Elle Cosimano

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: "Getting the job done" for one single mom takes on a whole new meaning in Finlay Donovan is Killing It.

Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not. She’s a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay’s life is in chaos: the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped show more to her head after an incident with scissors.

When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet . . . Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.

Fast-paced, deliciously witty, and wholeheartedly authentic in depicting the frustrations and triumphs of motherhood in all its messiness, hilarity, and heartfelt moment, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is the first in a brilliant new series from YA Edgar Award nominee Elle Cosimano.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: As part of a relaunch of the series, or so I've assumed, I got the entire series to date from Minotaur Books. I binged them. It's not far from the truth to say I mainlined them. I badly needed to laugh, and feel as though the shreds of my happy mind could indeed be brought back into contact with each other. That is what reading Finlay Donovan's absurd, impossible antics did for me. Please, dear Thalia, Muse of Comedy that you are, conspire with Calliope of the eloquence brief to get these stories onto a small screen near me!

The pleasures of absurd, impossible situations like a mystery writer on deadline becoming a contract killer are many. Subversion of the rational order of things, the permanent disposal of rotten-souled people who badly need killin', the sheer red-in-tooth-and-claw joy of imposing your own will on an otherwise uncooperative and indifferent cosmos...all are present.

That the perpetratrix is also a mom, a caregiver, an ex-wife with a grudge, means we have before us an exemplar of (pardon my Freud) someone in control of her id in a time where that is not on public display. It is good to be reminded this is, in fact, a desirable thing. So my happy gauge is pegged out after this read. Even better is knowing enough of y'all agree about the happy-making qualities of the read to turn it into an ongoing series! I mean, starting off with a Jane Austen-inspired sentence like: "It is a widely known fact that most moms are ready to kill someone by eight thirty A.M. on any given morning" is gutsy and clever and a gauntlet thrown for your readerly attention.

The alchemy of a cozy series mystery is not, ironically, mysterious: the sleuth must be an amateur; must be within suspension of disbelief as one who knows about crime, usually murder; must have some scoobygroup of supporters and another pride of predatory enemies, usually exes and/or officious bureaucrats; should have a complicated love life or be starting over, falling for a cop or other law-adjacent source; have some figleaf profession that makes this outsider believably (if you squint) able to ask people questions. From there it's a free-for-all. Probably the most consistent downfall of a series is the sidekick, either not interesting or absent entirely or something else that makes one bored with the relationship. No danger of that in Vero! As sidekicks go, she's perfect: Finlay's awful ex-husband hates her, she's great with Finlay's kids (as a nanny I should hope so), and cracks wise with the best screwball-comedy heroines. Vero also asks questions that make sense for her character to ask as well as move the plot forward. That, my olds, is a whole lot harder to do, and rarer to see as a result, than you realize. Vero is the secret sauce on this double-meat, double-cheese, burger of a read.

The ending, while definitely supported by the story, didn't wow me. I had to dock a half-star in spite of the pain it caused me.

I know a lot of us need distraction from *gestures* everything. Here is a solid, enjoyable, engaging distraction that won't leave you sour or unsatisfied. show less

'Finlay Donovan Is Killing It' has been lurking in my TBR pile for just over a year, long enough for the second book in the series to be published. I bought it because the cover looked fun and the premise offered a light read that I might need one day. My reading this week had an 'Assassin' theme. I finished my two books, both dark and filled with violence, earlier than expected so I reached for 'Finlay Donovan Is Killing It' to provide some light relief while staying on theme.

Humour is a show more funny thing. Sometimes. Sometimes it's just annoying. For the first few chapters, I wasn't sure that 'Finlay Donovan Is Killing It' was going to work for me. They were a bit woe is me pity-partyish. OK, Finlay Donovan's life had fallen apart, her ex-husband was a jerk, she was broke, late in writing a novel that she'd received an advance for and struggling to bring up two young children alone. Despite this, she wasn't hitting my empathy button. Instead, she was irritating me. Did she have to be so hapless? Could she not plan rather than just hide? So the humour in the chapters felt a bit whiny to me.

This was, I should have realised, a set-up.

It turned out that Elle Cosimano knew exactly what she was doing when she built Finlay's character. I became fascinated by Finlay's chaotic, stumbling into ever deeper trouble. Her refusal to take control of her life or to think beyond the next five minutes, which initially irritated me, became central to the mechanics of the story. I still didn't feel much empathy for Finlay but her progress from harassed and helpless single mom through accidental assassin to a woman working with a friend to stay a step ahead of the police and out of the clutches of life-threatening, revenge-seeking gangsters was like watching someone fall through the branches of a very tall tree, you have to see how they land and, even if you don't know them, you end up hoping that they'll survive the fall unharmed.

The plot powers the book. Things kept getting worse and I kept turning the pages to find out how/if Finlay would get out of this ever more complex mess.

The tone succeeds at being light without being fluffy or bland. There are bad people in the book. The threats to Finlay are real and immediate and the pressure on her to kill her way out of trouble is constant. What makes it work is that Finlay's travails do two things, they show how she came to be at a point in her life where she felt alone and overwhelmed and, as she faces up to the unexpected and the difficult, we see her getting stronger while remaining fundamentally decent.

Inevitably, there's a romance element in the book, with recently-divorced, low-self-esteem, Finlay becoming an object of desire for a charming, handsome, sensitive young bartender and hot, focused, and potentially threatening Police detective. This was handled better than I thought it might be. There were no Romance-Writers-Of-America-Checklist sex scenes and Finlay didn't redefine herself based on how either man saw her. Both men had roles in moving the plot forward and dealing with them helped Finlay see herself more clearly.

I liked that Finlay didn't do everything by herself. Early in the book, she forms, albeit almost accidentally, an alliance with another woman who, by the end of the book, has become a friend. Having them face Finlay's problems together made the plot more plausible, made exposition easier and made Finlay easier to like.

I had a good time with the book. The plot kept me hooked and Finlay kept me amused. I'll be back for the next episode, 'Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead'.

I recommend the audiobook version of 'Finlay Donovan Is Killing It'. Angela Dawe does a great job of bringing the characters alive and keeping the tone light. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample. show less

Favorite Quotes:

I’d made some observations after all the time I’d spent with my mother and Mrs. Haggerty over the last few weeks, and getting old seemed a little like going through adolescence backward.

“Why won’t he keep his pants on?” my father asked. “Probably something to do with the apple and the tree.

He couldn’t get out of here fast enough. The guy laid enough rubber in the street to outfit the whole tire department at Costco.

A quiet two-year-old was rarely a good thing. show more Last time Zach had been alone and quiet in the bathroom, he’d been finger-painting the walls with his own poop.

‘He’s a really good cop!” Vero called out over the women as they started to argue. “The best! He’s like John McClane in Die Hard, but with better hair. And a lot more backup!”

My Review:

I gleefully bounced in my chair and frequently laughed aloud while I inhaled this amusing and cleverly penned series. I loved every well-chosen arrangement of words. Elle Cosimano is absolutely brilliant, and her Finaly Donovan creation is a gift. Poor Finaly, she was a semi-successful writer who had an ex-husband who couldn’t keep it in his pants and a toddler who refused to keep his pants on, or toilet train. Finaly was a hot mess.

Her adventures started with an inadvertent slip of paper on a Panera tray, which eventually led her to helping various women living in difficult situations who were “seeking a specialist with a certain skill set.” Finaly didn’t actually have the skill set, but she and Vero, her ever helpful nanny, kept managing to accidentally kill bad people, some they were supposed to, others just had the bad luck to die in their vicinity.

The engaging storylines were active, eventful, smartly plotted, and populated with a colorful cast of oddly compelling characters, many of whom were unlikable, yet quirkily and knowingly drawn. I downed six in a row and finished the last one hoping there are more to come. show less

Favorite Quotes:

Not because I wanted to kill Steven. I mean, I did, I guess. Some days. Most days. Definitely whenever he opened his mouth.

My heart raced as I ducked into the passenger side and locked the door. I stared at the dashboard, unable to form words. The exterior of the car was a giant phallus, and the interior looked like Darth Vader’s bathroom.

My Review:

I gleefully bounced in my chair and frequently laughed aloud while I inhaled this amusing and cleverly penned series. I loved show more every well-chosen arrangement of words. Elle Cosimano is absolutely brilliant, and her Finaly Donovan creation is a gift. Poor Finaly, she was a semi-successful writer who had an ex-husband who couldn’t keep it in his pants and a toddler who refused to keep his pants on, or toilet train. Finaly was a hot mess.

Her adventures started with an inadvertent slip of paper on a Panera tray, which eventually led her to helping various women living in difficult situations who were “seeking a specialist with a certain skill set.” Finaly didn’t actually have the skill set, but she and Vero, her ever helpful nanny, kept managing to accidentally kill bad people, some they were supposed to, others just had the bad luck to die in their vicinity.

The engaging storylines were active, eventful, smartly plotted, and populated with a colorful cast of oddly compelling characters, many of whom were unlikable, yet quirkily and knowingly drawn. I downed six in a row and finished the last one hoping there are more to come. show less