{"id":3933,"date":"2021-01-30T07:35:14","date_gmt":"2021-01-30T15:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=3933"},"modified":"2021-01-30T07:35:14","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T15:35:14","slug":"elle-cosimano-finlay-donovan-is-killing-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/elle-cosimano-finlay-donovan-is-killing-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Elle Cosimano: Finlay Donovan is Killing It"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This book, which opens amidst the morning chaos of a mother with two children, one of whom has just cut off part of her hair right before school, breezily catches the feel of young motherhood.\u00a0 It\u2019s exasperating, exhausting, and nerve wracking. Finlay drops the kids off at school as she heads to meet her book agent and deliver the bad news that the book she\u2019s supposed to turn in is nowhere near finished.<\/p>\n

On top of all this, Finlay\u2019s husband has left her for the cute realtor, his sod business is going full blast, and she has a mountain of bills to pay with no means to do so.\u00a0 Also, to spite her, her ex has let the baby sitter go.\u00a0 Things go poorly with her agent where they\u2019ve met for coffee, but a woman nearby, over hearing \u2013 and misinterpreting \u2013 their conversation (Finlay writes thrillers) leaves a mystery note on Finlay\u2019s table.\u00a0 The sum of $50,000 is mentioned and there\u2019s a phone number.<\/p>\n

Finlay is curious and she gives the woman a call: it turns out she wants Finlay to kill her husband in return for the $50,000.\u00a0\u00a0 This is a plot heavy book and the set up is clever and meticulous.\u00a0 Finlay actually considers killing the man, and begins to research him online, wondering just how bad a husband he could be.\u00a0 The wife appears to do nothing but work and volunteer at a pet shelter.<\/p>\n

So, that night, she dumps her kids with her sister (a cop, of all things) and goes to the bar where the man hangs out to scope him out, wearing the wig she uses as a disguise when she\u2019s in her author persona.\u00a0 She tells her sister she\u2019s doing \u201cresearch\u201d. Through a twisted series of events, she actually ends up with the man passed out in the back of her mom van.\u00a0 Not sure what to do next, she takes him home.<\/p>\n

The turn of events from here on in takes a leap of faith on the part of the reader.\u00a0 The man does end up dead \u2013 and it seems like Finlay is responsible, but her next decision, to get the babysitter (who turns up to collect her things while Finlay is in the garage) to help her bury him on her husband\u2019s sod farm seems like a terrible idea.<\/p>\n

Cosimano is an extremely accomplished and smooth storyteller and she puts the story across, forcing \u2013 yes, forcing \u2013 you to keep reading to find out what happens next.\u00a0 Her roots are in young adult fiction and it shows in the narrative style (i.e., very, very readable).\u00a0 Finlay is also an incredibly appealing character with relatable problems that most people have experienced.\u00a0 The problem of being assumed to be a hit woman is just the extra bit that makes this a novel.<\/p>\n

When another woman offers Finlay and the babysitter (they are now a team) $75,000 to kill her <\/em>husband, Finlay feels things have gone too far, but the babysitter takes the money.\u00a0 Desperate, Finlay takes the time while her kids are away for the weekend to turn the whole thing into her new book, which she then sends to her agent, who loves it.<\/p>\n

The rest of the story is a caperish dark comedy with lots of threads and clues (read carefully) and my initial worry that I was reading about, and bonding with, a murderer, was assuaged.\u00a0 It all seems like it could have happened, which, considering the fantastic story being told, is a real achievement on the part of the author.\u00a0 It was just the read a I needed on a grey January day.\u00a0 If you want a laugh as well as a change of pace, give this one a try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This book, which opens amidst the morning chaos of a mother with two children, one of whom has just cut off part of her hair right before school, breezily catches the feel of young motherhood.\u00a0 It\u2019s exasperating, exhausting, and nerve wracking. Finlay drops the kids off at school as she heads to meet her book … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5,485,499,500,484,100,498],"class_list":["post-3933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-americancozy","tag-caper","tag-elle-cosimano","tag-finlay-donovan","tag-humor","tag-minotaur-books","tag-young-mother"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3935,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3933\/revisions\/3935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}