Strangers: A Faye Longchamp Mystery

Strangers: A Faye Longchamp Mystery by Evans, Mary Anna. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781590587423.

"This contemporary mystery is drenched with Florida history and with gothic elements that should appeal to a broad range of readers." —Booklist Faye Longchamp and husband Joe Wolf Mantooth have founded an archaeological consulting firm—just in time for the economy to tank. But a meeting with a couple who run an elegant B&B in a historic home in St. Augustine, Florida, lands the firms first big project. Within a day of their arrival at Dunkirk Manor, a lovely young employee disappears, leaving behind a sinister smear of blood in her car, a collection of priceless artifacts, and a note asking for Fayes help. Two days later, the missing womans boyfriend is found floating in the Matanzas River, his throat slashed. The detective in charge of the case believes that the artifacts are key to the crime and hires Faye to track down their origin. The artifacts Faye and Joe excavate at their work site date from every era of St. Augustine history, and the discovery of a buried cache of childrens toys from the 1920s hits eight-months-pregnant Faye particularly hard. Dunkirk Manor seems haunted in a way that Faye cant explain. Then a stunning discovery is made: the diary of a priest who left Spain in 1565 and was present at the citys birth. Faye is driven to translate the manuscript. In what could be an unfolding tale by the Brothers Grimm, Faye and Joe uncover some terrible secrets....