This month we were asked to review or recommend a book, a short story, or an online article. Just in case you're interested in what we authors like to read when we aren't writing our own stories...
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A few months ago I was out for my daily walk on the beach and noticed a woman sitting in a beach chair only a few feet from waves running up the sand. Her husband, thigh-deep, with a fishing rod in hand stood nearby. Knowing they were not locals, I stopped to mention the tide was coming in and in a short time she’d be surrounded. She reached down to pull her bag into her lap just as one eager wave swirled up around her feet and laughed. Then we got chatting about the book she’d been reading and books in general, and of course, I handed her my card and mentioned I was an author. When I revealed I was working on a new mystery series, she asked if I’d ever read the Miss Fortune books by Jana Deleon.
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I hadn’t. Hadn’t even heard of the author, but as soon as I got back to my desk I checked them out since my new friend assured me I’d enjoy them. I ordered up book one in the series: Louisiana Longshot. That night I started reading and before I knew it, the clock told me it was bedtime. So, I took it to bed and read some more until my eyes would NOT stay open. When I finished it the following day, I was very happy to find there were 18 books in the series and also that Amazon was willing to sell me the set for a discounted rate. I read a lot of books, usually more than one at a time, so I’ve still got a couple books left to read, but I have enjoyed this series immensely.
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Miss Fortune Redding is a CIA assassin who has managed to get herself on a very nasty man’s hit list and now has a price on her head. Even worse, there appears to be a mole in the CIA, so to keep her safe until they can deal with the problem, her boss sends her to the Podunk down of Sinful Louisiana to hide, disguised as his niece who just inherited a house from a distant relative. Fortune arrives, pretending to be a school librarian on summer vacation while the real Sandy Sue Morrow, a former beauty pageant contestant, tours Europe. What could possibly go wrong?
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Until the dog Sandy Sue also inherited from the great aunt manages to dig up a bone. A human bone. Buried in her back yard. Then Fortune is befriended by two old ladies with a lot of secrets of their own and a past most of the town is totally unaware of. Fortune isn’t the shrinking violet the woman she’s pretending to be is, and she’s off to solve the mystery of the resurrected corpse. Add in the handsome Deputy Carter LeBlanc who has an eye for Fortune long before he finds out about her past, Celia who takes an instant and intense dislike of the newcomer in town, and you are off to a wonderful romp of a mystery with more twists than a corkscrew. Fortune has to stay one step ahead of ever getting hauled into the sheriff’s office because she’s poking into things Carter thinks should be left to law enforcement. If she’s ever fingerprinted the jig will be up and her cover blown.
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Her new elderly friends should have been safe to hang out with, but Ida Belle and Gertie were spies once upon a time, have seen their share of war, are handy with weapons and just as eager as Fortune to solve the mystery behind Deputy Carter’s back. Ida Belle drives like she was in the Indy 500, on land or through the bayous. Gertie carries a handbag filled with things Fortune thinks she’d rather not know about. All three are always armed and manage to get into more scrapes than a gang of mischievous boys out of school for the summer with no supervision.
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The Miss Fortune Mystery Series is laugh out loud funny. Sinful, Louisiana is Mayberry on the surface with an underbelly of crime and disorder that frustrates and disappoints the upstanding young deputy who thought it would be a nice quiet hometown to return to after his time in service as an elite warrior. Jana Deleon’s plots are outrageous, ingenious, intriguing and impossible to figure out before the big reveal. Her characters are colorful, and diverse and some of them make you smile just by walking onto the page. A series without violence, sex or swearing. Clean reading but without the preaching. There is a hint of romance, more than a hint of mischief, a dollop of suspense and plenty of mystery, equaling hours of enjoyable reading. Did I mention there are 18 books in the series, and this author is still writing.
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But perhaps mystery isn’t your cup of tea. Or maybe you like a little heat in your romance. Or violence in your suspense. Check out what these other authors have read lately that they thought is worth recommending.
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Margaret Fieland
Diane Bator
Anne Stenhouse
Connie Vines
Fiona McGier
Dr. Bob Rich
Beverley Bateman
Rhobin L Courtright
A few months ago I was out for my daily walk on the beach and noticed a woman sitting in a beach chair only a few feet from waves running up the sand. Her husband, thigh-deep, with a fishing rod in hand stood nearby. Knowing they were not locals, I stopped to mention the tide was coming in and in a short time she’d be surrounded. She reached down to pull her bag into her lap just as one eager wave swirled up around her feet and laughed. Then we got chatting about the book she’d been reading and books in general, and of course, I handed her my card and mentioned I was an author. When I revealed I was working on a new mystery series, she asked if I’d ever read the Miss Fortune books by Jana Deleon.
I hadn’t. Hadn’t even heard of the author, but as soon as I got back to my desk I checked them out since my new friend assured me I’d enjoy them. I ordered up book one in the series: 
Miss Fortune Redding is a CIA assassin who has managed to get herself on a very nasty man’s hit list and now has a price on her head. Even worse, there appears to be a mole in the CIA, so to keep her safe until they can deal with the problem, her boss sends her to the Podunk down of Sinful Louisiana to hide, disguised as his niece who just inherited a house from a distant relative. Fortune arrives, pretending to be a school librarian on summer vacation while the real Sandy Sue Morrow, a former beauty pageant contestant, tours Europe. What could possibly go wrong? 
Until the dog Sandy Sue also inherited from the great aunt manages to dig up a bone. A human bone. Buried in her back yard. Then Fortune is befriended by two old ladies with a lot of secrets of their own and a past most of the town is totally unaware of. Fortune isn’t the shrinking violet the woman she’s pretending to be is, and she’s off to solve the mystery of the resurrected corpse. Add in the handsome Deputy Carter LeBlanc who has an eye for Fortune long before he finds out about her past, Celia who takes an instant and intense dislike of the newcomer in town, and you are off to a wonderful romp of a mystery with more twists than a corkscrew. Fortune has to stay one step ahead of ever getting hauled into the sheriff’s office because she’s poking into things Carter thinks should be left to law enforcement. If she’s ever fingerprinted the jig will be up and her cover blown. 
Her new elderly friends should have been safe to hang out with, but Ida Belle and Gertie were spies once upon a time, have seen their share of war, are handy with weapons and just as eager as Fortune to solve the mystery behind Deputy Carter’s back. Ida Belle drives like she was in the Indy 500, on land or through the bayous. Gertie carries a handbag filled with things Fortune thinks she’d rather not know about. All three are always armed and manage to get into more scrapes than a gang of mischievous boys out of school for the summer with no supervision.
The Miss Fortune Mystery Series is laugh out loud funny. Sinful, Louisiana is Mayberry on the surface with an underbelly of crime and disorder that frustrates and disappoints the upstanding young deputy who thought it would be a nice quiet hometown to return to after his time in service as an elite warrior. Jana Deleon’s plots are outrageous, ingenious, intriguing and impossible to figure out before the big reveal. Her characters are colorful, and diverse and some of them make you smile just by walking onto the page. A series without violence, sex or swearing. Clean reading but without the preaching. There is a hint of romance, more than a hint of mischief, a dollop of suspense and plenty of mystery, equaling hours of enjoyable reading. Did I mention there are 18 books in the series, and this author is still writing. 
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