Rituals (Faye Longchamp Series #8)

by Mary Anna Evans

Overview

"A suspenseful crime story with just a hint of something otherworldly." —Booklist

Faye Longchamp doesn't believe in ghosts, but she's an archaeologist—dead people are her life. While working in Rosebower, a rural New York town founded by Spiritualists, Faye is surrounded by people who talk to the dead on a regular basis. So when influential Spiritualist Tilda Armistead invites Faye and her daughter to commune with the dead, she can't say no. An hour after Tilda's crystal ball shows Faye things no rational mind can explain, Tilda is dead. The evidence says someone trapped Tilda in a small room, nailing its one door shut before setting her house afire. There is no possible way for her to have escaped the blaze, let alone drive for miles before finding Faye and dying in her arms. Yet Tilda did. How? And why?

Anywhere else, these people would be dismissed as crazy. But in Rosebower, "normal" is relative. As Faye watches psychics and charlatans jockey for power, Tilda's sister, Myrna, is slowly dying. Will Rosebower reveal its secrets before more goes up in flames?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781615954476
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	04/02/2024
Series:	Faye Longchamp Series , #8
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	285
Sales rank:	238,828
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

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

Editorial Reviews

09/02/2013
A superior puzzle plot lifts Evans’s eighth Faye Longchamp mystery (after 2012’s Plunder). Archeologist Faye and her 17-year-old adopted daughter, Amande, have a job to do in Rosebower, N.Y., a town “with a history full of Spiritualists, religious reformers, and radical feminists.” Not long after they’ve begun their work separating decades of donated junk at the local museum, Faye and Amande have a murder mystery on their hands. Medium Tilda Armistead is the victim of arson, dying of smoke inhalation after escaping a fire set at her home, but in addition to the obvious question of whodunit, Faye must resolve the related one of “why a dying agoraphobic who had traveled only a couple thousand miles since 1972 had driven thirty miles to ask a relative stranger for help.” And what’s a retired magician, known for debunking others’ tricks, doing in town? Evans pulls all the pieces nicely together in the end. Agent: Anne Hawkins, John Hawkins & Associates. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"A suspenseful crime story with just a hint of something otherworldly." — David Pitt, Booklist

"A superior puzzle plot lifts Evans' eighth Faye Longchamp mystery...Evans pulls all the pieces nicely together in the end." — Publishers Weekly

"The emphasis on the spirit world makes this a bit of a departure from Evans' usual historical and archaeological themes, but it's certainly a well-plotted and enjoyable mystery." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2013-10-02
A small town in upstate New York is a haven for Spiritualists and murder. Archaeologist Faye Longchamp Mantooth and her adopted daughter, Amande, have taken a job updating a museum in Rosebower while Faye's husband stays home with their young son. The museum owner is a history buff who never turns away any contribution, no matter how worthless, and has some oddly racist ideas on the worth of some of his collection. The Armistead family, especially talented Spiritualist Tilda, has a great deal of influence in Rosebower, whose citizens are deeply divided over the direction in which the town is moving. An hour after Faye, Amande and Tilda's sister Myrna take part in a séance, the house burns down with Tilda nailed into the tiny séance room, left to die. Among the suspects are Tilda's estranged daughter and her husband, a sexy magician, who have their eyes on Tilda's land. The show they put on every night garners the couple a very nice living, but the husband is plotting with a developer who has plans to turn Rosebower into a sort of Disneyland for believers in ghosts. Also in town is a part-time magician whose work on a book debunking the whole Spiritualist idea may make her the next target for murder. Faye and Amande, who are worried about Myrna, whose health is rapidly and suspiciously deteriorating, are convinced they need to find the killer before there's another murder. The emphasis on the spirit world makes this a bit of a departure from Evans' usual historical and archaeological themes (Plunder, 2012, etc.), but it's certainly a well-plotted and enjoyable mystery.

Kirkus Reviews