After having lived in Sinful, Louisiana since June, former CIA assassin Fortune Redding finally gets to experience Mardi Gras in Jana Deleon’s Bullets and Beads. But her time to party gets disrupted by news not only that her father, CIA super agent Dwight Redding, has not been dead for the past 14 years as everyone believed, but questions are being asked discreetly about Fortune’s current location. This concern gets pushed to the back burner when a woman is shot and killed at Sinful’s Mardi Gras parade, giving Fortune something new to investigate, at least unofficially. Soon, she and her sidekicks, senior citizen former Vietnam War spies Gertie and Ida Belle, combine both investigations in a trip into New Orleans itself for the official Mardi Gras festival. Then Fortune’s father starts showing up, followed by numerous terrorists out to get Fortune.
I have thoroughly enjoyed each of the books in the Miss Fortune series, and Bullets and Beads proved to be no exception. There was more intrigue than in most other books, and we got plenty of time with Big and Little Hebert, the local mob bosses whom readers can’t help but love. With car chases, boat chases, and encounters with Godzilla, Gertie’s pet alligator, this book has no shortage in excitement. Plus, the scenes of Gertie at Mardi Gras add to the intense humor of this book. My only complaint is that the conclusion seemed to wrap itself up too abruptly, almost as if Deleon hit her word limit and quickly wrote a conclusion.
I was so excited when I saw that Bullets and Beads was going to be released that I pounced on the book as soon as it arrived. It didn’t take me long to get through this hilarious and exciting book. I highly recommend it for everyone, but if you are new to the Miss Fortune series, I can’t impress on you enough to start with book one, Louisiana Longshot. But even if you elect to start with this book, you will still have a fun, wild ride. I give this book five stars.
