There are echoes of Gone With the Wind here, but with a number of twists to bring the book into the 21st century. Faye Longchamp is our heroine and she is descended from a slave, not a society lady like Scarlett; her home, Joyeuse, is a fascinating house but on the Florida coast and in rather a worse state of repair than Tara. It is a book that is hard to put down - Faye struggles so desperately to keep her home secret and in her possession; she is descended from a line of tenacious women beginning with great-great-grandmother Cally, a newly freed slave in the aftermath of the Civil War. As it happens, Faye discovers papers referring to her ancestors in the house and excerpts from these punctuate the story.
Faye is doing poorly-paid work that she loves on an archaeological site on the islands and in her spare time digging up artefacts on her own land which she can sell in her efforts to keep Joyeuse. As a result of her digging, she finds a skull of a woman accompanied by a recognisable earring of the 1960s. What can she do? If she reports her find, she reveals her illegal activities and risks jail; if she doesn’t she prevents justice for the murdered woman. Her decision is to investigate for herself. The many complications that result from this activity and corresponding events form the meat of this story. The other characters spring into life beside or against Faye. This is a multi layered, well-written first book.
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Jennifer S. Palmer
Relics, a second story about Faye Longchamp, is available.