Effigies

First Line: Faye Longchamp had work to do, but it would wait.

From her ramshackle ancestral home on an island off the coast of Florida, Faye Longchamp and her assistant Joe Wolf Mantooth have traveled to Mississippi to help excavate a site near the sacred mound where tradition says the Choctaw Nation was born. Carroll Calhoun refuses to allow the archaeologists on his farm to investigate an even larger mound, and they are disappointed, but Calhoun breaks their hearts when he tries to bulldoze the ancient site into oblivion. When the farmer later turns up dead, Faye finds herself trying to find the killer before Joe Wolf Mantooth is thrown in jail.

I love mysteries laced with a strong dose of archaeology, and in my opinion, Evans' series show more featuring Faye Longchamp is the best of the bunch. She's got a fine cast of characters; she uses her settings to advantage; and she always seems able to include more history and archaeology into her stories than many other writers. Effigies is no exception. Ever since I visited Cahokia as a child, I've been fascinated with the Mound Builders. Evans added to my knowledge in an entertaining way. She also threw me right in the middle of the heat and humidity of Mississippi amongst rednecks, scholars, law enforcement, the Choctaw and handed me a mystery to sort out. The only weakness in the whole thing was the identity of the bad guy. I figured it out early on, but I didn't much care because I still had to deduce the Why. Well, that and the fact that I was enjoying playing around in the dirt with Faye again.

If you're in the mood for mysteries with interesting, multi-faceted characters, an excellent sense of place, and a good dose of history and archaeology, you can't go wrong with Mary Anna Evans' series. Go ahead. Pick up a trowel and work in a trench with Faye. You'll be glad you did. show less

After finishing this a couple of days ago, I got lazy about reviewing it. Real life and all that. Anyway, I liked this book every bit as much as the first two in the series, perhaps a little more. At least my tear ducts claim it was teetering on the edge of five starry-ness, so I just pushed it over. Yeah, there was one spot where, wow. I won't give it away. Anyway, I'm going to keep going with this series.

At the opening of this book, Faye has taken another field-work assignment under a different prof, this time in Mississippi, and Joe is working with her as well. This other prof is not very methodical, and frankly kind of annoying, so she has her work cut out for her.

Like the previous books in the series, this is more than just simple show more murder/mystery genre fiction. It's pretty "literary" too. Yes, mysteries and murders occur, but there are also archaeology, history, race relations, philosophy, and even a bit of love interest. There are notes and a teaching guide at the end, which contextualize the setting.

The writing is ultra-solid. Student novelists: take note. The editing and copy-editing are both impeccable. Again I found no typographical errors in the book. It's apparently as spotless as the driven snow.

Full disclosure, since I'm dishing out all possible stars: I don't know the author. I paid the modest full retail price for this book, and it's worth every penny. show less

Archaeologist Faye Longchamp and her friend, Joe Wolf Mantooth, have traveled to Neshoba County, Mississippi, to help excavate a site near Nanih Waiya, the sacred mound where tradition says the Choctaw nation was born. When farmer Carroll Calhoun refuses their request to investigate an ancient Native American mound, Faye and her colleagues are disappointed, but his next action breaks their hearts: he tries to bulldoze the huge relic to the ground.

Faye and Joe rush to protect history--with their bodies, if necessary. Soon the Choctaws arrive to defend the mound and the farmer's white and black neighbors come to defend his property rights. Though a popular young sheriff is able to defuse the situation, tempers are short.

That night, show more Calhoun is found dead, his throat sliced with a handmade stone blade. Was he killed by an archaeologist, angered by his wanton destruction of history? Neshoba County farmers have been plowing up stone tools like the murder weapon for centuries. Did one of them take this chance to even the score with an old rival?

The sheriff is well-aware that Faye and Joe were near the spot where Calhoun's body was found and their combined knowledge of stone tools is impressive. They had motive, means, and opportunity....but so does almost everyone in Neshoba County. (Summary from Good Reads)

Tempers are hot in Mississippi as an archaeological team planning to dig on one of the archaeologists own land spots a Native American Mound and can't resist the urge to poke around in it. When the owner of the land, Mr. Calhoun, spots them not only does he threaten to bulldoze the mound, but the people protecting it themselves. Faye of course, is determined to get a look at the mound legally, or illegally, and one night as she and Joe are investigating it, someone, presumably Calhoun races at them with a bulldozer with enough power to plow down trees. Joe with his uncanny ability to traverse through nature leads Faye to safety only to find a pot farm in the middle of a clearing in the woods and someone chasing them, again presumably, Calhoun. But then they find Calhoun dead at the site of the pot farm and everyone is confused including the small town sheriff.

Throw in a senator come back to seek justice for the near death beating he took when he was eighteen in the same county who keeps passing out, then seems to be fine in the hospital and relapses every two days out of the hospital. Add an unwilling widow to let the excavation of the mound occur and an Atlanta lobbyist after Faye's heart and there is a tangled mess to sort out. Again, without realizing it, Faye is caught in the middle, figuring things out slowly, pointing the finger first one way then another until a harrowing conclusion finds her, Joe and another archaeologist in a fight against nature for their lives. The downfall of the murderer is anticlimactic after what Faye has been through the previous night. And when Ross, the lawyer/ lobbyist dating Faye sees her with Joe he realizes he has some competition whether she knows it or not.

In this book, Faye appreciates Joe more. She still treats him a little like a child, but only because of his trusting nature. She trusts his instincts with nature completely. She notices him more. He changes from his homemade buckskin pants to jeans and a plaid shirt and she notices, but she likes him better in his old stuff. Yet she still thinks, "Wow" when she sees him. Joe is also smart enough to know the things she likes about him and he plays on those things. Their relationship is definitely growing closer, but she is dating Ross who shows up in the next book.

Effigies was very intense in the final confrontation with the killer. I knew Faye would live, but I wasn't sure about the archaeologist with them. It was dramatic and I could feel their fears and panic. I had to stop reading at times, but I can't tell you why because it would give details away which would spoil it. This would be a great book for anyone who loves archaeology, history, books about Mississippi, mysteries and Native American folk lore as one of the characters tells some of the stories of the Choctaw Native Americans. This is an unforgettable novel. show less

With each book that I read in this series, I continue to be educated about our past. The research and honesty that Mary Anna Evans puts into her books touch my heart. Her topics are close to her. The stories are full of interesting facts and I love that at the end of this book she explains that the book is used in schools. She tells her readers where she gets her information. Some legitimate, and some word of mouth but her transparency makes me love her even more. These are wonderful stories.

I like this series, but then I've always like the world of archeology. I greatly admire their attempts to document history while not totally destroying the things that many people hold dear. The Native American's have suffered greatly in this, being moved around the country, having their sacred grounds dug up, etc. The delicate balance that Faye is trying to keep in this book rings very true for me.

I plan on reading more in this fascinating series.