August Books of Special Note

Nonfiction: Made from Scratch: Finding Success Without a Recipe (R.H. Boyd Publishing, 2023), an autobiography by entrepreneur Mignon Francois, tells the first-hand story of Francois as she turns her budget for a modest meal into a multi-million-dollar bakery brand. A New Orleans native, François is the descendant of enslaved people on a sugar cane plantation—and sugar […]

“The Physicist’s Daughter” by Mary Anna Evans

Author Mary Anna Evans often infuses her popular, award-winning Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries with science. With her new novel, The Physicist’s Daughter (Poisoned Pen Press, 2022), Evans steps away from that series. She expands her deft use of science-as-plot, all the while dishing up suspense and mystery in a novel peopled with compelling characters in […]

Claire Hamner Matturro interviews Mary Anna Evans, author of The Physicists’ Daughter

CHM: First off, congratulations Mary Anna Evans. The Physicists’ Daughter (Poison Pen Press, 2022) is a terrific book, and I was completely captivated by it. A historical thriller set in New Orleans in the last days of WWII, this novel differs in time frame and genre from your award-winning, popular Faye Longchamp archaeological series, which […]

January Read of the Month: “Wrecked,” by Mary Anna Evans

Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro Writing a successful mystery series is a hard thing to do well. Not only must series authors continue to create intriguing and original plots time after time, but they must also keep the recurring characters fresh while rotating in new villains, alternate heroes, and supporting personalities. It also helps to […]

“Catacombs,” by Mary Anna Evans

Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro Below the surface in Oklahoma City, a vast system of catacombs exists where a community of Chinese people once lived underground in the early twentieth century. These catacombs are not fiction, though the book Catacombs (Poisoned Pen, 2019) is. Mary Anna Evans, the author of Catacombs, explains, “The parts of […]

“Undercurrents,” by Mary Anna Evans

Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro Author Mary Anna Evans never disappoints. That’s rare for authors of a long-running mystery series because the confines of the genre, compounded with the repetition of characters, often leads to staleness. But Evans’s Faye Longchamp archaeological mystery series is emphatically not stale. Evans proves as much in her eleventh novel […]