With a foreword by Mary Anna Evans.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 … 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 loss 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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I found Artifacts by Mary Anna Evans a very captivating book with layers of interest about family history dealing with multi-racial south, family secrets, and Faye’s inner debates with herself about the integrity and disreputable selling of historical artifacts in order to have enough money to exist.
The plot is based on Faye Longchamp who lives sequestered on a private island with a huge hidden antebellum mansion in great need of repairs in north Florida. Faye is in despair every day to find a source of income in order to keep the tax collectors from seizing her ancestral home. Faye has a temporary job with a field excavation project on a neighboring island, but the pay is low and she desperately needs money. She knows her illegal actions of digging in federally protected lands and supplying a private museum owner with artifacts for his collection is so very wrong for a true archeologist. As Faye is digging with Joe, a native American who lives on her island, they unearth female remains.
A few days later two young students with the dig team are killed and buried within the area they had staked for excavation. Faye is disturbed at this violence and wonders about how this possibly connects to her finding the buried remains earlier that week.
There are several mysteries which will converge together to tell the whole story of Faye’s family history, the secrets of past murders, and surviving a hurricane. A very intriguing book!
I loved the characters, the historical information scattered throughout, and the archaeology angle.
Faye Longchamp is living the dream. Well, if the dream includes a crumbling antebellum mansion on a deserted island, secretly working “private” archeology sites, oh and finding dead bodies, of course. Mary Anna Evans does a brilliant job of bringing both Faye’s and her great great great grandmothers worlds to life. Just a few of the people you’ll meet in these worlds are the dishonorable nobleman who begins her family line, the young slave who takes back her life, the innocent young Indian man who is more comfortable with nature than technology, Hurukan himself, and of course the killer who isn’t who you think it is. This is a terrific read and I am very glad it is just the beginning!
A story with archaeology as a backdrop. I like her characters and the southern locale for the story. A good mystery which will have you wanting to read more. A series of books with different geographical settings.
I just finished reading this story which was super good reading. I won’t spoil it for you because I don’t believe in telling the stories, wanting to save them for future readers to enjoy. But I can say that I love a good mystery heaped in history through the ages, and filled with every emotion of human endurance. Also of course the act of murder. It was hard to put down even for a minute, to separate myself from being a part of it, and returning to my present uneventful reality. I’m sure others will enjoy this story as much as I did.
I read every book in the Faye Longshamp series and enjoyed them all.
A page-turner from beginning to end. The plot never bogged down. The setting was very unusual and informative; very descriptive. I enjoyed this. The characters were interesting and left me wanting to read more. I will definitely follow this series.
Such a great read! It was a mystery, part thriller and part historical novel. The protagonist was an extraordinary extraordinary woman.. with lots of spunk. The book takes place on the islands of the panhandle of Florida. I didn’t know too much about this area before reading, but now I do! The story talks quite a bit about slavery-times and before in Florida. Very interesting!
Having a BA degree in anthropology I enjoy novels with plots involving archaeology. I also enjoy plots with strong interesting lead women characters. This book has both and held my interest thoughout and left me wanting more adventures.
Very good reading. Takes twists with the plot. Enjoyed the characters and setting of the story
Enjoyable! Entertaining mystery. Sympathetic characters. Unique setting . . . So glad that 9 or 10 of the Faye Longchamp mysteries are included in the Audible Plus catalog. How fun to find an interesting new series!
Such a fun historical mystery! I thoroughly enjoyed the wide range of characters, good and bad. The setting and its historical background was interesting to read and think about. I am intrigued by this series.
Once I Got into the Book, I Enjoyed It
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 Artifacts. It was well worth the time and energy invested in it. I will most certainly be getting the next one.
Ah! The beginning of my great journey through this wonderful series by Ms. Evans. Can’t say enough about them, other than she is the author I refer friends to the most. New one out soon… can’t wait.
This was a fast paced mystery and was fun to read!
Likeable characters and an interesting read
I read all the series. Looking forward to more
I used to live I n Ft Walton Beach and was excited to read a story featuring the area.. I was also there during Hurricane Eloise. Familiarity makes all things extra special. The story taught me a lot about archeology, artifacts and their value, love of home and family plus a great murder mystery. I enjoyed the book!
Great book, original and well written. I loved the characters and history of the story.
I enjoyed very much, another good beach book but requires more than a day to read.