Bonus: Swamp Sniper

Jana DeLeon

Swamp Sniper
Jana DeLeon
2013

The Summary
"When only a crack shot will do...

"In the two weeks CIA assassin Fortune Redding has been hiding in Sinful, Louisiana, she's been harassed, poisoned, and shot at...and that was the easy part.  Bu now, she's about to face her biggest challenge since setting foot int he tiny bayou town.

"When mayoral candidate Ted Williams is murdered, everyone is surprised.  Ted was a blowhole and a Yankee, but those usually weren't good reasons to kill someone.  When Sinful Ladies Society leader Ida Belle becomes the lead suspect in the crime, Fortune knows she's got to solve a murder and save one of the only friends she's ever had.

"But as the investigation begins, more and more secrets surface, and Fortune realizes that sometimes nothing is as it seems."

The Good
Swamp Sniper has many of the same qualities that I liked:  good characters, decent narrative, fun narrator, lots of adventure and mayhem.  I mean, what's not to love?

And I really don't know what else to say about it.  It's kind of a repeat of the last books, so, if you don't want to go back and rehash the story, you really don't have to.  Swamp Sniper is pretty much self-contained.  It fills you in on the backstory enough that you really don't have to backtrack, because I don't think they bring back any unexpected characters.

(Or, I suppose, you could skip it.  It doesn't really add anything much to Fortune's overall story.  At least, not that I remember.)

The Bad
Pretty much the same old thing:  Ida Belle, Gertie, and Fortune start investigating a murder (this makes three); they bumble their way through an investigation, narrowly avoiding getting shot by bad people or arrested by Deputy LeBlanc; they solve the murder and move on with their lives.  It's pretty much like reading the same books over again.

Not that I didn't enjoy it.  The Miss Fortune Mysteries is something of a guilty pleasure for me, I must admit.  However, I feel like I'm overwhelmed by all the embarrassing antics concocted by Gertie, their crazy excuses for Carter, and their wild excursions into the bayou that inevitably wind up with someone plowing into a bank or falling into the water.

It's the same recipe for disaster and, admittedly, I'm a little tired of it.

The Ugly
Pretty much the same thing, but, this time, the Mob gets involved.