Swamp Santa by Jana Deleon

Swamp Santa by Jana Deleon

It's Christmas in Sinful and Fortune is set to participate in all the local hoopla. A Christmas gala, caroling, and a sleigh ride are on the agenda. Murder is not. But when someone bumps off Santa, Fortune is aware a killer is lurking among the holiday cheer. But with no client and no reason to interfere with a police investigation, it looks as if Fortune, Ida Belle, and Gertie will have to sit this one out.

Big and Little Hebert might be criminals, but they prefer no competition in their territory, especially someone brazen enough to kill a man at the Christmas gala. When they hire Fortune to investigate the man's death, she gets her Christmas wish and Swamp Team 3 sets out to solve their final case of the year.

Jana DeLeon, a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, grew up in southwest Louisiana, surrounded by bayous and gators. Carlyss is her hometown, although you won't locate it on a map. Her family had a camp on a bayou just off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico that could only be reached by boat. The rope hammock, which hung in the shade on a large terrace that stretched out over the sea and where Jana spent many hours reading novels, was the most significant element. Jana and her brother spent countless hours in a flat-bottom aluminum boat scouring the bayous, researching the natural habitat of various birds, nutria, and alligators.

She would like you to know that no animals were harmed in the course of these research, but they did keep peroxide manufacturers in business. Jana has never encountered a mystery or a ghost like her heroines, but she remains optimistic. She now lives in Dallas, Texas, with the world's most spoilt Sheltie.