Mary Anna Evans has degrees in physics and engineering, but her heart is in the past. Her series character, Faye Longchamp, lives the exciting life of an archaeologist, and Mary Anna envies her a little. Her first novel, Artifacts, won the Benjamin Franklin award for best mystery published by a small press. It also won the Florida Historical Society's Florida Literature Award, and it was named by the Voice of Young America (VOYA) as an "Adult Mystery with Young Adult Appeal."  Mary Anna is proud of being recognized for writing a page-turner for people of all ages while, at the same time, getting the historical facts right. Her second novel, Relics, was an Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (IMBA) bestseller, and it was nominated for the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Alliance's SIBA Book Award.   Her third novel, Effigies, was named a Book Sense Notable Book.  For the incurably curious, Mary Anna's first published work, her master's thesis, was entitled A Modeling Study of the NH3-NO-O2 Reaction Under the Operating Conditions of a Fluidized Bed Combustor. Like her mysteries, it was a factual page-turner but, no, it's not available online. She turned from engineering to fiction after the birth of her third child, prompting a shift in focus from managing hazardous wastes to preparing balanced meals. She has yet to acquire the knack of laundry management. 

While her novels are written with adult readers in mind, they have found an audience in high schools and middle schools, where they are being used as tools to teach non-literature subjects such as social studies, math, and science.  The social studies link was not such a surprise to the books' author, since her protagonist is an archaeologist, but she swears that she has never once purposely included math or science in her stories.  (And her readers have never once complained that the laws of physics operate properly in her books--probably because rooting a story in the real world helps readers believe that its fictional world is real, too).  Learning that she's done this unconsciously has been an inarguable example of the axiom that writers write about who they are.  They can't help it. 

Math and science explain the world, so they're indispensable to any story set in that world.  And they're very handy tools for an amateur detective to have.  Invite Mary Anna to speak by telephone to your book group: