Jana DeLeon is ambidextrous... well, in her writing I mean.
I first read her Shaye Archer series. Fifteen years after Shaye Archer is found beaten and abused with no memory of anything prior to that day, she's made a successful life for herself as a private investigator. The books in this series are thrillers, murder mysteries, with the underlying theme of where did Shaye Archer come from and what happened to her?
It was her next series of books, A Miss Fortune Mystery Series, that surprised me. Jana DeLeon went from edge-of-your-seat thrillers to cozy mysteries with ease. While I enjoyed the Shaye Archer series, I LOVED the Miss Fortune Mysteries.
Fortune Redding is a CIA assassin whose life is in jeopardy because of a leak at the CIA. Protecting herself on a job, Fortune kills the son of an international arms dealer with her stiletto. She needs to disappear, and her boss creates an identity for her in Sinful, Louisiana. Sinful is a small bayou town she describes as a cross between a Thomas Kinkade painting and a horror movie. She is now a grieving niece, former beauty queen turned librarian and living in a house she inherited by her deceased "great-aunt". She has to maintain her disguise until her boss is able to find the leak in the agency.
Fortune plans to stay under the radar, but on her first day, her "inherited" dog finds a human bone in her backyard bayou, which launches her into an absurd world she never could have imagined. That world includes two seventy-something ladies (Gertie and Ida Bell), a gator named Godzilla, and a handsome deputy, The practical Ida Belle and the zany Gertie soon become Fortune's best friends. Oh, the things Gertie gets them into. Did I mention Gertie's purse of Doom, which contains everything from a rocket launcher to a tuna sandwich?
Then there are the Mudbug Stories (Ghost-in-Law Mystery, Romance series). These are more cozy, fun misadventures. Not to mention the Dead Man Talking: A Cozy Paranormal Mystery (The Happily Everlasting Series). I'm sure there are more, but I can't think of them at the moment.
Then Jana does back to serious thrillers. Maybe goes back isn't the right way to say it, since I'm not sure what order she wrote them in, just what order I read them.
If you haven't checked her out before, please... I'm begging you... pick up some Jana DeLeon books and dive in.
You're welcome, and happy reading!
-Pam
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