Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

I think I may have found my latest “I did not expect to have this much fun reading this” book, because Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano was exactly the kind of ridiculous and fast-paced read I needed right now.

Finlay Donovan is a struggling novelist, a recently divorced mom, and someone who is barely keeping her life together while trying to finish her next book. During a meeting with her agent at a restaurant, she is overheard discussing the plot of her novel, which involves a woman hiring someone to kill her husband. The problem is that the person listening assumes Finlay is actually a contract killer, and before she knows what is happening, she has been offered money to take care of an actual husband.

From there, things go completely off the rails.

I love a good premise that immediately makes you think, “Okay, how the hell is this going to work?” and this one totally delivered on that front. Finlay is not some criminal mastermind who suddenly decides to enter the world of organized crime; she is essentially a normal woman who keeps finding herself in increasingly ridiculous situations and then making decisions that somehow make everything worse. Her attempts to untangle herself from the mess are half the fun, particularly because every solution seems to create another problem.

And listen, I love me a good mob tie-in.

Give me a little organized crime, some questionable characters, people who clearly know more than they are saying, and a protagonist who has absolutely no business being anywhere near any of it, and I’m probably going to keep reading. The mob element gives the story enough danger to keep the stakes moving, while Finlay’s personal life provides plenty of humor and chaos outside of the criminal side of the story.

Was everything completely unpredictable? Absolutely not. There were moments when I could see where things were headed, and some of the twists did not exactly knock me out of my chair. But I also didn’t care that much because I was having too much fun watching Finlay get herself into one ridiculous situation after another. Sometimes I don’t need a thriller to have me questioning every sentence for hidden clues. Sometimes I just want the plot to move, the characters to make questionable decisions, and the consequences to pile up.

That is where this book really worked for me. It has enough mystery and suspense to keep you turning the pages, but it never takes itself so seriously that the absurdity becomes frustrating. Finlay is messy, impulsive, overwhelmed, and constantly operating several steps behind everyone else, which makes her feel much more entertaining than the perfectly competent protagonists who always seem to know exactly what they are doing.

I also enjoyed the combination of the crime storyline with Finlay’s very real problems as a single mom and struggling writer. Her life is already complicated before the possibility of murder enters the picture, and watching those two worlds collide creates a lot of the book’s humor. She is trying to keep her kids taken care of, figure out her career, navigate her divorce, and somehow avoid becoming involved in an actual murder investigation, all while trying to convince herself that she has everything under control.

Spoiler alert: She does not.

This is also one of those books where I can completely understand why it has turned into a series. The premise gives Cosimano plenty of room to keep escalating the chaos, and Finlay is the kind of character who can find trouble almost anywhere. I am definitely interested in seeing where she goes from here, particularly because I have a feeling her involvement with the criminal world is only going to become more complicated.

If you are looking for a book that takes a little bit of mystery, a little bit of crime, a healthy dose of dark humor, and throws an extremely unprepared woman into the middle of it all, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is a really fun choice. It is not the kind of thriller where I spent the entire time trying to figure out who the killer was, and it didn’t need to be. This one is much more about enjoying the increasingly ridiculous journey and wondering how Finlay is possibly going to get herself out of the next mess.