This is the first mystery in the Faye Longchamp mystery series. I reviewed number six in the series earlier in the year and though I wasn't lost, I was interested enough in the relationships, especially Faye's husband Joe Wolf Mantooth to find out more about the series. It took awhile for my library to dig up some of the books, but this one was so great it had me wishing I was home. There were all the elements of a mystery, murder, many suspects, doubt, subplots and looming threats to our protagonist Faye, the tax collector, the sheriff for illegal digging of artifacts, and a cat 5 hurricane, not to mention the murderer.The story is told in third person mainly from Faye's point of view, but it depends on who is in the scene. Faye is doing something illegal, that I for one had never heard of pothunting. Apparently it's digging for historical artifacts on preserved lands or parklands and making a profit on them. Faye does it out of necessity, not that this makes it any less illegal and she has a Native American named Joe that sleeps on her land who helps her from time to time. She's desperate, subsisting on peanut butter and honey though Joe usually catches fish for dinner or squirrel or rabbit for dinner. Faye lives in her family's plantation house with no electricity or running water. It's in somewhat of a state of disrepair. And she's trying to evade the tax collector so she won't have to pay taxes on it. Her pothunting is her income and she uncovers an unlikely body, that of a 40 yr old missing girl (she finds this out after some detective work). She can't go to the police without revealing her illegal activities, but she can't help trying to figure out what happened to her. She has no job to speak of except a minimum wage job as an archaeological assistant and when that gets shut down due to murder, the murder of two the students who were helping, Faye's income dries up. Since the bodies were buried in the wet soil and subject to the humidity of the South, there is absolutely no evidence as to why they were killed or who killed them, only how. The main characters in the story are very well written. Faye Longchamp is neither black nor white. She has a mix of Creek, Caucasian and African American blood mixed in her. She is also a desperate woman one foot ahead of the law and the tax collector. Its all she thinks about. She isn't the kind to actively seek out trouble or search out the killer on her own. She does however put two and two together a little to late, but I never saw it coming. Joe is a Native American with the skills of an ancient warrior. He's protective of Faye though there is no relationship between them other than friendship. Faye thinks he would score only borderline normal on an intelligence test but I don't think she really sees him for who he is. He doesn't know about computers or cars, but he can live off the land and keep her safe and he seems to be a giant standing six foot something. He is at home in the wilderness surrounding Joyeuse, Faye's plantation. But I think he's smarter than she's seen yet.Magda, the professor at the university unnamed is smart too. She knows Faye doesn't live on the dump of a boat she claims to live on. And puts two and two together to figure out where the plantation is. She also wonders why Faye doesn't go back to school and works on that. She's pretty sure she knows what Faye does to supplement her income, but she doesn't call her on it, knowing Faye would never disturb a truly valuable historically significant place.Then there's the Sheriff McKenzie. He's known Faye it seems and he doesn't suspect her of murder, but he wants to know more about Joe. Then Joe is arrested by his deputies for murders so long ago he knows Joe wasn't even born. He questions Joe anyway and finds out about the other body, the girl, and remembers who she is, asking Joe to lead him to the body. All of this is happening while a hurricane brews in the Gulf. When the sheriff finds the body gone and smelling of bleach he realizes the killer as removed her body and they head back in the boat in four foot choppy waters to land. But Joe has other plans and disables the boat and jumps overboard. He has to save Faye from the hurricane.If you've never lived in Florida, this story might be just another story, but Mary Anna Evans does her homework. The story mentions funny names of places in Florida, Cow Ford being one. I'm from Jacksonville and that's what they used to call it because somewhere along the St. John's River they forded cows across it. Hence the name. I couldn't tell you how it got it's current name. But she knows her hurricanes too. No one will ever forget Katrina.This is a start to a great mystery series. It doesn't have food or crocheting in the title. It's about archaeology, but you don't have to know anything about it to enjoy the series. Archaeology is just the means to get the main characters to their locations according to the last book I read which again was the 6th. Anyone who loves a good mystery with some history of Florida's panhandle thrown in will love this mystery. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series- Relics (as soon as I pick it up from the library.)
Artifacts has all the right elements for an easy read, interesting characters, a good mystery, a great setting – unfortunately, nothing about this book was memorable enough to make me continue with the series. I think primarily, my misgivings are related to the protagonist Faye Longchamp, who comes across as something of a do-gooder. Ordinarily I enjoy flawed heroines, but the author’s attempt to humanize Faye with character flaws also serves as a plot device to emphasize her moral fiber. Faye one true “fault” is her illegal pot-hunting activities—the illegal digging of artifacts on her ancestral home to sell for profit. This ambiguous character flaw does not really do its job when readers are encouraged to view Faye’s sole ethical indiscretion in a noble light because of her humble subsistence. Sure it’s illegal to dig up artifacts and sell them, but hey, the artifacts are on her own land, and Faye would never dare treat TRUE archaeological finds with the same careless attention—an attitude that is clearly reflected in Faye’s narrative thoughts throughout the novel. Faye is a morally virtuous, hardworking, down-on-her-luck archaeology student of mixed-raced descent who lives hand-to-mouth in her ancestral home of Joyeuse on a small island off Florida’s gulf coast. Her financial woes facilitate her illegal pot-hunting activity, and the extreme precautions she takes to prevent anyone from learning her address (for fear the government will take Joyeuse away from her because she is descended from slaves and doesn’t possess the deed) are somewhat unbelievable. I might have appreciated her extreme poverty-stricken lifestyle more if Faye didn’t possess such a morally virtuous personality. I mean this woman never had a bad thought about anyone, and her concern for other’s welfare over her own safety rounds out her unimpeachable character making it impossible to argue with any of her choices throughout the novel. I found it difficult to empathize with Faye because she comes across as too "perfect."Don’t get me wrong—this is a well-written mystery as far it goes. I wouldn’t classify it as particularly difficult (I figured out the killer’s identity half-way through) but all the elements are there for those seeking a quick, easy read. The plot revolves around Faye’s illegal pot-hunting activities which run afoul of a killer engaged in the same scheme on a much larger scale, and make her a prime scapegoat on which to pin the entire shady business. Throw in a few interesting supporting characters to round out the cast—Joe Wolf Mantooth, Faye’s friend and simple-minded Cree hermit who shares her land, and her feisty archaeological professor heading the legitimate dig Faye is involved with that unearths skeletal remains to kick-start the mystery—and you’ve got a good book.Bottom line: The story was good, but I don’t think I’ll be reading the next one.
What do You think about Artifacts (2004)?
I really need to find a way to record how I found a book, especially if it is part of a series and of course if I love it. When I first read the synoposis I thought this was going to be a series similar to the Temperance Brennan books by Kathy Reichs I couldn't have been more wrong. While I love the Bones series Mary Anna Evans's charactger Faye Longchamp is nothing like Temperance. Financially unable to complete her degree in Anthropology Faye will take any work that allows her to dig. She's a bit of a self made hermit due to circumstances beyond her control. Her dedication to her family's heritage is what drives most if not all of her decisions. Set in the Florida Panhandle Artifacts has an interesting set of characters that change in personality as quickly as a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. In a world that lives on what is happened in the last 5 minutes this community is set in their ways. I found the story to be nicely fast paced, with flashbacks interestingly spaced throughout. I'll admit I loved knowing the Florida places used as settings especially Tallahassee's Florida State University ~ Fear The Spear... Will definitely be reading more in the Faye Longchamp Mystery series and hopefully they're all narrated by Cassandra Campbell as she was wonderful
—Lady Bren
First, my enthusiastic thanks goes to Jen, whom I'm privileged to follow here, for alerting me to the existence of this book and the entire series. I literally would have had no idea as to its existence had it not been for her excellent review.Faye Longchamp is only a breath or two away from an archaeology degree. She studied harder than her classmates, and unbeknownst to her at the time, she garnered the positive notice of her professor, a vibrant woman named Magda who has a part in the book. Sadly, Faye has a longstanding connection to hard times and difficult economic circumstances. But she has a couple of things going for her: She has a unique and fascinating family history, and she has apparently inherited the tenacity of a former-slave ancestor who gained the title to a Florida mansion and some land surrounding it.The old house is Faye's place of refuge--it's where she goes when she needs to gather strength and isolate her thoughtful self from the harsher noise of the incessantly demanding world around her.Because she is such a devotee to archaeology, Faye knows that hunting for artifacts on her land and the property surrounding it is wrong. But she can't avoid artifact gathering either, since she is constantly in danger of losing the historic much-beloved mansion to the tax collectors.While artifact hunting one day, she stumbles into the skull of an apparent young woman who may have died in the early '60s. Within hours of her discovery, two archaeology students are found murdered. Faye's innate curiosity means she's going to solve the murders and learn more about the long-dead young woman whose case was never solved. But doing these things puts Faye in a fight for far more than keeping up on her property taxes; indeed, her entire life is endangered.This is a wonderfully interesting book that will teach you some things about archaeology and much more. This is a great find that will be well worth your time. It's a compelling story of a 30-something-year-old woman of mixed race whose family history becomes so much more than merely names and dates on a pedigree chart as she unearths an old journal that gives her clues to her past.Faye's world is a thoughtful one indeed. It's not all clearly divided into good and bad compartments. She debates telling police about the find of the long-dead young woman. She clearly has a moral compass, but it differs a bit from the usual amateur sleuth. And if you're tired of those books where the cop boyfriend bails her out of a bad spot, read this without reservation. There's no cop boyfriend!Lots of things appealed to me about this book. The characters are memorable every one, and Faye is lovable and complex, vulnerable and fiercely independent and street-wise brilliant all at once. Even if you have to dig through your to-read pile to unearth this book, it will be worth the digging. There is treasure here enough to make you search for other books in the series.
—Nolan
All right, I'll admit it: I'd been looking for free books in the Amazon Kindle store and came across this interesting cover and title. I've always loved archaeology and antiquities. The skeleton on the cover is what drew me in, plus I have a soft spot for female detectives, even reluctant ones like Faye Longchamp.She's a former archaeology student in Florida, living in her old ancestral home, Joyeuse hidden on a secluded island off the coast, living in secret. The island had been inhabited by ancestors for hundreds of years, therefore, to make ends meet (and pay taxes-the piper), she starts digging and selling items off her island and those that are closeby.It seems she's not the only one digging illegally around the Florida Islands. She soon comes across a decades old mystery when bodies start piling up around her beloved islands. In addition, she wants to stop a condo/resort development from coming in. With the help of her best friend Joe, an Indian scout and her old professor, they slowly come across the truth.From the moment I started reading Artifacts, Mary Anna Evans had me hooked. She strikes the right balance of exposition, description, dialogue and action so the book is readable and relatable. We get the atmosphere around the Florida coast, the Islands without having to skim paragraphs of boring material. She weaves the people in and around the places so we don't know we're getting geography lessons.The people themselves are believable, great physical, mental and emotional descriptions. I, for one, would love to go to the diner on the shore that Faye, Liz and Wally hang around. The cop, Mike, feels like a regular guy you could have a cup of joe with and Douglass is a self-made man who worked for all he has and has a terrible secret to keep.I'll be looking for more of Mary Anna Evans' books.
—Brick ONeil
