Poisoned Pen Press Announces the Upcoming Release of Plunder by Florida novelist Mary Anna Evans:

Plunder will be available nationwide on March 6, 2012

Scottsdale, AZ – Poisoned Pen Press announces the upcoming release of Plunder by Florida novelist Mary Anna Evans. Plunder (Category: Mystery. Hardcover, ISBN: 978-1-59058-929-8, $24.95, 306 pages/Trade Paper, ISBN: 978-1-59058-931-1, 306 pages, $14.95/Large Print Trade Paper, ISBN: 978-1-59058-930-4, $22.95, 430 pages) will be available wherever fine books are sold on March 6, 2012.

The latest mystery by award-winning novelist Mary Anna Evans, Plunder, features archaeologist protagonist Faye Longchamp and her Native American husband Joe Mantooth. In advance reviews, Kirkus calls Plunder “delightfully erudite” and Publishers Weekly adds, “the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico provides the backdrop for Evans’s engaging, character-driven mystery.”

Time is not on Faye Longchamp's side: she and her husband Joe, the founders of a business that assesses archaeological sites, are working near the mouth of the Mississippi, researching sites soon to be swamped by oil. The Deepwater Horizon disaster has morphed Faye’s run-of-the-mill contract job into a task that might swamp her fledgling company. It isn't helping that an injured babysitter has left Faye to work with a toddler underfoot.

A sixteen-year-old girl who lives nearby is drawn to Faye. Amande is bright and curious, and a poverty-stricken life on a houseboat with an eccentric grandmother doesn't look like a good place to get the education she deserves. But when the girl's grandmother and her no-account uncle are murdered, Amande’s prospects worsen. With only two known relatives—neither of them much more respectable than the dead uncle—Amande seems destined for neglect or worse.

Drawn into a family drama fueled by Louisiana’s unusual inheritance laws, Faye and Joe soon find themselves among the people fighting hard for Amande's pathetic inheritance: a raggedy houseboat, a few shares of stock, and a hurricane-battered island that's not even inhabitable. Pirate-era silver coins are found but disappear. A murderer is on the loose. But why should Faye be surprised by such shady events, here in these watery lands settled by the greatest pirates of them all? The oil slick looms, and Louisiana is still being plundered after all these years…

About the Author

Mary Anna Evans is the author of the award-winning Faye Longchamp mysteries.  A licensed chemical engineer, Mary Anna turned to mystery fiction after the birth of her third child, shifting her focus from managing hazardous wastes to preparing balanced meals and plotting the perfect murder.   The recent recipient of the Mississippi Library Association's Mississippi Author Award, Mary Anna has won the Florida Historical Society's Patrick D. Smith Florida Literature Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, and a Florida Book Awards Bronze Medal. She is also the author of Artifacts, Relics, Effigies, Findings, Floodgates and Strangers. A native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Mary Anna lives in Florida.

Founded in 1997, Poisoned Pen Press is an independent publisher specializing in the highest quality mystery books. Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Poisoned Pen Press is one of the largest publishers of hardcover mysteries in the world. Titles from Poisoned Pen Press are distributed by Ingram Publisher Services, and are available through wholesalers such as Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and Brodart, and directly from the publisher. Visit the new Poisoned Pen Press author blog and Discover Mystery™ at: www.poisonedpenpress.com.

Members of the news media wishing to request additional information about author Mary Anna Evans or an advance review copy of Plunder are kindly asked to contact Maryglenn McCombs by phone – (615) 297-9875, or by email – maryglenn@maryglenn.com.