Book picks similar to
Body in the Bayou by Morgan Draper
miss-fortune-series
z-ma
cozy-mysteries
e-dropped
Sinful Dreams
J.K. Hage - 2018
She imagined spending days at the café while learning about the relaxed southern lifestyle from retirees Ida Belle and Gertie.However, Sinful isn't the sleepy little town she expected. While Pepper is busy trying to educate southern taste buds about the beauty of sweet iced coffee, she also ends up in the middle of murder and kidnapping.And she meets Jaxson, the hottest man south of the Mason-Dixon line. Problem is, Pepper has just decided to get her life together without a man.But this Yankee schoolteacher can't stop herself from dreaming...NOTE: This quick-read novella is licensed fan fiction available as part of Jana DeLeon's Miss Fortune World. It was previously published under the same title through the Kindle Worlds program. Many thanks to Ms. DeLeon for allowing authors to tell new stories and create characters within her world!
Christmas in the Bayou
Riley Blake - 2015
She wants to celebrate Christmas by giving back to Sinful’s most unappreciated citizens—the town’s elementary school teachers. Handing down an AOO, also known as the Arceneaux Official Order, Celia calls upon friends and foes to carry out her plans. Gertie and Ida Belle are willing to help, but Fortune doesn’t share their enthusiasm. Taking a temporary post at the school library, the former CIA assassin braces for Christmas and everything the season holds. From trimming trees to snow on the ground, Sinful residents will celebrate a Christmas to remember. That is, until small town Louisiana makes national headlines thanks to a school shooting that isn’t what it seems.
Soul Man
Shari Hearn - 2017
One problem—she's dead herself. But nothing stops a Sinful Lady, even one who's now among the formerly living.Meanwhile, the Swamp Team 3 has their own mission—locate a nude painting of Carter's visiting Aunt Jolene, a "person of interest" in the dead artist's murder.Will Marge find Cootie's killer and help Cootie move from the "neither here nor there" world and into the light?Will the Swamp Team 3 locate the painting, even if it means getting close, really close, to Celia?A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR: Soul Man (book two in the Sinful Spirits series) was first published on October 20, 2017 as part of the Miss Fortune Kindle Worlds program (which ended in July of 2018). It is now part of the Miss Fortune World published by J&R Fan Fiction. With regard to Fortune and Carter's relationship, as well as Fortune's threat from Middle East arms dealer, Ahmad, this story follows the storyline after the events of Hook, Line and Blinker, book 10 of Jana DeLeon's Miss Fortune series. I wish to thank Jana DeLeon for graciously allowing other writers to explore their own writing in a most Sinful way.
Jumbalaya
Aunt Tillie - 2018
Meanwhile, a dark and blurry photograph puts the entire town on high alert, and the election recount goes Sinfully haywire. It's all fun and games until bodies start turning up... and Fortune might just be the next victim.Fan Fiction: works written by adoring fans of the original author, using the original author's characters and settings. Jana DeLeon has graciously allowed certain authors to write in her world and Aunt Tillie is proud to be one of them. Jumbalaya was Tillie's first effort, and she hopes you will enjoy this and other stories by fan fiction authors. The timelines for these stories may not coincide with current Jana DeLeon stories, but they should fit almost anywhere within the Miss Fortune series.
A Blooming Fortune
Stephen John - 2019
Fortune, Ida Bell and Gertie run into roadblock after roadblock before they receive help from an unexpected source. The victim's highly eccentric brother and sister arrive in Sinful with their own suspicions and a very special set of skills. A Blooming Fortune is filled with twists and turns as Fortune and her new friends work to unravel the mystery.This book was previously released in as "Devil's Helmet," and rose to number one position in KindleWorlds, in January 2018. This version has been re-edited with new material added.What readers have said about Stephen's other Miss Fortune books:Of the many other authors who contribute to this series Stephen John is one of my favorites. He continues with the main characters and weaves a series of intrigue and chaos into his story.I have now read a few of these stories by this author and this one I enjoyed most of all. The regular characters are back, joining a couple of newbies who prove to be interesting as well. Once again, the crime solving aspect of the story proves intriguing. It left me fulfilled and more than ready to read the next chapter in this particular writer's Miss Fortune setting. Great stuff.I absolutely love this series! Fortune has lost a dear friend which broke my heart, but she has also made some new friends as well. As always there is comedy, action, and a dash of love tossed in.Definitely a must read!While staying true to Ms. DeLeon's canon, Mr. John carves out a very nice niche for himself. I've come to really enjoy his stories featuring these characters and this one is a doozy.A well-structured mystery, and probably the most literary of the Kindle Worlds Miss Fortune Mysteries I've read so far. I loved this book as much as I loved the original books by Janet DeLeon. I wish he would write more.
Fortune and Fame
Mark Len Mayfield - 2016
Shortly after a second murder in Sinful had been solved, Fortune believes she has recognized a woman, now going by the name Georgia Fame, who has been using her affections to prey on well-to-do elderly men, leaving them heartbroken, penniless and sometimes even... dead. Ingeniously clever, the woman has alluded authorities for decades and Fortune soon begins to understand why. With Ida Belle and Gertie at her side, the swamp team begin to build their case but the woman always covers her tracks and stays one step ahead of them. Fortune gets close but Georgia always manages to stay just out of reach. When she realizes her suspect may get away forever, she tries one last act of desperation. “Fortune and Fame” is fast-paced, filled with humor, romance, twists and turns. From KindleWorld’s Mark Len Mayfield, author of the Wayward Pines novel, “The Journey of Peter McCall.”
My Sinful Valentine
Anna Snow - 2015
Deserts, jungles, even held captive by the enemy, and never lost her cool, but when town loud-mouth, Celia Arceneaux, confronts her about her lack of domestic ability in front of her main squeeze Deputy Carter LeBlanc, Fortune let’s her mouth write a check she knows she can’t cash. Now, with Valentine’s Day only a day away, and no idea how to cook a meal fit for a king, or a hunky deputy to be exact, she needs help… and a lot of it. With her partners in crime, Ida Bell and Gertie, and their friend, culinary genius Ally by her side, they’ll help her either create a night Carter will never forget, or one they all wish they could.
Bayou Backup
Mary Hiker - 2015
and Madison's overly exuberant cousin to Texas. Unfortunately, the R.V. breaks down on the edge of Sinful, Louisanna - on a Sunday.
THE CENTURION CODE
Steven Konkoly - 2014
Lured by promises of power and wealth beyond imagination, he has conspired with this sinister alien race to enslave the remaining population and administer Earth as an alien resource colony.With the southern hemisphere conquered, NEO turns north to crush NATO forces assembled under a new international protectorate, AEGIS.Undaunted by the overwhelming alien advance, military leaders prepare to implement an all or nothing gamble to turn the tide against NEO--THE CENTURION CODE.Uploaded to AEGIS soldiers through neural laces, the Centurion Code has the potential to even the odds against the genetically superior, NEO army--but at an unthinkable costThe CENTURION CODE is hardcore military science fiction at its brutal best.
Sinful Science
Frankie Bow - 2015
He'd planned to spend a peaceful few weeks studying swamp rats. Instead, he discovers something that leads to Sinful's darkest secret. Ida Belle needs some extra income to buy a new car. Justin Lao needs a place to stay while he collects data for his master's thesis in Conservation Biology. Gertie is taking a creative writing class online, and Fortune is just planning to keep a low profile. The only excitement in Sinful is the annual Swamp Rat Festival, which Mayor-Elect Celia Arceneaux has re-branded as the Annual Sinful Nutria Jamboree. But then Justin makes a discovery that some people would rather keep hidden, and summer in Sinful heats up quickly. Fortune has to decide who can be trusted, and who would go to any lengths to keep someone from talking.A Kindle Worlds Novella in the Miss Fortune series .
The Last Days of Christmas
Stacey Wilk - 2019
Her parents were murdered on Christmas day, and she’s been running from the killers ever since. Now they’ve found her living next door to a sexy man in love with Christmas who has her thinking about naughty and nice. Zane Cutler never loses. That includes winning the prize for the best decorated street in the Christmas Light Competition. His new, pretty neighbor refuses to participate and jeopardizes the win, which he can’t allow. But when he learns her life is in jeopardy with no one else to help her, he does what he’s trained to do. Protect her. Amidst the backdrop of the holidays, Faith and Zane must learn to trust each other in order to stop the killers or this will be their last days of Christmas.
Protecting Zarifah
Debra Parmley - 2019
He loves their grace and athleticism. He’s been dating strippers, but his grandmother keeps asking when he will marry and give her grandbabies. When he attends a belly dance show and sees Zarifah he is smitten. “Zarifah” is an American belly dancer, who as child gymnast Edith Smith, was training for the Olympics, before her coaches dashed water on her dream. Her dance style is a unique blend of graceful dance and athleticism. Moments after her fiancé puts an engagement ring on her finger, he changes, demanding she stop dancing in public. She breaks the engagement, but he refuses to accept the ring or the breakup. When he hits her, the police arrest him. She never wants to see him again.She signs up for the first Shimmy Mob event, a belly dance event held on international belly dance day all around the world, which raises awareness and money for local domestic abuse shelters. Like many women, she never thought she would be a victim of domestic violence. Now she wants to help other women and she takes part, with her troupe, in the Shimmy Mob event.Cutter and Zarifah start dating. She might be the woman of his dreams, the one he will take home to meet his grandmother. Her ex fiancé decides if he cannot have her, no one will. The troupe has just finished their Shimmy Mob performance when the live shooter fires. He has no idea a Navy SEAL is there to protect Zarifa.
The Lawman
G. Michael Hopf - 2018
On the journey, he is presented with an opportunity to begin anew but there’s a catch, this new lease on life requires him to assume a new identity…that of a dead sheriff. Soon afterwards, he’ll discover his burdens aren’t so easily discarded or forgotten.
Protecting Freedom
Jen Talty - 2020
However, she’d paid her debt to society and all she wanted to do was ease back into the community, get a job, and live a quiet life without drawing any attention to herself.
She’d managed to turn her life around and even found herself a boyfriend. A good man. A man she could love.
Only, it seemed fate had other ideas for her and now she has to choose between the past and the future.
Parker “Baby” Roman is tired of playing the field. He might be young, but he’s ready to settle down and have a family and he has his sights set on the sexy, but aloof hostess of his favorite local water hole.
But Baby is ill-prepared to find out the woman of his dreams is a convicted felon and being with her could ruin his career. However, he’ll have to set all that aside when Katina’s life is on the line. He’ll do what it takes, but then he’ll have to let her go.
Or will he do what is in his heart?