First-time Novelist Wins Florida Literature Award

Artifacts, a novel by Mary Anna Evans, has won the 2004 Patrick D. Smith Florida Literature Award, given by the Florida Historical Society. This award recognizes the valuable contributions made by writers of Florida fiction in stimulating the promotion and study of the state’s history and heritage.

Artifacts features Faye Longchamp, an amateur archaeologist whose hobby turns deadly when she uncovers a dead body. Artifacts has received critical praise from a number of influential publications, including:

Publishers Weekly—“Few corners of Florida remain unmined for crime fiction and now, happily, there’s one less. The shifting little isles along the Florida Panhandle—hurricane-wracked bits of land filled with plenty of human history—serve as the effective backdrop for Evans’s debut, a tale of greed, archaeology, romance and murder.”

Booklist—“First-novelist Evans introduces a strong female sleuth in this extremely promising debut, and she makes excellent use of her archaeological subject matter, weaving past and present together in a multilayered, compelling plot. Let’s hope Faye Longchamp’s home-restoration project is one of those remodeling jobs that never ends.”

Florida Journal—“Richly atmospheric, populated with a colorful cast, and steeped in the local landscape and history of the Gulf Coast region, Artifacts makes a gripping read with a surprising plot twist.”

Ms. Evans is a resident of Gainesville, Florida. She holds degrees in physics and chemical engineering, and her professional background includes stints as an environmental engineer, as a youth choir director, and as a roustabout on a offshore production platform. She is at work on Relics, the sequel to Artifacts.

Artifacts is available in hardcover (Poisoned Pen Press, $24.95, ISBN: 1590580567), large-print paperback (Poisoned Pen Press, $22.95, ISBN: 1590580796), and mass-market paperback (ibooks/Simon&Schuster, $6.99, ISBN: 0743479505).