The Particulars: Mystery, selfpublished, available as e-book and in print
The Source: Purchased at Kobo
The Grade: C
The blurb:

It was a hell of a longshot…

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 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 of play.

Unfortunately, she hasn’t even unpacked a suitcase before her newly-inherited dog digs up a human bone in her backyard. Thrust into the middle of a bayou murder mystery, Fortune teams up with a couple of seemingly-sweet old ladies whose looks completely belie their hold on the little town. To top things off, the handsome local deputy is asking her too many questions. If she’s not careful, this investigation may blow her cover and get her killed.

Armed with her considerable skills and a group of old ladies referred to by locals as The Geritol Mafia, Fortune has no choice but to solve the murder before it’s too late

 

The Review:

I like Jana Deleon’s mystery novels, so when this one was on sale recently. I bought it. After reading it, it was just like I expected a Jana Deleon book to be. A small town in the bayou, filled to the brim with quirky characters.

I liked Fortune, and her struggle to adjust to small town life, and hiding the fact that she wasn’t Sandy-Sue Morrow. The characters she met was interesting, from Ida Belle and Gertie,who knew exactly what they wanted, to Carter Leblanc, the sheriff Deputy that she butted heads with through the book.

Fortune’s, Gertie’s and Ida Belle’s search for Marie was interesting. As the search was thorough, and I’ll admit that there was times that my mind boggled over the casual way Ida Belle and Gertie had towards the law. But it also gave a glimpse of the power the Sinful Ladies Society had in the town. I really appreciated how the history and the secrets was slowly revealed, and how they created an additional depth in the characters.

The biggest problem I had with this book was that I felt I had read it before. In the end, there is only so many times you can write about small Bayou towns, filled with zany characters who have a flexible views of the law. So while I liked it, I didn’t love it. Despite this, I’ll probably buy the next book, just to get more of Fortune, Gertie and Ida Belle.