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Faye Longchamp is excited about beginning her new job as archaeologist for the Sujosa Genetic History and Rural Assistance Project -- known more simply as the Rural Assistance Project. No one knows for sure how long the Sujosa, a people with dark brown skin and Caucasian features, have lived in an isolated valley in the Alabama hills. Some even believe the Sujosa are one of the lost tribes of Israel.
The Rural Assistance Project was instituted and funded when a local doctor found that the Sujosa didn't get AIDS, even after multiple exposures. The goal of the project is to isolate the genetic basis for the Sujosa's immune system and determine where these people came from originally. The team includes a geneticist, a linguist, an oral historian, and assorted technicians.
Two deaths within a short time lead Faye to use her investigative skills to learn the truth about the secrets that the Sujosa have been hiding for years.
Joe Wolf Mantooth, Faye's faithful assistant and protector, was my favorite supporting character, but all the characters are distinctive. Evans artfully develops their personalities and makes each of them seem real. RELICS is filled with historical details and just the right amount of suspense and tension to keep the reader turning pages until the unexpected ending.
RELICS is Evans' second archeological mystery; ARTIFACTS was published in 2003 and introduced the character Faye Longchamp. ARTIFACTS won the 2004 Ben Franklin Award and the Patrick D. Smith Florida Literature Award.
Reviewed by Marie DisBrow
for The Road to Romance
October 26, 2005
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