BWW Reviews: Evans' RITUALS Brings Detective Faye Longchamp Supernatural Mystery

It's always a pleasure to read a new work by Mary Anna Evans - when a name is but one letter off from George Sand's real name, there's bound to be something to go on, after all. And in her case - or is that in archaeologist Faye Longchamp's case, there's always something to go on.

In RITUALS (Poisoned Pen Press), Longchamp and her adopted daughter Amande are occupying - no other word will do - a disorganized museum... of sorts... owned by an erratic collector in a New York town, Rosebower (which for those who know it, is clearly not quite modeled on Lily Dale), which was founded by Spiritualists and still has its share of psychics and prognosticators living and working in the area. Although the town, and the museum's boxes of letters, are full of correspondence and arcana about the suffragist movement and the events at Seneca Falls, which are worth something, the owner is more interested in his absolutely, definitely alien artifacts and his complete and total proofs that early American mounds were not built by Native Americans. It's frustrating.

Also frustrated is retired state employee Antonia Caruso, who has spent her spare time working as Toni the Astonisher, a small-time stage magician, who's visiting Rosebower with intent to debunk, but who can't get all of the data she needs to prove fakery by the area psychics, especially a local woman and her Southern husband who have built a theatre outside town to display their prowess and her flying Tarot cards. And she'd had access to more information before Faye moved into the museum to sort and catalog the contents.

Who else is frustrated? Ennis, nephew of the elderly local "root doctor", whose medicinal potions keep the town happy and well. He came back to Rosebower to help her run her online business, but she's had a stroke and now he's running the whole operation as well as caring for her. It's not easy. And he wants Amande to be his confidant. It wouldn't be quite so bad if someone didn't seem to be after his aunt, and that someone just might be a frustrated Ennis himself.

Tilda Armistead, elderly psychic and town councilwoman, dies mysteriously of an arson attempt on her home immediately after holding a séance with her sister Myrna and with Faye and Amande. Her sister Myrna is frustrated, and growing ill, and her daughter - the psychic Toni most wants to debunk - is frustrated that her mother's all-important crystal ball has disappeared in the fire at her mother's.

And then there's the former resident of Rosebower who's come back a wealthy real estate developer, aiming to turn the area outside Rosebower into an expensive tourist trap for New Age fans to commune with psychics and spirit readers, possibly putting the town itself out of business.

Tilda's murder is only the beginning. But of what? Her sister's becoming increasingly ill, the herbalist is not only getting worse but has had an attempt made on her life, and Ennis and the developer - and the Southern psychic who married Tilda's daughter - all seem to be in on some sort of conspiracy... but to do what?

And to top it off, Faye needs to prove to her employer that his most precious object isn't alien-made without being fired from the museum job.

Evans continues to develop Faye and her family, and brings the new characters, dead and alive, to life in RITUALS. She even manages to bring historic suffragist leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott to life in her historical references, tying the suffragists in skillfully with the women who led the town in the late Victorian era.

RITUALS is a worthy addition to the Faye Longchamp canon, and its multiple levels of mysteries are a delight to unravel - but don't be surprised if you're led up the garden path persistently. There are enough red herrings here to keep almost any reader baffled till the end, and as Toni the Astonisher illustrates with her own examples, there's plenty of illusion to go around here. This is one to put on your wish list now.

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