Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead
Finlay Donovan series #2. Mystery, comedy. Can be read as a standalone bit better as part of the series in order.
Finlay Donovan is struggling to finish her next novel and survive single motherhood. Then she finds out there is a contract out on her ex husband and while she certainly doesn’t want him back, her children deserve to have a father in their lives. Soon Finlay is juggling the Russian mob, a hot cop, a pushy book editor, a nanny keeping secrets, and another dead body to deal with.

Amusing, and fun antics by Finlay and Vero as they figure out how to save Steven and not get caught with a body in their trunk. Same unbelievable adventure style as the first book but with enough unique situations to not be just a repeat. Even a few laugh out loud moments. ( )

I think this book was a fun read. I think it was a rather quick listen!! I think the concept of the first book was my favorite in this series but this book ending did really suprise me and i really liked the ending. I thought this book was fun and really liked seeing the twists and turns but as always in cozy mysteries i sometimes find myself yelling at the characters. but it was a fun listen!! ( )

I think this book was a fun read. I think it was a rather quick listen!! I think the concept of the first book was my favorite in this series but this book ending did really suprise me and i really liked the ending. I thought this book was fun and really liked seeing the twists and turns but as always in cozy mysteries i sometimes find myself yelling at the characters. but it was a fun listen!! ( )

I read ‘Finlay Donovan Is Killing It’, the first book in this series back in April. I was so taken by the quirky humour and the clever way Elle Cosimano turned the bizarre events that lead Finlay Donovan to become an accidental hit-woman into a successful, if more than a little clichéd, romance novel that Donovan is writing, that I picked up the next book and dived in.

Of course, the second book had lost the advantage that the first book had, of being a startling idea and a fresh and bold conceit. This time I knew what to expect and I wondered whether there would be enough there to make the second book worthwhile. I was pleased to find that the second book was just as much fun.

Elle Cosimano had come up with another way to complicate Finlay Donovan’s life and to have her and her friend, Vero at risk. Finlay discovers that someone is trying to place a contract to kill Finlay’s ex-husband – something Finlay can’t reveal to the police without revealing all the illegal things she did in book one. She also becomes aware that complications with Vero’s past are catching up with them and may make things worse.

I liked that Finlay was more grown up in this book and didn’t do her annoying headless chicken act.

The book is easy to read, with short functional sentences that don’t feel sparse but don’t slow things down any either. The humour is still there and still works and the plot has the ‘I can’t look away from this’ appeal of watching the fall of a set of dominos that have been laid out in a complex and improbable pattern that you won’t be able to see until they’re all down.

What I liked most were the exchanges between Finlay and her agent. Finlay, under pressure to produce her next book, is again translating the bizarre events of her life into a novel. As she and her agent discuss the pitch for the book, Elle Cosimano has some fun exposing the kind of ‘which tropes will sell the best?’ conversations that I assume she must have had with her editors. For example: should Finlay keep the hot cop AND the young lawyer or make her character choose between them? What amused me most about this was that she was explaining to me the clichés the book I was reading was based on and then still managed to twist those clichés into something fresh enough to be fun. ( )

Embarrassed to say how much I enjoy this series. ( )