Review by Booklist Review
Finlay Donovan, a single mother, mystery writer, and erstwhile contract killer (it was an accident!), thinks that things might finally be looking up. Sure, she's got writer's block again and a novel due, but her nanny and partner-in-crime, Vero, has invested the money from their last, uh, excursion outside the law, and Finlay has both a hot cop and a young lawyer vying for her affections. Then she stumbles across a message board where someone has put out a hit on her ex-husband. Finlay may not want a life with Stephen anymore, but she can't just sit by while someone takes his away. And so she finds herself once again venturing into a seedy underworld, dodging the Russian mob (and that hot, way-too-interested cop) as she poses as a hired assassin in an attempt to thwart actual attempts on Stephen's life. Cosimano builds on Finlay Donovan Is Killing It (2021) for another rollicking adventure in which the tribulations of single parenthood feel just as high stakes as the attempted murders. A sharp, slick sequel.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Cosimano's diverting sequel to 2021's Finlay Donovan Is Killing It finds Virginia novelist Finlay Donovan still struggling to raise her two small children, manage her ex-husband Steven's demands, and power through an early draft of a new book. She's also balancing the attentions of two impossibly handsome suitors, one a law student and the other a police detective. Through postings in an online forum, Finlay suspects that someone using the moniker FedUp has put a hit out on Steven. Her friend Vero soon discovers that another person in the group, EasyClean, may have accepted the offer, and Finlay and Vero set out to discover who might want Steven dead. Tangling with Russian mobsters is just one obstacle they face. Newcomers may be frustrated, especially at the beginning since much of the plot carries over from Finlay Donovan Is Killing It. And much like in that book, Finlay makes decisions that strain credibility and common sense, but that's part of what makes the series such fun. Fans of wacky, offbeat mysteries will eagerly await Finlay's further exploits. Agent: Sarah Davies, Greenhouse Literary. (Feb.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Having broken into the adult market with the attention-getting Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, multi-award-winning YA author Cosimano brings back her heroine for another round of zany mayhem in suburban Virginia. Single-mom suspense writer Finlay is again trying to complete a novel, supported by beloved live-in nanny Vero, when she learns that someone wants to do in her ex-husband. Russian mobsters? Gun-toting soccer mamas? All in a day's work for Finlay. With a 100,000-copy first printing.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Fresh from a debut in which she kept getting offered money to kill people who then fortuitously died, novelist Finlay Donovan goes another round with murder most absurd. Somebody besides Finn must be unhappy with her ex, sod farmer Steven Donovan, because a message-board poster identifying herself only as FedUp broadly hints that she'd pay $100,000 to anyone who'd dispose of him. As Finn looks on in virtual horror, another poster, EasyClean, accepts the proposition. Run ragged as she already is by the usual domestic problems--caring for her two small children, juggling hot law student Julian Baker and Nicholas Anthony, the Fairfax County detective who's still interested in her despite what she put him through in Finlay Donovan Is Killing It (2021), struggling to get started on her next suspense novel--Finn tries to rescue Steven, who deserves execration but not execution, by hiring a teenage network expert named Cam to identify EasyClean. When Cam comes up empty, the only other thing Finn can think of is to volunteer to do the hit herself for half the price. Unfortunately, she makes her cut-rate offer using a public Wi-Fi connection, exposing herself and her nanny/sidekick, endlessly resourceful accounting student Veronica Ruiz, to all manner of perils. The discovery that the message board is secretly owned by Feliks Zhirov, the mobster Finn's last adventure ended up sending to prison, just increases the riotous complications. Long after everything has apparently spiraled out of control or even comprehension, the author springs one last revelation that, if it doesn't pull everything together, goes a long way toward justifying the bumpy ride. Given the challenge of matching her first novel's gorgeous premise, Cosimano does a remarkable job. What next? Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
