Artifacts

ARTIFACTS was an entertaining mystery. Faye Longchamp was an archaeology student until she was forced to drop out to take care of her mother and grandmother. Paying their last bills has made it impossible for her to return to school and threatens Faye's heritage. She is spending every cent she can scrape up to maintain Joyeuse - a mansion that has been passed down in her family since slave days.

She earns most of her money doing black market archaeology and selling artifacts she discovers mostly on her family's land. She also has a job working for a dig run by one of her university professors. But when two of the student archaeologists are found murdered and buried, the dig is halted leaving Faye in even more need of money.

When she is show more digging in a previously unexplored corner of land, she discovers bones. These aren't ancient. She identifies an earring that was popular in the 1960s. However, since she was digging illegally, telling anyone about the body threatens all her secrets. So she decides to investigate on her own not knowing that the murderer is still around and wants his secrets to stay buried too.

I liked the multiple timelines that were woven together in this story. Faye discovers a diary that tells the stories of some of her ancestors who also lived in Joyeuse and those stories are woven into the contemporary story. Time also flashes back to when the girl whose bones Faye discovers lived and died.

I liked the variety of characters. I liked the Florida panhandle setting. I liked the added tension that a hurricane taking aim at them brings to the story too. I also like that this is the first of what is currently a twelve-book series. show less

The protagonist, Faye, is a drop-out from a university level archaeological program. She almost makes a poverty level living with "pot hunting" while she tries to restore a decrepit family home that's pretty remote. That's the opener. She is intelligent, pretty, petite, multi-racial, strong-willed, athletic. And she has a few faults, too. (Yeah, I was all teary-eyed before I'd even finished the first chapter. She is just such a sympathetic person.) She knows full well the ethical ambiguities and illegality of what she's doing there, in secret, on some low sandy islands along the coast of the Florida panhandle. She even tries to be meticulous with cataloging her finds.

Meanwhile, Faye has obtained a short-term job as an archaeological show more field supervisor under a former professor. At her secret location on a nearby sand bar, she uncovers an old murder scene and an earring. And then two of the kids on the university dig get murdered out of the blue. Thing go quickly haywire with a lot of complications, and the suspense builds relentlessly to a stormy climax.

This is a wonderful book: way deeper than your ordinary genre novel. The author may not have set out to write the Great American Novel, but I kind of think she has nailed it. It says a lot about history, slavery, America, politics, race, archaeology, ethics, and morality. A couple of times the author even takes the reader aside to give important history lessons that contextualize what's happening.

I obtained this for free during an Amazon promotion, but after reading it I would certainly have paid full price. I'll probably move along to buy the next book in the series and find out what happens to Faye. show less

In Evans’ mystery novel, archeologist Faye Longchamp is determined to save history. With all the work her falling down mansion requires, she finds herself illegally selling artifacts she finds in the area as she works to stay off the grid of the authorities. But when two of her archeology students are murdered, and her friend Joe Wolf Mantooth is arrested for the crime, the media frenzy forces Faye to work the clues to find a killer before she loses everything that’s important to her.

A fast-paced addition to A Faye Longchamp Mystery series.

The setting didn't appeal to me at all (even with the historical info. included at the beginning). I also was unclear on why Faye needed so much money. Yes, I know, something with the house, but I never quite put my finger on how it got to that point. I think my biggest obstacle was the same one that I had with the premise of Isis (TV show)--if someone is an archeologist (and supposedly a good person) I can't see how they'd remove items from a dig (official dig or not) willy-nilly. It would just seem to go against their character.

I loved it!! Not a PI, not FBI, not even PD. She's an archeologist that solves cases, whether they want her to or not! ;) When you are meticulously working through layers of dirt, on occasion, things you are not expecting show up. And people don't like it when their buried stuff is found. This series is going to be a great read. So glad I stumbled on it!

I really liked the last 2/3rds of this book but almost didn't get there. With a lot of character and a lot of history to try and get in too much of it was sort of "dumped" at the beginning which made it slow going. I'm glad I continued because this is an interesting mystery and the peeks into the historical is fascinating, especially the life of slaves in the Florida panhandle. I would highly recommend the book with the warning that it does take a while to get to the meat of the story.

I will be looking for the next in the series because I ended up caring about Faye, an archeologist who has had to do some things she hated in order to survive and Joe a Creek Indian, who is slow in book learning, but a genius in wilderness survival and show more living life simply. show less

A rivoting mystery about a strong female lead character with a problem: money. The story keeps you turning pages and leaves you satisfied while avoiding caricatures. Yes, Faye is a loner, but what detective worth his or her salt isn't? She's a scofflaw with morals, and her supporting cast is finely and sympathetically drawn.

Evans weaves in a multi-generational plantation history of Faye's home, Joyeuse Isle (cleverly named from a Debussy composition), perched on the hurricane-prone Gulf Coast of Florida.

Satisifying to feminists, history buffs, those with an interest in archeology and meteorology, and just plain old mystery lovers.

The author's background as a scientist, musician, and mom help her create a believable and well developed show more world full of characters to care about. Fans of Sue Grafton, PD James, and Sara Paretsky will enjoy this book.

I can hardly wait to read Relics, Faye's next adventure. show less