Plunder

This book by Mary Anna Evans is the 7th installment in the Faye Longchamps series and, as such, there's a lot of background on the characters that I don't know. Faye is an archaeologist who, in this book, has been married for some time to Joe Wolf Mantooth (Native American) and has a toddler named Michael. They have come along with her, from their home on Joyeaux Island off the coast of Florida, to the Mississippi delta to provide a survey of archaeological sites that are in the line of fire from the recently exploded Deepwater Horizon oil platform. While there, she meets precocious 16-year-old amateur treasure hunter Amande Landreneau, who lives on a decrepit houseboat with her voodoo mambo grandmother. Amande is equally fascinated with ancient artifacts and shows Faye some of the ones she has found in the area. But within days, both an uncle who Amande has never met and her grandmother are murdered, throwing Amande's future into question. Her mother disappeared when Amande was a baby, and the father has never been in the picture, but the vultures quickly descend trying to take the houseboat and what little income might come to Amande through some oil shares her mother had. Faye and Joe want to protect Amande but must also get this enormous survey done before the oil covers everything and may even begin to threaten their home in Florida. I would gladly read more in this series and agree with Publishers Weekly that I "hope to see more of Amande in the sequel." Great characters (Booklist calls then "strong" and "sympathetic"), tight plotting, and colorful settings.

As the New York Journal of Books notes, the threat of the impending oil pollution provides as much tension in the story as do the murders. The reviewer goes on to say that "Strong heroines are always a pleasure to read about and both Faye and Amande fit that bill," and go on to say "highly recommended."