This book was like Laura Croft, Tomb Raider meets Indiana Jones...with a dash of sarcasm and attitude! Jaya Jones brings her brains and her stilettos (to make up for her petite stature) to an international quest to discover why her Ex sent her a valuable artifact, and to redefine the word Ex. Clear your schedule to read ARTIFACT, because it takes time to find a missing treasure (and like all missing treasures, it's worth the wait)! ( )

Gigi Pandian’s cozy mystery is set primarily in Scotland. Jaya Jones, a historian who lives in San Francisco, receives an artifact in the mail from an old boyfriend who had been working at an archaeological dig in Scotland. When her house gets burglarized and she discovers her old boyfriend has died in what may or may not have been an accident, she tries to discover what is so important about this jeweled artifact – and that takes her all the way to Scotland. With names like Rupert, Angus, Fergus, and Malcolm, it reminded me of another story set in Scotland… anybody else recognize those names?

Anyway, she heads off to the Scottish highlands with a handsome (of course!) historian she just met who knows something about the artifact and the story reads like a treasure hunt adventure - with some potential romance thrown in, a few surprises, and some pretty interesting history. This is the first in a series, so I will likely read more Jaya Jones mystery/ adventures in the future! ( )

Decent debut mystery novel, pretty close to the Vicky Bliss books by Elizabeth Peters. In fact, one plot twist reveals something about a character that seems to be a direct connection to the Vicky Bliss series. ( )

Fun and interesting read about a historian named Jones not the archaeologist Jones. I liked the characters, and the mystery and the background information about Scottish Fairies and Indian Treasure
Can't wait to start book 2. ( )

I'm giving this 4 stars out of sheer joy. Jaya Jones is a historian who specializes in the East India Company and the British Raj. (Actually, she'll tell you, she can talk about India from 1757-1947 with ease.) So she isn't completely surprised when an old boyfriend sends her an antique Indian bracelet in the mail and asks for her help. What does surprise her is that she finds out he was killed on the very day he mailed the bracelet to her. With help from a grad student with a mysterious past, Jaya follows the mysterious treasure to Scotland where she becomes the target of a killer.

I had so much fun reading this book. First, Jaya is a full-blown, well fleshed out character. She practically leaped off the page. She's mixed race (Southern Indian and Berkeley Hippie American) and she often feels she doesn't fit in with either culture. She plays the tabra drums with her friend Sanjay (the Hindi Houdini and a not so great sitar player) to relax and likes to eat peanut butter on her scrambled eggs and pickles on her peanut butter sandwiches. It was so easy to fall into this book alongside Jaya because she was so alive.

The mystery was good. I did figure out whodunnit but I honestly had no idea about so many of the twists and turns behind any of it. This book was great fun. ( )