Thursday Thriller Audio: Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

I thought this series was insane before, but somewhere along the way, things took a turn for even more crazy and wildly over-the-top shenanigans. But to that I say, BRING IT ON! These books have gotten so incredibly entertaining that it’s hard to mind too much.

Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun is a continuation of our eponymous protagonist’s epic journey with writer’s block as she struggles to complete her overdue novel for her publisher while trying to raise two kids on her own. On top of that, she is now in debt to the Russian mob after they helped save her ex-husband, and as they like to remind her, she’s not off the hook just because mob boss Feliks Zhirov is in prison. After all, he’s still capable of pulling all the strings behind bars and knows exactly how Finlay can repay the favor owed to him.

Lately, a contract killer only known by their online handle “EasyClean” has been causing problems for Feliks, and the person may secretly even be a police officer. Given Finlay’s closeness to hot cop Nick and the fact that her sister is also on the force, she may be in the perfect position to squirrel out this mysterious assassin. Together with Vero, her nanny and partner-in-crime, they sign up for the police academy’s citizens program in the hopes of sleuthing out the identity of the contract killer. It’s also a win-win situation for Finlay who gets to tell her excited agent that it’s part of the research for her next book, not to mention being at the academy is probably the safest place she and Vero can be while hiding from the mob.

Or is it? What follows next is a hilarious and thrilling week of police training for our characters which include learning how to fire a gun, make an arrest, secure a crime scene, and more—all the while trying to figure out who the mysterious EasyClean might be. But although the plot is humorous, I wouldn’t go quite as far as calling it cozy. Finlay is under a tight deadline in more ways than one, and the consequences of disappointing Feliks would be dire. It also turns out that Vera has a secret and hasn’t been entirely honest with our protagonist about her past.

Then on the lighter side of things, we have the romance. For the last couple of books Finlay’s love life has been a mess, and not going lie, but it was something of a relief to see that the series has finally settled its focus on her and Nick. Let’s face it, the love triangle with Julian thrown into the mix (or even a love square if you count her ex-husband Steven?) would have gotten old and annoying rather quickly. Because these character threads are clearly ongoing and their relationships evolving, I would also recommend against reading these books as standalones because you will be missing a lot, but when they’re this much fun, why wouldn’t you want to start at the beginning?

That being said, I hope the next book will bring some closure to the current arc because I can see there being only so much craziness you can throw at the series before even the fun gets stale. In fact, it might even force the plot into becoming even more ridiculously far-fetched, more unbelievable and extreme, and we all know how too much of a good thing can be bad. Case in point, although I had a great time with Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun, out of the three books so far, admittedly this one also felt the weakest. While the police academy idea was a stroke of comic genius, it limited Finlay and Vera’s involvement and the potential of the plot by putting them into a holding pattern, in contrast to the previous books where the prevailing feeling was that everything was unexpected and that anything goes.

Still, at the end of the day, Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun leaves readers with a satisfying conclusion, but there is still the greater mystery to be solved. I’m very eager to find out what happens next. Once again, much credit goes to narrator Angela Dawe for giving voice to our protagonist and making the audiobook a blast to listen to, and I would not hesitate to continue the series in audio.

7 Comments on “Thursday Thriller Audio: Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano”

todd
January 19, 2023, 5:39 PM

For some reason this brought to mind the Police Academy movies. 🙂

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- Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum
  February 15, 2023, 1:57 PM
  
  OMG you’re not the only one! I love those movies, I found the series recently on one of my streaming subscriptions (can’t remember which one…Netflix maybe?) and binged watched them all again!
  
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Melliane
January 20, 2023, 5:58 AM

I heard a lot about this author but never tried her books

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blodeuedd
January 22, 2023, 12:12 PM

I like all over crazy 😉

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Lashaan Balasingam @ Roars and Echoes
January 23, 2023, 4:45 PM

Despite it being a weaker installment, I’m glad to read that it wasn’t so bad in the end. I hope the next one will be better! Great honest thoughts. 🙂

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- Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum
  February 15, 2023, 1:59 PM
  
  Thank you! Generally I don’t mind if a book like this is just a little weaker, they’re meant to be entertaining and as long as I have fun, I say mission accomplished :
  
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