After digging in rural Mississippi in Effigies
(2007), Faye Longchamp returns to her home turf—Joyeuse Island, Fla.—to excavate the remains of a 19th-century hotel her family once owned in Evans's fine fourth archeological mystery. Soon after Faye unearths a large emerald on the site, someone beats to death Faye's beloved boss, Douglass Everett. In a secret pocket in Everett's pants the police discover the emerald. Later, Wally, Faye's “long-time friend who had kept her secrets back when she lived one step ahead of the law and the tax collector,” stumbles off a dock into her boat and dies, a knife in his back. Might the emerald somehow be connected to both murders? As the story settles into a comfortable pace that allows the reader to savor the characters, Faye and her Creek buddy, Joe Wolf Mantooth, seek to bring their friends' killer to justice. In the end, love prevails, without being either sappy or sexual. (July)
