Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun, a review by Sherry

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Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun
Elle Cosimano

8 hours and 38 minutes
MacMilllan Audio
301 pages
St. Martin’s Press
published January 31, 2023

Amazon | Goodreads

I think she is my new feel good author.  I switched back and forth between reading and listening to this one and it really lightened my mood every time I picked up one of the versions.  While definitely being modernized, it gives me the same feeling the early Stephanie Plum books did.  My only complaint is that the book ends by starting the next adventure and I need to wait another year to read it.

I’d describe this one as a quasi cozy mystery filled with a lot of humor.  Finlay and Vero are both likable characters with enough flaws to make them real.  And they cannot stay out of trouble for very long.  Finlay kind of reminds me of Lucy from I Love Lucy, if Lucy kept accidentally killing people.  The storyline is on the edge of what is plausible, but that is also what sets up a lot of the humor.  The supporting cast of characters are quirky and memorable and both of Ms. Donovan’s suitors appear in this latest installment.

Angela Dawe nails the narration of the book and kept me in stitches as I listened. 

I am always jumping into a series in the middle, but since these books are almost continuations of the previous book, I’d start this series at the beginning.



About the book

Finlay Donovan has been in messes before—after all, she’s an author and single mom who’s a pro at getting out bloodstains for rather unexpected reasons—but none quite like this. After she and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero accidentally destroyed a luxury car that they may have “borrowed” in the process of saving the life of Finlay’s ex-husband, the Russian mob got her out of debt. But now Finlay owes them.

 

Still running the show from behind bars, mob boss Feliks has a task for Finlay: find a contract killer before the cops do. Problem is, the killer might be an officer.

 

Luckily, hot cop Nick has started up a citizen’s police academy, and combined pressure from Finlay’s looming book deadline and Feliks is enough to convince Finlay and Vero to get involved. Through firearm training and forensic classes (and some hands-on research with the tempting detective), Finlay and Vero have the perfect cover-up to sleuth out the real criminal and free themselves from the mob’s clutches—all the while dodging spies, confronting Vero’s past, and juggling the daily trials of parenthood.

 

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