The mystery is equally solid. These are real puzzles that rely on real detection and play fair with the reader while navigating through a large school of actively swimming red herrings.

But most of all, they are incredibly rich reading. Neither the stories nor the people who populate them are simple. The primary investigation in Effigies is about the murder of the local farmer who was willing to bulldoze part of his land rather than let Faye's archaeological team investigate it. But there are a number of other subplots and layers to the story, ranging from social injustices involving both African Americans and Native Americans (who are not always on the same side), a wide range of ethical choices and human relations, murder and other crimes, folk tales and traditions, to how the people we are affect how we experience the world we live in. Recent events make it logical that the murder somehow involves Faye and her crew, but there's another mystery -decades old- that may be part of it too, involving events even more explosive.

The result is the sort of lose yourself in it story that you experience as much as read, because it's vividly depicted with everything seen and felt directly through the characters themselves rather than told from a distance. Highly recommended.