Finlay Donovan is stuck. Her latest novel has been rejected by her publisher until she adds more spice to the parts that need the spice. When her lead character and the hot cop finally find themselves alone on a beach together, she has a tsunami hit from out of nowhere. She just can’t figure out how to write the romance between these two characters. But she needs to. She and her nanny/accountant Veronica need the money.
Vero has been accused of stealing money from a sorority where she went to college, and she claims that she’s innocent. But that didn’t stop her from going to Atlantic City to borrow money from a loan shark to try to win the amount she had supposedly stolen. However, that plan didn’t go so well, and now she owes $250 thousand to a man who is not interested in setting up a payment plan.
The Russian mobster who has been keeping an eye on her work, Feliks, is somehow up-to-date even on Vero’s financial woes, so he sends his attorney to help Finlay and Vero out when they create a mess at Vero’s cousin’s auto salvage yard. A mobster may have been chasing them and got caught under a stack of car chassis. Before Finlay and Vero could decide what to do, Feliks’ attorney had shown up with a cadre of cleaners to help out and to offer them a large cash incentive to complete one small task for Feliks. All they have to do is find out who is the contract killer going by EasyClean and take care of him. Or her. That’s all.
The problem? Finlay and Vero don’t know who EasyClean is. They’ve been trying to figure that out ever since Finlay found out that EasyClean had agreed to kill her ex-husband by someone who had posted the job on a suburban mom message board. But a hot tip has them thinking the killer could be someone on the police force, so when the opportunity comes up to spend a week at citizen’s police academy, they sign up. The classes and activities can help Finlay with the romantic suspense books she writes, and maybe spending a week close to hot cop Nick will help her write her find the right spice blend for her bland scenes.
Of course, it could also put them in the sights of a contract killer who may still want her out of the way. Figuring out who EasyClean is could make them a threat to her (his?) business, but not figuring out who EasyClean is will definitely make a dangerous Russian mobster angry. What’s a suburban mom supposed to do to keep her two young kids safe, protect her accountant/nanny from the hands of an increasingly desperate loan shark, shield her ex-husband from those who want him dead, rewrite her latest novel, and find love with a hot cop? Well, whatever that is, Finlay is going to have to figure it out very quickly.
Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun is the third novel in this quirky series that follows a mom into a dangerous underground community of contract killers, mobsters, dirty cops, and degenerate ex-husbands. Author Elle Cosimano blends humor, action, and romance with fun twists and lovely surprises to tell the story of a woman who stumbled into danger and has had to use her wits to keep herself and her family safe ever since.
I think Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun should come with a warning label. I read a lot, but I also have some attention issues. I tend to read a few pages and then check my emails or get a snack or whatever. I would read a few pages of this one, and suddenly 30 or 40 minutes were gone. If you’re cooking or doing laundry or needing to stop at some point to pick your kids up, then set a timer for yourself, or if you’re anything like me, you’ll get lost in the book until something big pulls you out of the action. I loved the idea of the citizen’s police academy, and I felt like the pacing of this book, the timing of the actions, and the moments of humor and romance were perfect. I would not change a single thing about this book. I loved every second of it.
Egalleys for Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun were provided by Minotaur Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.
