Faye Longchamp Mysteries Books In Order

Publication Order of Faye Longchamp Books

The Faye Longchamp Mysteries are a series of suspense thrillers written by renowned American author Mary Anna Evans. The first novel published in the series was the highly popular “Artifacts” that Anna Evans first published in 2013. “Artifacts” was one of the author’s most popular novels, and given its widespread popularity, Evans went on to publish several more novels in the series over the following years. Set in the Florida panhandle, the novels follow the life and times of Faye Longchamp, a gritty archeologist that is the lead excavator in a series of digs that often turn into mysterious murder investigations. As an environmental consultant and with an interest in archeology, Anna Evans derives much of her stories from her experiences consulting for companies involved in projects that need her expertise. The series of novels is a combination of archeology, history, and mystery, which makes for very intriguing detective mysteries. Investigating some of the most bizarre and spooky mysteries that come to light from archeological digs, the series of novels involves a range of interesting characters alongside the highly capable amateur sleuth Faye Longchamp. The history of the native people of the United States is a very critical part of the novels as the lead character often puts her career and life in danger to protect ancient, valuable, and irreplaceable artifacts from destruction or adulteration.

The series of novels follows the adventures of amateur sleuth Faye Longchamp. When we are first introduced to the lead protagonist Faye, she is a 34-year-old biracial woman with a passion for archeology. With the series taking place over a period of nearly one and a half decades, Faye ages by about 6 months a year over the course of the series. Over the years, Faye has developed herself by going back to college to get her PhD, dated some of the worst men that a woman could ever date. However, her experiences have also taught her a lot, as she finally finds the perfect man and starts a family with him. Faye is best described as a woman who loves with a full heart. Without hesitation, she will take care of anyone that needs her help, shielding her loved ones from pain. But even with a good heart, she has to acknowledge that it is almost impossible to protect people all the time, particularly when people in her life have a tendency to get into trouble all on their own. Faye herself is not immune to making mistakes in her life though unlike many people in her world, she learns fast and never repeats her mistakes. Over the course of the novels, Faye not only works as an amateur sleuth investigating mysteries but also learns about her own history and the history of the Native American people.

“The Wizard of Oz” was one of the earliest influences for Mary Anna Evans, particularly Dorothy’s independence that very much resembles that of the lead protagonist Longchamp. Mary Anna Evans series of novels are set in the rural American states of Oklahoma, Alabama, and Mississippi among others, where Longchamp is called in investigate or consult on archeological excavations. Faye is a consultant and lead in several archeological digs involving the Native American tribes that often unearth interesting finds. The most intriguing aspects of the novels is the twist that often comes through the finding of either a dead body, the murder of some person such as the chief of the tribe. The spin in the tale often leaves Faye and her sidekick Joe scrambling to determine just who would benefit from the mysterious murders of significant persons in their investigations. Over the course of the series, Faye has to deal not only with the death of her colleagues but also of her boss who are killed in murders linked to dark secrets and custody of important relics that they either had, or were close to finding. Ultimately, the novels are narratives of murder, romance, archeology, and greed.

“Artifacts”, the first novel in the series introduces Faye Longchamp, a quick-witted and determined woman who will do all in her power to hold onto Joyeuse, a Florida panhandle plantation. The story of how Cally, Faye’s great great grandmother a newly freed slave had gotten hold of the plantation after the Civil War, and how the family had held onto it through Jim Crow, the Depression, the World Wards, and the Reconstruction is murky. Now that Faye is the owner of the plantation, she finds that the property taxes have gotten too high for her to sustain. However, there is one thing she could do to save the plantation and the legacy of her family. With the plantation full of artifacts, she sets out to dig for them. She believes the priceless artifacts would get a good price in the black market allowing her to pay off what she owes and make a good living for herself. However, instead of finding arrowheads and potsherds, she stumbles onto the shattered skull of a woman with a Jackie Kennedy like earing near the head. Faye is in a dilemma. If she goes to the police, she risks her illegal artifact digging activities being exposed, which would lead to the loss of Joyeuse and possible jail time. She does not intend to lose the plantation and knows that she has only one option – investigate the murder and history of the woman herself. What she does not know is that the killer still lurks nearby, and is ready to murder anyone that threatens to expose his dark secrets.

“Effigies”, the third novel in the series is an explosive investigative second novel in the Faye Longchamp series of novels. Archeologist Faye Longchamp and her sidekick Joe Wolf Mantooth are in Neshoba Mississippi to work on a sacred site that legend says is the place where the Choctaw nation was born. When the owner of the farm on which the mound is refuses to let them dig, they are frustrated, but he breaks their hearts even further when he ties to bulldoze the relic to nothing. Putting themselves in front of the mound, Faye and Joe are ready to protect history with their bodies. It is not long before the Choctaws arrive on the scene determined to protect their heritage. Soon there is a standoff between the farmer’s neighbors willing to do anything to defend their neighbor’s property rights, versus the rage-filled Choctaw ready to die for their heritage. Things take a turn for the worse when Calhoun a young and popular sheriff gets his throat sliced by a relic stone blade. Given his wanton destruction of property, could the archeologists have killed him, or did someone else have an ulterior motive or old score to settle? With so many people with opportunity, means, and motive, this could be one of the hardest cases to crack.

The Faye Longchamp Mysteries series is one of the highly successful novel series based on the thriller, mystery, and suspense genres. It was written by the prolific American author named Mary Anna Evans. There is a total of 9 books in the series, which were released between the years 2003 and 2015. The chief protagonist developed by author Evans in this series who features in all the books is Faye Longchamp. She is introduced as an archaeologist living near the coast of the Florida panhandle. Throughout the course of the series, Faye Longchamp is shown getting involved in a number of mysteries around him and eventually solves them with the help her wit and intelligence.

One of the most popular books of the Faye Longchamp Mysteries series written by Mary Anna Evans is titled ‘Plunder’. It was released by the Blackstone publication in the year 2012. At the start of the book, it is depicted that time is not favoring Faye Longchamp. Along with her husband named Joe, she is working near the Mississippi mouth. They are involved in researching the sites of archaeological importance which are believed to get swamped by oil very soon. Also, because of the disaster of Deepwater Horizon, it seems that she has Faye has been morphed of her contract job into another task that might cause her fledging company to get swamped. And the fact that Faye has been left to work a toddler underfoot because of a wounded babysitter is also not helping her. Later, an adolescent girl named Amande gets drawn towards Faye Longchamp. She seems to be idolize the confident and efficient archaeologist. Amande appears to be a curious and bright girl. Her life is stricken by poverty, and she lives on a houseboat along with her eccentric grandmother. The poor financial condition of Amande does not allow her to receive a good education that she deserves as a bright girl.

The prospects of Amande go on to worsen even more when her grandmother and uncle, living away from them, get murdered. Now, Amande is left with just a couple of other relatives, but none of them appear to be respectable at all as compared to her dead uncle. Due to such a situation, it seems that she is heading toward neglect or even worse. When Faye and Joe come to know about the poor situation of Amande, they begin to fight hard for her pathetic inheritance, which include her raggedy houseboat, several stock shares, and an island battered by a hurricane that is nowhere close to being inhabitable. As Faye Longchamp and her husband moved ahead to help Amande, they learn about the discovery of silver coins of the pirate era from Amande’s inheritance. But, they disappear as soon as they are found. And to add to the mystery, there is a deadly killer on the loose that appears to be a dark shadow. It comes as a surprise when Faye begins to take a more personal interest in the shady events. She herself gets surprised by the events taking place in the watery islands that are full of dangerous and greatest pirates. Another big problem that Faye Lonhchamp seems to be worried about is the continuous looming of the oil slick, that has plundered the country in the past and is still plundering the lands after so many years.

Another well known book of the series was published under the title of ‘Floodgates’. The Poisoned Press published it in the year 2009. In the starting sequence of the book, it is depicted that Faye and her archaeologists’ team is carrying out excavation in New Orleans. Everyone becomes shocked when they find a dead body which does appear to be an archaeological find at all. Because of the discovery of the dead body, Joe Wolf Mantooth and Faye get drawn into another investigation. The detective who is working out the investigation asks them to assist in the investigation because he believes that their expertise as professionals can prove to be of great help. The victim is identified as Shelly Broussard and the investigators soon learn about the trouble that had swirled around her like the roaring winds around the quiet and still eye of hurricanes. Faye suspects that the heroic works of Shelly Broussard during the aftermath of the Katrina hurricane could help to solve the mystery related to her death. Other help in the case comes from the numerous photos that are placed in the work files of Shelly. The lacy balconies in New Orleans depicted the romance and legend of the place. The moss drips of the Spanish origin come from the ancient oak branches in the city.

As always, Faye Longchamp was happy to get up early in the morning and carry herself to work. She makes dedicated efforts to safeguard the rich past of New Orleans with the help of her archaeologist team. But, centuries old tragedy in the form of slavery, wars, and flood that killed thousands of people in the past cast a dark shadow and threaten to wash away the history. Faye and her team come across one such horrific situation when they find Shelly’s corpse. At first, the police does not believe that there is anything to worry about. They think that it is just another corpse that they have to deal with after the terrific hurricane Katrina took caused a huge destruction of life and property. But, Faye makes them see through the eyes of an archaeologist and insists them to investigate the case as a murder mystery. She tells that the debris on top of Shelly’s body was not because of the flood. She was actually killed and buried and then made to look life she lost her life in the hurricane. Even the police start believing that the victim did not die due to drowning. Other clues hint that Shelley was brought to the flooded-out place dead or alive and left her there. The detective assigned to look into the case also starts taking the case seriously and realizes that there is a deadly murderer on the loose. Now, the detective and the archaeologist are required to join hands and work together to catch him as soon as possible. The book was highly appreciated by the readers from all over the world as well as by the critics. This wide appreciation helped the book to become successful. Even author Evans received a lot of praises for her determined efforts in bringing up the interesting plot of this book.