Undercurrents

February 26, 2018
In Evans’s appealing 11th mystery featuring compassionate archeologist Faye Longchamp (after 2017’s Burials), the state of Tennessee hires Faye’s cultural resources firm to examine land intended for a new campground in Sweetgum State Park, on the outskirts of Memphis, for any historically valuable relics that might be found there. On the first day of the dig, Faye hears unusual sounds in the woods, which lead her to a woman who has been badly beaten and hastily buried alive. The unfriendly police detective who arrives on the scene interrogates Faye, who has left her ID in her car. For the first time in her life, Faye, a person of color, starts to worry about “being considered guilty-while-black.” Wary of the police and concerned about the victim’s young daughter, Faye is drawn into an investigation that points to a serial killer. Evans expertly juggles a host of likely suspects, all the while breathing life into the city of Memphis, from its tourist-filled center to its marginal neighborhoods and the spectacular wilderness of the state park. Agent: Anne Hawkins, John Hawkins & Assoc.

March 1, 2018
In the eleventh Faye Longchamp mystery, the archaeologist and amateur sleuth is in Memphis, where she's been asked to survey a potential building site for historically significant relics. Instead, she finds a dying woman buried alive, her young daughter living wild, and an unknown killer still on the loose and, Faye is convinced, still hunting victims. The Longchamp mysteries combine history and mystery in a gritty way that makes them feel different from most amateur-sleuth fare?dark-edged rather than cozy. Faye, too, is not your traditional amateur sleuth; she could just as easily anchor a gritty thriller series and give some of the giants in that genre a run for their money.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)