Most Recommended Books

Track reading, wishlists & new-book alerts

Get
Skip to content
Share:

Miss Fortune Mystery Books in Order

Part ofJana DeLeon Books in Order

Browse the Miss Fortune Mystery books by Jana DeLeon in order, with summaries, series background, and tips on where to start Fortune Redding’s adventures in Sinful, Louisiana.

Last updated: December 26, 2025

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases (at no extra cost to you).

Publication Order

Sort:

29 books

1

Coeds and Cattails

by Jana DeLeon

2025

Campus tattletale Mimi Clark makes enemies by reporting every infraction to the dean, and when she is murdered, there is no shortage of suspects. With Detective Casey’s daughter Audrey under suspicion, Swamp Team 3 must untangle college politics and petty vendettas to keep an innocent student out of prison.

2

Swamp Spies

by Jana DeLeon

2024

Carter goes from consulting to missing in action when he leaves the command center for a field mission in the Middle East. While Fortune quietly works her contacts to mount a rescue, Sinful reels from the sudden death of prankster Gage Babin, and she suspects his “accident” was murder.

3

Marsh Madness

by Jana DeLeon

2024

Ahead of their ten year reunion, a group of former classmates gathers at a bayou bed and breakfast, and one dies from a severe allergic reaction. The kindly owners are blamed, so Fortune, Ida Belle and Gertie head to Voodoo Island to navigate locked rooms, old grudges and a possible curse.

4

Baskets and Beignets

by Jana DeLeon

2024

Ten years after Ryan Comeaux is convicted of killing his girlfriend, a new witness insists he is innocent and hires Swamp Team 3 to prove it. With scant evidence and plenty of suspects, Fortune must crack a cold case before the real killer strikes again.

5

Fortune Teller

by Jana DeLeon

2023

With Carter away on a military mission, a temporary sheriff insists Fortune stay out of trouble. Then an unidentified girl is pulled from the swamp with no memory, and rumors point to a secretive group called the Brethren. Swamp Team 3 races to find the girl’s origins before her enemies do.

6

Clue Krewe

by Jana DeLeon

2023

An interactive mystery event comes to Sinful, complete with costumed guests and staged clues. When a real body appears among the props, Fortune, Ida Belle and Gertie must figure out which player turned the game into murder before everyone walks away.

7

Swamp Spirits

by Jana DeLeon

2022

Fortune is thrilled when her former CIA partner Ben and his fiancée Cassidy move to the bayou, until their new house turns out to be haunted. As Cassidy sees a woman in white no one can trace, Swamp Team 3 unearths a decades old disappearance tied to love, money and voodoo.

8

Flame and Fortune

by Jana DeLeon

2022

A series of suspicious fires around Sinful has everyone on edge, and one blaze hits far too close to Fortune’s borrowed home. Tracking an arsonist forces Swamp Team 3 to look at insurance scams, revenge and secrets someone is willing to burn the town down to protect.

9

Swamp Sweets

by Jana DeLeon

2021

A dessert competition should be harmless, but a rival baker’s collapse points to sabotage instead of sugar. With reputations and livelihoods on the line, Fortune, Ida Belle and Gertie dig into recipes, resentments and a very personal motive for murder.

10

Frightfully Fortune

by Jana DeLeon

2021

A Halloween attraction and ghost tour promise easy thrills for Sinful’s visitors, but when a staged scare leaves a real corpse behind, Fortune has to separate special effects from genuine danger before the town’s spooky reputation turns deadly for good.

11

Fortune Funhouse

by Jana DeLeon

2021

A traveling carnival sets up just outside Sinful, complete with a creaky funhouse and a fortune teller who seems to know too much. When a worker turns up dead, Fortune and Swamp Team 3 follow the trail through rigged games, old grudges and carnival secrets.

12

Gators and Garters

by Jana DeLeon

2020

A new entertainment venture brings sequins, drag shows and controversy to Sinful, quickly followed by murder. Fortune, Ida Belle and Gertie must navigate unfamiliar nightlife, offended locals and a swamp full of gators to uncover who wanted the victim permanently off stage.

13

Bullets and Beads

by Jana DeLeon

2020

Mardi Gras in Sinful means parades, beads and barely controlled chaos. When a reveler dies in the middle of the celebration, Fortune and her partners have to sift through costumes, alibis and a storm of confetti to find a killer hiding in plain sight.

14

Swamp Santa

by Jana DeLeon

2019

A string of Christmas thefts has Sinful on edge, especially when witnesses swear they saw Santa at the scene. Fortune and Swamp Team 3 follow the trail through charity drives, fake beards and holiday chaos to unmask a thief who is anything but jolly.

15

Fortune Furlough

by Jana DeLeon

2019

A beach vacation is supposed to give Fortune and her friends a break from Sinful, but a dead body on the sand ruins that plan. With local law enforcement focused on the wrong suspect, Swamp Team 3 goes undercover in a resort town to catch a killer far from home.

16

Cajun Fried Felony

by Jana DeLeon

2019

Sinful’s big food festival turns deadly when a controversial judge collapses after a tasting. Fortune, Ida Belle and Gertie dig into rival chefs, sabotaged recipes and simmering resentments to find out who turned good Southern cooking into a weapon.

17

Swamp Spook

by Jana DeLeon

2018

Sinful’s Halloween celebration centers on a supposedly haunted house, but when strange accidents escalate and someone ends up dead, Fortune has to decide whether she is chasing a killer, a con or something more supernatural than she wants to admit.

18

Reel of Fortune

by Jana DeLeon

2018

A high profile fishing rodeo should bring easy tourism money to Sinful, but a body on the docks turns celebration into suspicion. Fortune and Swamp Team 3 work behind the scenes to net a murderer while the town tries to pretend everything is business as usual.

19

Change of Fortune

by Jana DeLeon

2018

Sinful’s future is on the line when a development deal divides the town and a key player turns up dead. Fortune, Ida Belle and Gertie must cut through political spin, land grabs and long simmering grudges to find a killer before the wrong person pays the price.

20

Hook, Line and Blinker

by Jana DeLeon

2017

A big fishing tournament brings money, outsiders and plenty of grudges to Sinful’s waters. When a competitor turns up dead, Fortune and Swamp Team 3 must untangle rivalries, shady sponsorships and a few creative fishing techniques before the killer slips away with the prize.

21

Later Gator

by Jana DeLeon

2016

A suspicious death in the swamp sparks rumors of killer gators, poachers and insurance fraud. Fortune, Ida Belle and Gertie wade into muddy motives and family feuds, determined to catch a human killer hiding behind the local wildlife and their own tall tales.

22

Fortune Hunter

by Jana DeLeon

2016

Whispers of hidden treasure bring a wave of strangers to Sinful, and trouble follows close behind. When greed turns deadly, Fortune and Swamp Team 3 dig through old legends and new lies to expose who is willing to kill for a payout and keep Fortune’s past out of sight.

23

Soldiers of Fortune

by Jana DeLeon

2015

Celia Arceneaux’s election as mayor brings trouble to Sinful, and a Fourth of July explosion raises the stakes. Evidence of a hidden meth lab in the bayou pushes Fortune, Ida Belle and Gertie into a dangerous investigation with no one at the sheriff’s office left to handle it.

24

Hurricane Force

by Jana DeLeon

2015

A hurricane slams into Sinful, and afterward counterfeit money literally rains from the sky. The bills are tied to Ahmad, the arms dealer who wants Fortune dead, and when his men arrive in town she must protect her friends, face her nemesis and survive Carter learning who she really is.

25

Swamp Team 3

by Jana DeLeon

2014

Fortune’s hopes for a quiet spell vanish when someone burns down her friend Ally’s house. Ordered to stay out of the investigation, she instead joins Ida Belle and Gertie to hunt an arsonist, risking both her cover and her fragile relationship with Deputy Carter LeBlanc.

26

Gator Bait

by Jana DeLeon

2014

When a local man tied to Sinful’s tourist trade turns up dead in the bayou, rumors blame both gators and bad luck. Fortune and Swamp Team 3 follow a trail of grudges, money and murky alibis to uncover who is really using the swamp as a dumping ground.

27

Swamp Sniper

by Jana DeLeon

2013

A mayoral candidate is gunned down at Sinful’s festival, and Ida Belle quickly lands at the top of the suspect list. Fortune and Gertie race to find the real sniper, juggling small town gossip, political grudges and Fortune’s precarious undercover identity.

28

Lethal Bayou Beauty

by Jana DeLeon

2013

No one in Sinful ever liked Pansy Arceneaux, but when the actress returns to run the town’s beauty pageant and ends up dead, Fortune becomes the prime suspect. To clear her name, she and Swamp Team 3 must untangle secrets behind Pansy’s long list of enemies.

29

Louisiana Longshot

by Jana DeLeon

2012

CIA assassin Fortune Redding hides in Sinful, Louisiana, posing as a beauty queen turned librarian. Her cover is blown the moment her dog digs up a human bone, and with Ida Belle and Gertie at her side she has to solve a murder without revealing who she really is.

Series background & context

The Miss Fortune Mystery series begins with a bang when CIA assassin Fortune Redding is forced into hiding. A leak inside the agency and a furious arms dealer put a price on her head, so her boss ships her off grid to the last place anyone would expect to find her, a sleepy bayou town called Sinful, Louisiana.

Fortune’s cover story is almost worse than the hit order. She has to pose as a former beauty queen turned librarian, complete with big hair, floral dresses and a tiny inherited dog. Her plan is to lay low until the agency plugs the leak. Instead, the dog digs up a human bone in her backyard on her first day in town, and the quiet assignment turns into a murder investigation.

Sinful comes with its own resistance movement in the form of Ida Belle and Gertie, two older women who run the local church ladies group and were once part of an all female covert unit in Vietnam. The locals call them the Geritol Mafia, and they adopt Fortune almost against her will. Together the three of them operate as Swamp Team 3, breaking into houses, tailing suspects, blowing up sheds and generally making the local deputy, Carter LeBlanc, suspicious and tired.

Each book centers on a new problem in and around Sinful. Beauty pageant directors turn up dead. Crooked mayors cause explosions at holiday celebrations. Counterfeit cash falls from the sky during a hurricane, dragging Fortune’s old enemy back into her life. A haunted house listing spooks a pair of newcomers, and a mysterious group hidden deep in the swamp may or may not want outsiders to live.

Over time, the series stretches beyond cozy whodunit territory into action adventure. Fortune’s CIA skills never truly go dormant, and she has to use everything she knows about surveillance, weapons and interrogation while still pretending she is harmless. Carter slowly pieces together the truth about who she really is, even as their relationship shifts from professional irritation into something neither one can quite ignore.

What ties the books together is a strong sense of community. Sinful is full of gossip, festivals, casseroles and people who stick their noses into each other’s business as a matter of civic duty. The cases can be dangerous, but the stories stay funny, fast and character driven. If you like your mysteries with explosions, disguises, a found family of stubborn women and the occasional alligator, this series is where to start.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

Comments

Did we miss something? Have feedback?

Help us improve this page by sharing your thoughts

We only use your email to notify you about replies.

All comments are moderated.

Discover and track your reading on the go

Track your reading, manage wishlists, and get notified when new books are added.

29 Miss Fortune Mystery Books in Order (Complete List 2026)