Throwback Thursday: Louisiana Longshot

Throwback Thursday is a topic hosted by Renee at It’s Book Talk. It’s a chance to share some old favourites or books that have been on your ever growing To Be Read list.

This week I’m talking about Louisiana Longshot which is the first book in Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune series.  I read this book a few years ago and ended up rereading it earlier this year when the latest book in the series came out.

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 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 might blow her cover and get her killed. Armed with her considerable skills and a group of elderly ladies the locals dub The Geritol Mafia, Fortune has no choice but to solve the murder before it’s too late.

The wacky town of Sinful poses an even greater threat to Fortune’s sanity than facing off with an international arms dealer.  The town has more rules than a Catholic grammar school on a Sunday.

–“I’m going to change my clothes,” I said, “unless, of course, changing clothes in your own home is also a crime in Sinful.”  I whirled around and started toward the house.

“Only on Wednesdays,” Gertie called behind me.-

There’s also the Catholic-Baptist feud which involves a desperate dash to Francine’s cafe after church every Sunday morning.  First group of church-goers in calls dibs on Francine’s banana pudding.  As a fit twenty something, Fortune is brought in to race for the Baptists and their rights to the pudding. -I’m realising I have a serious compulsion for calling out the food in the books I read.-

Anyway, one of my favourite things about this series is the spritely cast of octogenarians.  Ida Belle and Gertie take Fortune under their wing and show her how best to enjoy life in Sinful.  These two older ladies, know the bayous like the back of their hand, can shoot sharper than the highest paid sniper and can tell a bold-faced lie to law enforcement like nobody’s business.  Walter has been in love with Ida Belle for almost all his life and often helps these crazy ladies into and out of their hijinks.

I hope you’ll have a chance to check out this series if you haven’t already.  What’s your throwback this week?