Fortune Furlough

Miss Fortune Mystery #14

by Jana Deleon

It’s not a vacation until there’s a murder.

Fortune, Ida Belle, and Gertie are finally off to Florida on the vacation they’ve always talked about. Days filled with white sand, turquoise water, and fruity drinks are the only thing on the agenda. But when Gertie’s “hot date” turns up dead and she’s the number one suspect, they’re forced to hang up their bathing suits and shift to investigating mode.

They soon discover that Gertie’s beau was up to all kinds of shady behavior, leaving them with a long list of people who are happy he’s dead. But which one resorted to murder?

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Humor, Audiobook, Fiction, Cozy, Contemporary

294 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2019

About the author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jana DeLeon was raised in southwest Louisiana among the bayous and gators. Her hometown is Carlyss, but you probably won't find it on a map. Her family owned a camp located on a bayou just off the Gulf of Mexico that you could only get there by boat. The most important feature was the rope hammock hanging in the shade on a huge deck that stretched out over the water where Jana spent many hours reading books.

Jana and her brother spent thousands of hours combing the bayous in a flat-bottom aluminum boat, studying the natural habitat of many birds, nutria and alligators. She would like you to know that no animals were injured during these "studies," but they kept makers of peroxide in business.

Jana has never stumbled across a mystery or a ghost like her heroines, but she's still hopeful.

She now resides in Dallas, Texas, with the most spoiled Sheltie in the world.

Reviews

[JoAn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can always count on Ms. Deleon to provide a fast paced story filled with laughter and adventure for Fortune, Ida Belle and Gertie. My vacations are never this much fun. I love this series.

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

You ever watch a series like full house (friends and Seinfeld are the exception in this) when they all take a trip together? It's a fun mix-up but not always your favorite episode in the season. I was missing the familiarity.
Heavy reliance on Gertie for entertainment, which is fine by me. She's always a while lot of crazy, and I'm also on a beach trip so it was hilarious. If Gertie is going around flaunting that red sequined string bikini in her 70s with no shame,
then what am I doing feeling self conscious! 👙

I love Gertie, she’s the blueprint of teaching how confidence is done y'all.

[Sandee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series just keeps delivering laughter, action and great situations. The girls are on vacation and from the first chapter, I was laughing. The situations and mystery are all great. I did miss Carter and Walter though.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Initially nothing but the usual cacophony of cringe-worthy cliches. Gertie and her string bikini takes up waaaayyyyyy too much space.
Like, the whole first half of the novel too much space. Jokes depend heavily on logic like "old people are gross!" and "nerds don't know how to talk to hot girls!" Sigh.
Further, the plot just peters out as Gertie, Idea Belle, and Fortune run around trying to dig up clues without their usual network. I really thought this might be my first Miss Fortune Mystery to get one star. Boring as well as crass?!
But then the climax picked up! It was actually quite fun and I liked the solution to the mystery. (It wasn't outside the realm of possibility but it also wasn't glaringly obvious.)
A fast read at least.

[Lisa G. Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

ANOTHER THRILLING ADVENTURE!

Fortune, Ida Belle & Gertie have decided to take a vacation deep in Southern Florida. Fortune just wants to kick back & relax for the first time in her life. What are the chances of that? When you read what Gertie has packed you know trouble will come calling! Only know one could EVER dream up this much trouble & confusion! It’s difficult to run interception because they’re in Florida & not in Sinful. Good thing Carter has connections & Fortune & Ida Belle are still at the top of their game when it comes to being resourceful! So much for a cool, calm &’relaxing vacation! You didn’t really believe that could happen, did you??

[Aimee Nicole Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fun adventure with Fortune, Gertie, and Ida Belle, but this time they’re on vacation. As it always does, their best laid plans go awry. Sun, sand, and shenanigans.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laugh out loud fun!

I always love a Fortune, Ida Belle, and Gertie adventure! And Fortune Furlough was just that and more. Laugh out loud fun that I couldn’t put down!

[T. Maree · Rating 4 out of 5]

More shenanigans

I love these books, but I feel they have gotten a little lost for direction. There is no bigger picture to fight towards and each new book is reading a little like a TV crime show. Don't get me wrong, I adore these books, but they were better when she had a purpose, like hiding from a drug lord. Also - I do not feel the chemistry between Carter & Fortune, feels like a boring relationship that holds no interest for readers anymore...
Good laughs with Swamp Team 3 however, still looking forward to the next one.

[Hilary (A Wytch's Book Review) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can Jana DeLeon allow Fortune to have a stress free, body free holiday? Err the answer to that is NO!

Pretty much since Fortune, Ida Belle and Gertie admitted to each other their past/current lives they decided that once Fortune was safe they would head somewhere warm, drink drinks with funny fruit and umbrellas, wear swimsuits and just RELAX.  The latter part manages to last until the first full morning when a) they see what Gertie is wearing and b) when Gertie almost drowns! (err losing her top at the same time), she was saved by Fortune and a more mature man, who asks Gertie out (Fortune and Ida Belle decide that staying in and sampling whisky is a better deal!).  The problems really start the next day when the man turns up dead and the local buffoon, sorry police officer, decides that Gertie is the killer, the man turns out to be a scammer and Swamp Team 3 need to figure out which of his unhappy "clients" actually did the deed otherwise Gertie will be spending the rest of her life in a Florida jail cell!

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grabbed this book as I knew I was going to be at soccer games all day! It is a go-to series for a quick, light, and humorous murder mystery. It didn't disappoint my expectations.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is book 14. It's the first book set outside of Sinful.

Fortune, Ida Belle and Gertie are on vacation in Florida. But of course a week cannot go by without them getting into trouble.

This was another fun read!

[Belly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t get enough of this series.

Jana could churn one Fortune book out each week, & i’d still be clamouring for more.
Murder and mayhem have fallen into Fortune, Ida Bell & Gertie’s laps again. This time on their week long vacation. Instead of a week on the beach eating, drinking and watching Gertie be ridiculous. They’ve got scammers, murders and drug runners. Just another typical day!

[Anastasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fortune Furlough by Jana Deleon is the 14th book in the Miss Fortune Mystery series. Fortune, Ida Belle and Gertie finally set off for their Florida vacation, only to have Gertie's hot date on their first night found murdered the next morning with Gertie as chief suspect. I love this series and this book is nor exception. You are always guaranteed to have a fun time with plenty of laughs along the way. A wonderful and very entertaining mystery.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Look out Florida here comes Fortune, Ida Belle and Gertie on a beach vacation. Where they go trouble follows and it doesn't take long for Gertie to once again be causing a stir.

This is one of my favorite series. You can always count on it for a good laugh and a great mystery.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swamp team 3 heads out on a Florida vacation in this book. It was a fun time with a mystery to solve of course!

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the perfect read for the beach!

“Fortune Furlough” finds Swamp Team 3 on a much needed vacation in Florida but when someone they just met ends up dead and Gertie as the prime suspect they must put their plans on hold to make sure that they all make it back to Sinful in one piece.

This is a plot very similar to one we’ve seen before only with a few tweaks to make it fit the world outside of Sinful but it not going to complain because at the end of the day it was a nice fun read that I finished in an afternoon while sitting oceanside.

There’s a few developments on the personal side that I thought brought out a new side as Ida Belle and Fortune discussed the road not traveled and how their lives could have been different as well as pointing out that there’s still time for them to revisit those possibilities and I not so secretly hope we do!

I’ve read this series from book 1 and I’ll read until 101 and though they’ve gotten a bit more ridiculous I still pick them up as soon as they are released without any hesitation.

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The books in this series are genuine ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ cosy mysteries.

Despite all the meat eating, hunting and digs at vegans and animal rights activists (both of which include me - I’m not sure why’s it’s so offensive to want to be kind to animals, but rightiho) I really enjoy the Miss Fortune series.

They are funny and the mystery is suspenseful and exciting. The characters are fantastic and this instalment was no different.

The thought of Gertie makes me grin every darn time.

Love it!

[Jan Meigs Pilon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. I am addicted to this series. I love the fun, quirky characters and the bizarre situations they get into. I would love to see this as a TV series. It has humor, action and intrigue.

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Swamp Team 3 takes it on the road to a resort in Florida for a vacation. Hum. Sun, booze, Gertie getting caught up in a murder with Ida Belle and Fortune coming to the rescue. Yeah, that sounds about right. Love this series and it was the perfect book for my own lakeside vacation.

[Debbie Croff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny as hell!

I love all of the Miss Fortune boos, but this is the best one yet! It's laugh out loud funny!

[Angie Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome as usual.

From sand buckets to bailing buckets needed, this story is great. Jana Deleon has delivered yet another Fortune Redding tale worth reading over and over again.

[Kelly Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly entertaining! Every chapter includes lots of laughs. The story is fast paced and keeps you guessing as to who did it right to the end. Jana DeLeon never disappoints.

[Squirrel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Refreshing silliness on vacation. Some of the antics are hard to accept - two vets of an overseas war would definitely respect the ocean surf. but still fun. Here again the author's prejudices come screaming through. The Swamp Team 3 have 200 years' experience between them, and they honestly believe the only thing that will catch men's attention is large "boobs'?

Fortune seems to have way too much attention without them, how do they explain that away? It's annoying and insulting, to both women and men.

So much good writing, the slips really distract. "I let out a long-suffering sigh" ... . With her "besties" ... right. The editor isn't even bothering to read these ... "man with a blue shorts" "I wondered how he managed to walk without running into things" (um, because he'd be walking not running?) "All we have to do tape this baby on the end of the spear..."

By Chapter 12 the culprit is easy to guess and the endless 'thinking out loud' is tiresome. Such great setups, so much potential for fun and hilarity, and cool characters, just left in the dust.

---------------
2nd read
Could have had a lot of fun with the airport, food, travelers, instead its right to the vacation condo and blathering about how important it was to buy things to make Ally happy. Ally who isn't on the trip. Ally who is in her 30s and has her own life. The squeamishness about body parts, underwear, etc. takes this book back into the 1950s. An assassin, a sniper, a demolitions expert are really bickering about body shaming? If there has to be a "girlie" (gag) subject, how about clothing styles, or colors, or where to eat? This endless bit about Gertie - who cares if she dresses like a clown? She's having fun! Who are the other two worried about impressing?

Darn, back to "I Love Lucy" episodes. What idiot buys a huge float to 'hide' in a hotel lobby? CIA Assassin? Dead on the first assignment, based on this behavior. And has NO ONE learned the police do NOT have to be honest when feeding information to suspects? These characters are dumber than 4-year-olds! Certainly HOPE this was ghost-written. What a load of tripe.

Do any other readers see this as Ghost-written? The character traits are all mis-assigned, from Ally and Carter to the Swamp Team; the cast is out of town so whoever writes this doesn't have to learn the established characters, e.g. Celia, Sheriff Lee, Dorothy, Deputy Breaux. This is book reads like a hoax pulled on the fans.MC is not usually bitchy or bossy like this, shenanigans are always Gertie, not Fortune, and Ida Belle or Gertie would be running web traces, not Fortune. Not laughing. Here Ida Belle really lays into her best friend "you've been labeled as trouble since the womb. Your mother was bedridden..." Yikes! Her MOTHER? What's gotten into Ida Belle? Also what is shown vs told seems off. The car scene from the church, could have been played out so the reader could enjoy it too. But even that is out of character - Fortune is the character with 'time' issues - Ida Belle is ALWAYS early. She wouldn't cut something as routine as Church Choir down to the wire.

The established characters are weakened here. Miss MC "CIA Operative, retired" needs to be told WHY to question 'old men'? Must have been a really junk training program in the CIA. Gertie and Ida Belle have been teaching Fortune how to navigate the South, and suddenly Fortune 'instructs' them in what to say, when, and how to act? Fortune treats Ida Belle like a dog "go do this, say that" and the Ida Belle of previous books would simply smack her hard for that. It's distasteful. The next scene, Miss CIA is asking them how to proceed. Did anyone edit this book? It doesn't flow, its more hitting potholes and stalling out, spurting burnt oil. There's an entire chapter (13) that simply lays out the character sketches and rationales, in the guise of a heart-to-heart between Ida Belle and Fortune - that the early characters would NEVER hold. Its boring and overdone. Also totally inappropriate for the reader, as the people being discussed are 99% absent from the events.

Also, the writing makes it appear there are no competent police or PIs to be found...anywhere? This story becomes wrote and tedious. The funny parts are middling. The new characters seem great, but they are given minimal exposure, and toss-offs, never to appear again in future books. Here the central characters are shaved away to be 2-dimensional; the tone is off: "If we wanted to, we would.... Its not like I spend dinners telling him about my missions." Whine-whine-whine.

Even the bit about MC not surfing well is incredibly unlikely. She can slip from a tree branch to a roof and upside down slide into a bathroom window silently, deep dive without equipment, find a man in murky water and pull him up, sky dive, but she couldn't handle ... surfing - even with lessons from a pro? Not enjoy it, maybe, but be unable?

Oh, the ironies abound. "Hard to wrap your head around being rescued by a man, right?" That's ALL that's happened in this series! Mannie, Big and Little, Carter, even Sheriff Lee. Just the previous scene in this book, a male attorney has to come to get Gertie released from jail "being held for questioning". Yuck. This book makes a mockery of the women, not the men.

Why does Fortune need Stewart to contact Benton? He's incompetent and not really investigating, after all... The outrageous leap to a random realtor being the friend on a phone call that they heard about 3rd hand? There was NO description of the physical characteristics of either caller, so "remind you of someone" from a business sign? A psychic would be more believable. Way to ruin a supposed mystery. Junk on junk.

Some fans of the series might want to skip this book. It does become fun in the last 1/3, after all the filler is done and back to some action. The first half to two-thirds is plodding, with most of the 'action' being narrated instead of played out for the reader. The outcome is unlikely on every level, but still fun to read through. A drug runner killing a suspicious party with ... puffer fish? No, two exotic. Strangled, pest-poison, tossed off a roof, shot, yes. Also at the place where he works, and leave the body there? Sloppy, amateur, doesn't fit the 'type'. Nor does making a run without a distance weapon handy. Why wouldn't it be tucked at the helm? It's not like the drug runner is passing through customs on the way to Cuba, right? And how long does it take to wonder why a guy who doesn't fish is spending money chartering fishing trips...on the ocean...

[Per Gunnar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is pretty much more of the same, in a good way, with one big difference. A complete change of scenery. Fortune and the Geritol Mafia are heading for Florida on vacation.

It is of course not much of a spoiler if I say that things go pear shaped rather quickly starting with Gertie having unfortunate wardrobe issues on the beach and moving on to her becoming the profoundly lazy, incompetent and downright criminal local Sheriff’s prime suspect for a murder.

So Sinful is replaced by a beach village in Florida and that uber-annoying bitch Celia Arcenaux is replaced by previously mentioned asshat Sheriff. Apart from that it is business as usual.

Fortune & Co of course dives straight into solving the murder in order to get Gertie off the hook and as usual it is a bumpy ride with a fair share of mishaps including Gertie being chased by a pink, flamingo wielding, furious woman. Spoiler: the flamingo was fake. Along the way they meet a number of interesting people with various skeletons in the closet.

Overall a fun read. I really like the trio, their interactions and their adventures. Fortune herself has become more competent in her new role and less slapstick. Ida Bell was kicking ass from the start and Gertie… well Gertie and her explosive handbag is… Gertie.

I quite like these books as a change of pace to clear my mind of the usual science fiction and fantasy stuff I read.

The one thing I would, if not complain about, so at least say it would have been nice of that useless wanker of a Sheriff would have gotten his ass kicked a bit more. He truly deserved it.

[Jo-Ann Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this was my favorite of the series so far. I laughed so hard I cried in many places. These books never fail to bring the funny. About three quarters through it began to lag a bit but I could not put my finger on why and then it picked back up.

Ida Belle seemed a little more fed up with Gertie than usual through the book but I have a friend like that and there are times when I just get short tempered after a repeat of the same situations, so I could relate. That just makes the story feel even more real, but someone picking the books up for the first time, might not see it the same way.

I liked that Carter and Fortune were on the same page rather than having to dance around the restrictions of their jobs as they do in Sinful. That was also a nice change of pace.

Though I had pegged the murderer very early, I was off on the motive. Another sign of a good book is when you think you know and then the twist shows you were in left field.

I find this the perfect series when the seriousness of life weighs on me because they are pure fun.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading a lot of heavy stuff lately (have you noticed?). I needed something light, and was thrilled that the new Miss Fortune mystery was out.

Fortune, Gertie, and Ida Belle decide to take a vacation together. So, they rent a condo in the Florida Keys and prepare for two full weeks of rest and relaxation. When Gertie meets a gentleman, there is a lot of eye-rolling ... until the gentleman winds up dead and Gertie's in the sights of the local lawman. When it turns out that the dead guy has been bilking older women out of their money, things get even more complicated.

There are laughs galore and a tight whodunnit, with the Sinful Ladies of Swamp Team 3 not only pulling their usual shenanigans but also taking care of business.

[Jacy Wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

This latest book in the Miss Fortune series is the best one yet. I started laughing from the first few pages and barely stopped. Fortune, Gertie and Ida Bell are having a well needed beach vacation in the Florida Keys, what could go wrong? Everything.
The murder mystery is great, you won’t guess who-dunnit until the end when Swamp Team 3 finally figures it out. Do yourself a favor and read this today!

[JadeShea · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this one, Fortune and her friends go on vacation, but things go from bad to worse when Gertie gets a date, and the date ends up dead. Now, Fortune must figure out who killed the man before Gertie gets put in the slammer.

This book was hilarious! It had a great mystery and kept me highly entertained during the whole book. I love how funny this series is, and I can't wait for more now. I do hope something changes with Ida Bell though, sometimes I worry about her.

[Eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

2020 bk 107: Vacation. For the Swamp Team 3, a vacation visit to a key in Florida is supposed to include rest time on the beach, dips in the water, and fruity drinks with umbrellas. However, when Gertie goes on a date, one who dies shortly after leaving her, they are pulled into solving the crime before Gertie is locked up. This book has some of the funniest scenes - flying flamingos, poison ivy spread on a con man's bedsheets, deep sea fishing with the trio. The ending did surprise me and only proves that we only get by with a little help from new and old friends.

[Alisia Soles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

True to form, Swamp Team 3 are at it again. Finally, the team gets their vacation, but we all know what that means. Another murder and mystery with our favorite characters stuck right in the middle of it. So many hilarious moments! Must read!