Customer Reviews

Relics (Faye Longchamp Mysteries, No. 2)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Faye Longchamp, an archaeology graduate student, has been asked to lead her first major excavation. She and her (assistant) friend, Joe Wolf Mantooth, go to a remote Alabama settlement. Her task is to uncover the origins of a mysterious ethnic group of people called the Sujosa. These people have shown immunity to many diseases, including AIDS. The Sujosa have lived in the remote hills for centuries. They are very poor and do not trust "outsiders". Yet Faye is determined to gain their trust and dig up the facts that would trace the Sujosa's heritage.

Faye is hardly settled in when she awakens, late one night, to find the house on fire. Faye manages to save herself and one other housemate, but Carmen, the project's oral historian, dies. Questions abound about how the blaze began and where Carmen's aluminum briefcase had disappeared to. A few days later, a local teenager dies at a cell phone tower. It looks like suicide, but some things just do not add up.

Faye, Joe, and Fire Marshal Adam Strahan must figure out what Carmen had in her oral history notes worth killing for, before someone else dies.

**** This novel is rich in historical details and written in a way that the plot is easily understood. Readers will have no trouble following along as this tale of mystery and intrigue guides them into a web of deceit. Author Mary Anna Evans has found her writing niche in the genre of Mysteries. BRAVA! I want more! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

2nd in the Faye Longchamp series, Faye travels to Alabama to an archeological site researching an isolated group of people referred to as the "Sujosa". Interesting to outsiders is the Sujosa's resistance to AIDS, so they are under a microscope that doesn't make them happy. Faye encounters resistance from the site coordinator when she tries to set up a proper dig, not to mention outright hostility from the locals. With Joe's help (hubba hubba!), she manages to get things on track, until the building housing the staff goes up in flames. Faye manages to rescue one co-worker but another dies in the fire. After that a local boy commits suicide, complicating the situation. Joe sets out to track in ways only Joe knows how, and Faye uses her observation skills to help the fire marshall find clues to the arson, as well as using the copies of the work of her dead co-worker, an oral historian, had given her the night she died. There are a lot of story lines in the mystery, but they are all intriguing and none detract from the main interests of the mystery. Another wonderful mystery from a talented writer!

Archaeologist Faye Longchamp is working on a a project in backwoods Alabama, studying the Sujosa who are a clan of dark skinned people with Cacausian features who seem to be immune to AIDS. But the project is plagued with problems from the beginning, because the jobs and grant monies that have been promised to the Sujosa have not been delivered and the head of the operation, Dr. Raleigh seems to be working against, rather than for the project.

Then Faye wakes to flames in the house where she is staying. She escapes, but her friend Dr. Carmen Martinez who had been working on an oral history of the Sujosa does not. Then a young Sujosa man apparently commits suicide by jumping from a cell phone tower. The fire was arson, the suicide was murder and Faye is in trouble.

Ms. Evans first Faye Longchamp mystery ARTIFACTS won the Benjamin Franklin Award for excellence and this one is every bit the book that one was. Both will keep you enthralled.

Last minute replacement for a pregnant forty-five year old, archaeology graduate student Faye Longchamp leads an excursion into a remote Alabama area to study the Sujosa who have lived in isolation here for centuries and are apparently immune to modern day diseases like AIDS. Faye knows how reticent the Sujosa are with outsiders.

Not long after arriving, the abode where Faye and others stay is an inferno. She escapes, but her oral historian expert Carmen Martinez dies in the fire. Fire Marshal Adam Strahan struggles with how the fire began while Faye wonders how a metallic suitcase that Carmen possessed vanished. Not long afterward, a teenager dies at what appears to be a suicide at a cell phone construction tower, but Adam, Faye, and others ponder whether a clever homicide is covered up to look like self inflicted death occurred. Could Carman have found something that has led to someone murdering to keep secrets hidden?

The sequel to ARTIFACTS, RELICS is a terrific mystery that provides the audience with a wonderful look at Alabama through an archeological lens that glimpses back at the state's history from a modern viewpoint. The story line is exciting from the moment Faye survives the deadly arson until the climax that will surprise the audience. Readers will enjoy this fine regional who-done-it while anticipating more appearances from Faye working in the field.

Harriet Klausner

This was an enjoyable book on many levels-- archeologically, sociologically, and historically. The characters are interesting, particularly Joe and Miss Dovey, of whom I'd like to have read more. I enjoyed reading the "interviews," but felt they bogged down the story and felt the interaction between the characters suffered for it. The ending was well done with an obvious, but not wall-banging, opening for a subsequent book.

This is the author's second novel featuring insouciant pot-hunter Faye Longchamp. Faye appears to have reformed since we last encountered her. She's back in school, studying to be an archeologist. Once again author Evans gives us a cast of interesting characters involved in various questionable if enthralling activities, even though the readers' sense of disbelief is sorely tested.

Longchamp is tasked to supervise the crew of an archeological-cum-social/historical project in central Alabama. She isn't qualified. She knows it and so does the institute which is running the project, as well as do the academic experts who are on the scene. Never mind, she creates order out of chaos, soon earns the loyalty of several locals who are on the crew and dodges ravening dogs, surly local inhabitants and murderous thieves. All in a days work.

The novel explores archeology, oral history, genealogy and medical diciplines. It seems an ethnically separate group or band of settlers have been living relatively isolated lives in the middle of the state. Doctors on the perimeter of the settlements are discovering that members of the clan are highly resistant to AIDS, among other communicable diseases. The government thereupon, and to the discomfort of the residents, mosty of whom value their privacy, issues grants, orders, research topics and general disruption.

The target group is called the Sujosa and no once seems to know quite where they came from or why. They don't fit in with surrounding populations which has caused various troubles in the past and made the clan more than a little suspicious of government in particular and of strangers in their midst. Arbitrarily plunking a group of stuffy strangers with a lot of perceived rules and attitudes among the Sujosa is a recipe for trouble and murder soon ensues.

There are lapses in logic, plot holes and occasional awkward writing. Nevertheless the central plot is a really interesting idea. From it, Evans adeptly splits off sub-plots involving some local relationships that are interesting to follow. The author is good at revealing the tensions, attitudes and prejudices of superannuated academics in both amusing and irksome ways. Some of the relationships and characters are very well developed and one might wish for fewer characters and more attention to those remaining. Likewise, one might wish for fewer plot twists and sub-plots and more complete development of those that remain.

The pace of the story is not swift, but there are few lapses. If emotional tensions between the characters are never riveting, they aren't dull and boring, either. Readers will learn a good deal, in an engaging way, about some arcane and relatively unpopular academic disciplines. That is a good thing. Never a thriller, Relics is however, a satisfying and worthy second effort.

This intriguing sequel to Artifacts (Faye Longchamp Mysteries, Book 1) gives readers more of what we want--a chance to get to know archeologist and some-time slueth Faye Longchamps.

From the first moment of her new dig assignment, Faye faces suspicion from the inhabitants of her site, subversion from her incompetent supervisor, and insubordination from her employees. Her first friend on the site, who is interviewing local residents, is suddenly killed in a fire started by a kerosene heater--a fire that Faye escapes relatively unscathed.

But why was the heater in her friend's room? And why do the inhabitants of the community close ranks against her?

While deglazing the complicated mystery, and toying with romance along the way, Faye watches her loyal friend Joe (think Sully from the Dr. Quinn TV series) fall for one of her colleagues. Her mixed feelings about her relationship with Joe are never dealt with. Hmmm. Maybe in the next book, Effigies...

Unlike Faye's first adventure, the page-turning Artifacts, Relics is a book to savor and linger over, like turning a pot on a wheel. Mary Anna Evans doesn't disappoint us with her second smart, literary mystery.

Faye Longchamp has landed a job as the chief archeologist for a government project in Alabama. Since she's still only a doctoral candidate, this is a huge boost to her career. Bring along trusted friend Joe Wolf Mantooth, she sets out.

The project is investigating the Sujosa, an ethnic group of unknown origin that lives in the remotest areas of Alabama. Since the Sujosa have shown a surprising resistance to AIDS, the project hopes to uncover their ancestry and maybe use that to find a cure for the horrid disease.

Faye is the last one hired, and therefore arrives at the dig a month behind the others. She quickly discovers that the project head, in her absence, has set up a horrid dig site. But moving the dig to a better historic location will require every bit of Faye's limited tact.

The rest of the team is much more welcoming, and Faye quickly bonds with Carmen Martinez, the project's oral historian. But her first weekend there, the house where the two women are staying catches fire and Carmen dies. It looks like an accident, but Faye suspects foul play when she discovers Carmen's briefcase is nowhere in the ruins. Who wanted Carmen dead?

Having read the first book in the series, I was looking forward to spending more time with Faye. Once again, she's a great character as are the other characters who populate the story. Unfortunately, the plot moves forward slowly. More time is spent on the archeology and ancestry issues then on the mystery itself. These would have been great as sub-plots, but they took over the book, slowing down the mystery for chapters on end.

Those who find archeology and genealogy interesting will enjoy this book more than I did. For me, the great characters just couldn't overcome the slow plot.

Mixed feelings about Relics. I'd rate it an average book with good and bad points. As a great fan of Beverly Connor's archeological mysteries, I found Mary Anna Evans' Relics just a little disappointing by comparison. The pace was slow, the plot improbable. Also the main character's chip-on-the-shoulder attitude about her race is a little off putting. I liked it well enough to order a copy of Artifacts, another book by the same author. I'd recommend one of Beverly Connor's novels in the Lindsay Chamberlain series if you are interested in archeology, forensics, or crime solving in the good old-fashioned Sherlock Holmes style.