Top 12 Mystery Novels of 2017 by Strand Magazine 2018 - Willa Literary Award Finalist, Contemporary Fiction "Evans' signature archaeological lore adds even more interest to this tale of love, hate, and greed." ― Kirkus Reviews A woman waits under five feet of dirt―a woman who is by now nothing but bones stained the deep red of Oklahoma clay. A delicate silver necklace, a handful of ancient pearls, and a priceless figurine rest with her. Twenty-nine years is a long time to wait for a proper burial. Faye Longchamp-Mantooth, who runs a small and shakily financed archaeological consulting firm with her husband, Joe, has come to Sylacauga so she and Joe can join his father, Sly Mantooth, in dispersing his mother's ashes. Fifteen years is a long time to wait for a proper ceremony. Faye has partially financed the trip by hiring on to consult on the reopening of a site closed down 29 years ago when archaeologist Dr. Sophia Townsend disappeared―for good. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation intends to create a park if nothing sacred lies in the soil. What no one expects is the lonely red bones that emerge as the backhoe completes its work. Inevitably they prove to be those of Sophia Townsend. And examination shows Sophia was first killed by a blow to the head. Chief Roy Cloud of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's Lighthorse Tribal Police hires Faye, who clearly can't be a suspect, to consult. Which is fine with Faye, who won't rest easy until Sophia's murder is solved. But the investigation comes uncomfortably close to home when she learns that her father-in-law knows more about the dead woman than he is willing to admit. So, it appears, does everyone in tiny Sylacauga. Dr. Sophia Townsend had possessed a sexual magnetism as forceful as an Oklahoma tornado, and she had never hesitated to use it to manipulate everyone around her, people whose hearts she broke and whose marriages she destroyed. Was she killed by one of her lovers, or by one of their wives? Or by the woman who became enthralled with her? Or maybe Sly Mantooth? Or was something else elemental―greed, buried treasure, fame―at work? Faye's obsession with this case tests her professional ethics and it tests her marriage. Such was the power of Sophia Townsend that, twenty-nine years after her murder, she wreaks havoc (along with the weather) once again. 2018 - Oklahoma Book Award Finalist, Fiction 2018 - Will Rogers Bronze Medallion Award Winner, Western Fiction "This is a highly successful murder mystery by an author who has mastered the magic and craft of popular genre fiction. Her work embodies the truism that character is destiny." ― Naples Florida Weekly "Evans' signature archaeological lore adds even more interest to this tale of love, hate, and greed." ― Kirkus Reviews "Evans sensitively explores the issue of how to balance respecting cultural heritage and gaining knowledge of the past through scientific research." ― Publishers Weekly Mary Anna Evans is the author of the Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries, which have received recognition including the Benjamin Franklin Award, the Mississippi Author Award, and three Florida Book Awards bronze medals. She is an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma, where she teaches fiction and nonfiction writing. Winner of the 2018 Sisters in Crime (SinC) Academic Research Grant Burials A Faye Longchamp Mystery By Mary Anna Evans Poisoned Pen Press Copyright © 2017 Mary Anna Evans All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4642-0750-1 CHAPTER 1 Powerful forces are constantly at work on a human body that is buried under five feet of red clay. Every cubic foot of that clay weighs a hundred pounds. For simplicity's sake, presume that the body is six feet long. No, make that five feet long, because this body once belonged to a woman, and a small one, at that. Perhaps her buried form was two feet across at its widest point. It was probably less, but let's use two feet for convenience. Thus, she'd offered ten square feet of surface area to the five-foot depth of the clay soil that had crushed her. Simple math says that this fifty cubic feet of soil had weighed — and still weighs to this day — five thousand pounds. It weighed two and a half tons. Two and a half tons of downward force will break bones. It will press the flesh from those bones. It will force the air out of decomposing lungs. Over the years, the overbearing clay moved ceaselessly, swelling when wet and shrinking when dry. Every rainstorm shifted the clay. Some of the motion was vertical. Some of it was lateral. This slow shimmy had disarticulated her bones, leaving them in a configuration that was almost the natural shape of a woman who lay on her bed asleep, but not quite. The clay had dyed her bones red. Still she waited for someone to find her. Had she been able to wonder, she would have asked whether anyone had ever even noticed she was gone. Twenty-nine years is a long time to go without a proper burial. CHAPTER 2 Faye Longchamp-Mantooth