Finlay Donovan is Killing It - Elle Cosimano

I was looking for something lighter for this month's book. In my search I came across this book, which is the first in a series of mysteries. It seemed like a great choice for a summer read!

Finlay Donovan is Killing It follows Finlay, a newly divorced single mother of two and author, who frankly does not have her shit together. The opening scene is Finlay trying to feed her kids breakfast before her nanny shows up so she can get to a meeting with her editor. Breakfast goes horribly wrong. Her daughter Delia has cut a chunk out of her hair, is bleeding, and is now demanding Finlay reattach it with duct tape. Her son Zachary is crying and throwing food on the floor. After hearing nothing from her nanny, Vero, she calls her ex-husband Steven who informs her that Vero has quit. Finlay panics and convinces Steven to take care of the kids. Then she duct tapes Delia's hair back on and jams a hat on her head, leaving Zachary's full diaper for Steven to deal with. This is the type of situation Finlay regularly finds herself in.

When Finlay finally gets to her meeting with her agent, she has a diaper bag containing a blood covered burp cloth used on Delia's head, which contributes to a misunderstanding that drives the story. Finlay writes suspense novels and makes a few comments that could be misconstrued to mean she might work as a contract killer. After her agent leaves, a woman, Patricia Mickler, drops a note on the table requesting her services. Finlay is confused and curious. But as she vows to herself not to get involved, we can pretty clearly see she is going to get involved.

That evening, Finlay goes to a bar to find Patricia's husband Harris, so she can figure out why Patricia wants him dead. She uses a wig scarf (what the heck is a wig scarf??) as a disguise and meets a very cute bartender named Julian. Next thing you know she tells Julian that her name is Theresa and she spots Harris. We soon learn that he is not a good person and is blackmailing women with pictures of them in compromising positions. Finlay prevents a woman from being drugged by spilling a Bloody Mary on her and then drugs Harris instead. Rather than leave him in the bar, she gets him outside into her van. She has no idea where to go so ends up at her house. After pulling into the garage and running inside to call her sister to beg her to keep watching her kids, she returns to the van to find Harris dead. Thinking she is the caused Harris's death by carbon monoxide, she is now trying to figure out what to do with the body. While she is panicking, Vero shows up to get her stuff and instead of calling the police, offers to help.

The pair bury Harris at Steven's sod farm and while Finlay hopes she is done with contract killing, Vero has plans to expand the business. Another contract comes in quickly, which Finlay refuses. Unfortunately the next woman won't let her refuse and keeps offering more money.

Meanwhile the police have gotten wind of the missing Harris Mickler and are investigating. Finlay slowly realizes she didn't kill Harris, but in order to keep herself out of prison, she needs to figure out who the killer is. She has a lot of possible suspects in the women he was blackmailing, but investigating them will take time. To make it more complicated, her police officer sister sends over a single and cute police officer, Nick, to help Finlay with her novel. Of course Nick is on the Mickler case and he gets too close for comfort. Finlay is certain she and Vero will end up in prison if she doesn't solve the case.

Interspersed is a love triangle with Finlay, Julian, and Nick. But Nick is getting very close to finding out what happened to Harris, so Finlay needs to be careful!

I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but since I mentioned this is a series, I'm sure you can gather that Finlay doesn't end up in jail!

We enjoyed this book. I thought it had a similar feeling to the Stephanie Plum series, an incompetent lead character with enough luck to survive, and a love triangle to keep it interesting. Finlay is very clearly incompetent, not just with solving a mystery, but also with life in general. There were more than a few times that I wanted to tell her to get it together! At times it was funny, but there were definitely some frustrating moments that made it hard to relate to her.

Finlay made a lot of dumb moves, like sending her agent her notes detailing Harris's disappearance. Then there was the time she got trapped in Theresa's house and Vero had to save her. She just did not think things through. Of course in both instances things worked out to her advantage, the agent loved her new book and she got out of Theresa's house unscathed for an afternoon with Nick.

Our favourite character was Vero. She was Finlay's nanny until Steven fired her when she refused his advances. But she quickly came to Finlay's aide in hiding a body and then agreed to become a live in nanny. She is the one who cleaned up after Finlay's incompetence. We especially enjoyed when Vero put Steven in his place and took away the house key so he had to respect some boundaries. Vero and Finlay's relationship was probably the best one in the book. It turned into a very supportive friendship.

The mix-up at the restaurant drove the whole story, but I had questions....why did Finlay go to the bar? Why did she bring Harris back to her van, why not just leave him at the bar? Of course Jen helpfully pointed out that if Finlay hadn't gone to the bar there would not have been a story. I grudgingly accepted that point.

We both enjoyed the different plot twists in the book, but to avoid any spoilers, I'll leave those for you to find and enjoy on your own.

All in all, this was an enjoyable book. And for the record, I'm on Team Nick!

Susan - 📘📘📘📘