Louisiana Longshot

This book had me laughing out loud in the first chapter and several times thereafter. The female lead is a CIA assassin in hiding in Sinful, Louisiana, where she meets two older woman, Gertie and Ida Bell, who the town has dubbed the “Geritol Mafia” and who were in Viet Nam together.

The author creates characters—and relationships between those characters—that stayed in my mind long after reading the book. Again, I eagerly wait for each new release in the series so I can be part of Fortune, Gertie, and Ida Bell’s adventures. 

I’ve never been to Louisiana, but this mystery made me feel I’d been transported to the bayou.

I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t survive in Sinful, Louisiana, and CIA assassin, Fortune Redding, felt the same way. I couldn’t stop laughing as she stumbled her way through the book, attempting to remain undercover, even as a dead man’s bones washed up in her backyard.

And of course this story wouldn’t be the same without the elderly sidekicks, Ida Belle and Gertie, pushing their way into her life, and into her heart.

This series, A Miss Fortune Mystery, begs to be devoured but like anything that is this enjoyable savoring prolongs the enjoyment. I so much love vising the small town of Sinful LA. Fortune, a CIA operative who needs a place to hide meets up with 2 kindred souls, Ida Belle and Gertie, who just happen to have mad skills after serving in the military as young women, over 50 years ago. Talk about strong women, men who adore them and all wrapped up with a cozy mystery. I must pace myself. Ms. DeLeon needs to write faster. 

It was a hell of a long shot....

CIA assassin Fortune Redding is about to undertake her most difficult mission ever—in Sinful, Louisiana. With a leak at the CIA and a price placed on her head by one of the world's largest arms dealers, Fortune has to go off-grid, but she never expected to be this far out of her element. Posing as a former beauty queen turned librarian in a small bayou town seems worse than death to Fortune, but she's determined to fly below the radar until her boss finds the leak and puts the arms dealer out… show more.

Louisiana Longshot is so funny, it made my ribs hurt from laughing—not an exaggeration. It’s also fast-paced and well-plotted, with unforgettable characters. The premise is delightful: with a price on her head, assassin Fortune Redding has to go into hiding as a former beauty queen-turned-librarian in a small Louisiana town. As the cliché says, what could possibly go wrong? Then she stumbles across human remains on her property and, before she knows it, gets “adopted” by a group of wildly oddball old ladies who call themselves The Geritol Mafia. There’s also a handsome local deputy with a deadpan sense of… show more.

This long-running series is ridiculous fun. It begins here when CIA agent Fortune Redding is sent into hiding in a tiny town in the Louisiana bayou. Turns out that small town holds more than its fair share of crime along with a host of wacky characters. In general, the mysteries hold together fairly well and have plenty of twists and turns. But Jana Deleon fans are really there for the zany humor. It isn’t easy to pull off slapstick in print instead of visual media such as TV, but Deleon does a good job. Realistic these aren’t, but if you… show more.

This laugh-out-loud mystery drops a CIA assassin on ice in a Louisiana town packed with quirky characters. The handsome sheriff plays the straight man against an avalanche of small-town insanity. This bestselling cozy mystery is fast-paced and witty, and the sidekicks are as hilarious as the heroine. As the first book in the Miss Fortune Mysteries, Louisiana Longshot is a great place to start. (If you’re like me, you’ll have trouble stopping at just one book in the series.)