Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Ellie Cosimano
"Getting the job done" for one single mom takes on a whole new meaning in Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, a deliciously witty adult debut - the first in a brilliant new series from YA Edgar Award nominee Elle Cosimano.
Finlay Donovan is killing it...except, she’s really not. 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 to her head.
When Finlay’s overheard discussing the plot of her new 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...and she soon discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart.
Review: Finlay Donovan is a newly single mom trying to juggle writing her next murder mystery along with her two kids, and her money troubles as well. Then her life gets a whole lot more complicated when she is overheard describing the plot of her crime novel to her agent over lunch and is mistaken as a contract killer and the woman wants to pay her to kill her husband! Together with her nanny turned accomplice, Finlay finds herself in a complex world of true crime that very mirrors, and then somehow becomes, her own murder mystery novels.
This was such a fun mix of hapless single mom and real suspense! This feels like an accidental version of the character Dexter from the TV show, in the sense that Finlay is also caught up in being paid to kill real life bad guys, but she got into the whole scheme very much by chance. I will say that while I was so curious to see what would happen and there are real crimes in this, it was not scary at all. It somehow feels like a comedy of errors, plus murder. I'm not usually a huge fan of thrillers because they seem implausible and why parts of this story did feel unlikely, it was such a fun spin on the normal crime fiction.
It worked so beautifully that Finlay is a crime novelist. Not only is this career how she gets caught up in real murder in the first place, but she uses her experiences to help her writing career. I also really liked that Finlay slowly dipping her toes back into dating was part of the plot. I'm so curious to see where her story will go in book two! This was ridiculous in the best possible way and was wonderful on audio.
Stars: 4
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