye in a past where a murderer still lurks, determined that no one will uncover the truth. The two graduate students are archaeological students, so we become involved with Faye's former teacher and the rest of the members of the archaeological dig.

You will enjoy this book for the mystery storyand 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

"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 hol

"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.

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