The No-Tell Motel #SampleSunday

The No-Tell Motel

When a young woman vanishes from a roadside motel, Mary-Alice and the gang leave Sinful and head across the border to find her. They soon find that the unprepossessing McCully Inn holds some Texas-sized secrets, which the influential McCully family would prefer to keep hidden.
But with the missing woman’s life at stake, the ladies decide to keep poking around the McCully family closet and let the skeletons fall where they may. And with their technical know-how, decades of experience, and relaxed attitude about rules and procedures, they might just get to the truth.

Excerpt

Their new “command center” (as Mary-Alice liked to think of it) was an unused room on the second floor, a few doors down from where Solange had been staying when she disappeared.  Inside were two double beds and a couch. Fortune immediately volunteered to take the couch, and no one argued with her. That was one of the advantages of age, Mary-Alice thought. No one expects you to sleep on the fold-out.
While Mary-Alice got ready for bed, Fortune and Ida Belle went to work. They disconnected the room telephone and in its place plugged in a tan plastic box about the size of a deck of cards. Then they pulled out a similar box and hooked it to a laptop.
“Are those little hard drives y’all are setting up?” Mary-Alice asked.
“They’re listening devices,” Fortune explained. “This one is an International Mobile Subscriber Identity-catcher. It’s like its own little cell phone tower. If Solange’s kidnapper calls someone in the area, we can not only hear the call, we can trace the location of the phone.”
“We should be able to hear anything that comes through the switchboard too,” Ida Belle added.  None of it’s admissible in a court of law, and might not even be legal, but this setup’s pretty useful.”
Mary-Alice came over to take a closer look. Fortune slid under the desk to do something with wires and cables.
“Are there headphones?” she asked. “Will we be listening and taking notes?”
Mary-Alice imagined herself wearing big studio-style headphones for hours on end and wondered whether her ears would get sore.
“Thankfully, no,” Ida Belle said. “That’s how they did it back in my day. I mean, in spy movies. But now they can record and transcribe the conversations.”
“That way we can actually get some sleep,” Fortune said from under the desk. “And the voice recognition has some problems south of the Mason-Dixon Line. It can’t tell the difference between ‘oil’ and ‘all’.”


The No-Tell Motel is available on these platforms

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This story is a licensed work in Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune world.

Black Widow Valley #SampleSunday

Black Widow Valley

Young men have been disappearing in Black Valley, New York–which now has the misfortune of being known as “Black Widow Valley.” As it happens, Mary-Alice Arceneaux has a personal connection with the tiny community, and is called in to help. Mary-Alice is thrilled to be a part of the investigation–but by the time she arrives at the forbidding Kilmer House where she will spend the night, she realizes she may be in over her head.
This modern retelling of Lost Man’s Lane takes the action from the sultry bayous of Southwest Louisiana to upstate New York’s remote Black Valley. Mary-Alice is challenged to keep her wits about her when she gets herself invited to stay in the forbidding old mansion that appears to hold the key to a string of unspeakable crimes. Fortunately (or not), Sinful’s Sheriff Robert E. Lee is on the case too!

Excerpt

Logan and Lucetta excused themselves after dinner, leaving Mary-Alice alone in the dismal dining room. Just as she was considering whether to get up and snoop, or try to find someone who would show her to her room, Hannah entered the dining room.
“Oh, Hannah, darlin,” Mary-Alice said, “I wonder if you could show me where I’ll be staying tonight.”
“Room’s not ready yet, Ma’am.” Hannah made no attempt to clear the table quietly; the plates and saucers clattered as she stacked them. “Miss Kilmer sends her apologies, and says she understands if you’d like Logan to drive you down to the hotel in town. She’s already called ahead and gotten a room for you.”
“Well, that’s ever so kind, I’m sure,” Mary-Alice parried, “but I rather did have my heart set on staying the night here.”
“Means you have to wait a while,” Hannah replied. “There’s no room ready.”
“Why, I’d like nothing better than to wait,” Mary-Alice declared. She squared her dainty shoulders and followed the larger woman back to the gloomy sitting room. Althea’s children had known of her arrival, and there must be dozens of rooms in this old house.  What were they hiding?


Black Widow Valley is available on these platforms

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This story is a licensed work in Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune world.

The Two-Body Problem #SampleSunday

The Two-Body Problem

Professor Gwendolyn Jackson’s husband sends her a voice mail from the road, telling her he’ll be home soon. Just one problem…by the time the message was sent, he was already dead.
When the police dismiss her concerns, Professor Jackson turns to her former student, Fortune Morrow, for help.
Naturally, Fortune, Mary-Alice, and the rest of the Sinful gang are eager to solve the mystery surrounding the death of Professor Jackson’s husband, who owned the French Quarter’s premier joke and novelty shop, Jape & Jest. But the ladies soon find that nothing is as it seems in this case, and an unseen killer might have the last laugh. 

Excerpt

The McCully Inn was a low-slung brick building with a red-and-yellow banner hanging over the front entrance:
NOW OPEN special daily, weekly, & monthly rates.
The motel looked like it had been built in the 1950s, remodeled sometime in the 1980s, and left to its own devices after that. The tile-print vinyl flooring was curling up at the seams, and the lobby smelled like old cigarette smoke.
“You got this?” Ida Belle asked Gertie. Gertie nodded and disappeared into the bathroom. Fortune, Ida Belle, and Mary-Alice followed her, which was safer than hanging out in the lobby and risking someone asking them what they were doing there.
Gertie went into a stall and emerged after a few minutes wearing a black baggy dress, a hat with a veil, black gloves, and a giant cross necklace.
“What the heck are you supposed to be?” Ida Belle demanded. “Madonna?”
“I’m-a Michael’s devoted auntie Fiorella,” Gertie said, in what was apparently intended to be an Italian accent.
“I can’t watch,” Ida Belle covered her face.
“Oh, I’d love to watch,” Mary-Alice exclaimed. “It’ll be like a game of charades.”
“You say charades, I say nightmare of humiliation from which there is no waking,” Ida Belle said. “To-may-to, to-mah-to.”
“Let’s go over to the coffee shop,” Fortune suggested. “If we sit by the entrance we’ll have a good view.”


The Two-Body Problem is available on these platforms

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This story is a licensed work in Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune world.

The Vanishing Victim #SampleSunday

The Vanishing Victim

Mary-Alice Arceneaux is starting to catch on to the fact that the Sinful Ladies’ Society does more than brew 100-proof cough syrup to sell at the church bazaar. So when Sinful Ladies founder Ida Belle gets into serious trouble, Mary-Alice wants to help the SLS in their quest for justice. But this means that the sweet-natured Mary-Alice will have to endure a visit to the Swamp Bar (where decent ladies don’t go) and go up against her vindictive cousin, Mayor Celia Arceneaux. Will Mary-Alice’s sweet nature and unshakable faith in humanity endure?

Excerpt

“I swear to y’all, he was right there.” Ida Belle pointed to Deputy Breaux’s feet. “Right there. I shot Victorin Lowery. I saw him go down.”
Breaux paced around the small space, staring at the floor as if the missing corpse might suddenly turn up.
“Ma’am, are you sure it was Victorin Lowery you saw?” Breaux asked.
“Yes, sir, I surely am,” Ida Belle retorted. “Unless it was his stunt double.”
Breaux scratched his chin.
“You didn’t happen to see Leonie Blanchard around at all, did you?”
“Who?” Fortune asked.
“Victorin’s girlfriend,” Breaux said. “Real pretty, but she likes her drink too. Some folks call her Hollow-Leg Leonie. Her and Victorin got into it at the Swamp Bar yesterday. I had to go down and pull ‘em apart.”
“I remember Miss Leonie Blanchard,” Gertie said. “I had to suspend her several times for smoking in school.”
“I thought you taught third grade,” Fortune said.
“And so I did. Deputy, what were they fighting about?”


The Vanishing Victim is available on these platforms

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This story is a licensed work in Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune world.

Bayou Busybody #SampleSunday

Bayou Busybody

Sinful’s newest resident, Mary-Alice Arceneaux, is thrilled when Gertie introduces her to famous romance author Almira Galvez-Whitbread. But then Gertie and her friends have to leave town, and the very next day, Almira’s husband disappears. With Gertie, Fortune, and Ida Belle gone, Mary-Alice finds that she’s Almira’s only friend…and that Almira’s storybook marriage had been far less perfect than advertised. By the time Mary-Alice realizes she may be in danger, she’s already in too deep. Now she has to find out what really happened to the faithless Geoffrey Whitbread–and prove she has what it takes to be a real Sinful Lady.

Excerpt

“Isn’t it funny, Mary-Alice?” Gertie grinned. “You thought you’d escape drama by moving to Sinful.”
Fortune smiled knowingly, and Ida Belle snorted.
“Oh, I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Mary-Alice declared. “I love it here.  And I’m living right downtown in one of Sinful’s historic homes. It’s so much fun.”
“Not as much fun as watching Celia Arceneaux turn five shades of green when you moved into one of Sinful’s most distinctive homes,” Gertie said.
“Oh, I know now that Celia was upset about the old Cooper place, but I certainly didn’t mean to show anyone up.”
“That’s what makes it even better,” Ida Belle said. “All you did was buy a nice old fixer-upper, and you got Celia spitting nails. Sorry, Mary-Alice, I know Celia’s your cousin, but she is a mean, petty woman and you’re far too nice to her.”
Mary-Alice preferred to think the best of people, especially when they were family. But even she had to admit the evidence was not in Celia’s favor. So powerful was Celia’s hatred of Ida Belle, Gertie, and the rest of the Sinful Ladies’ Society that Celia had founded a rival group. They called themselves the “God’s Wives,” which Mary-Alice thought was irreverent.  Mary-Alice preferred hanging out with the Sinful Ladies’ Society. But tact demanded she keep this a secret from Celia for the time being. Best not to poke the bear. Especially when the bear was the acting mayor.


Bayou Busybody is available on these platforms

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This story is a licensed work in Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune world.

The Miss Fortune Novellas are now available in all formats, all countries!

The Miss Fortune mysteries are novellas written under license in Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune World. If you want to get acquainted with the characters, the first book in the Miss Fortune series is Louisiana Longshot, available for free on Amazon, Kobo, Apple, Google, and B&N.

Supernatural Sinful

A graduate student from Hawaii visits the tiny bayou town of Sinful, Louisiana to investigate the effects of the oil spill on the local wildlife. Sinful resident Fortune Redding, who happens to be a CIA operative hiding out from a ruthless arms dealer, worries that the nosy newcomer might blow her cover. But when he makes a gruesome discovery, he unleashes forces that will go to any lengths to protect Sinful’s darkest secret.
Sinful Science is my first and only paranormal mystery, and was a lot of fun to research and write.  Will there be more? It depends on the readers. You want it, I’ll write it!

Hair Extensions & Homicide

The Hair Extensions and Homicide books follow the original Miss Fortune format. They are told in first person, from Fortune’s point of view.

The Mary-Alice Files

The Mary-Alice Files are told in third person and feature Mary-Alice Arceneaux, Celia Arceneaux’s sweet-natured cousin by marriage. Mary-Alice always tries to assume the best of people. Her disarmingly sweet nature and natural curiosity make her a perfect amateur sleuth.

New on Kindle Worlds: Swamp Team Three goes to a New Orleans romance convention

How did the members of Swamp Team Three end up at a romance writers’ convention in New Orleans?Gertie wants to advance her budding career as a romance author;  Fortune needs a break from her complicated personal life; and Ida Belle doesn’t think the other two should go out unsupervised.
But when Ida Belle runs into someone from her past, it becomes clear that not everyone at the American Romance and Erotica Authors’ Conference will end up “happily ever after.”

 
Once Upon a Murder is the sequel to Sinful Science, and the second installment of the Hair Extensions and Homicide adventures on Kindle Worlds.


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