Note: Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and author Elle Cosimano for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

I’ve been a fan of the zany-woman-in-over-her-head-with-a-murder genre since I read my first Stephanie Plum novel more than twenty years ago. I’ve found that they can be a lot of fun, even if I end up rolling my eyes in disbelief. Elle Cosimano has written young adult books up until this point and Finlay Donovan is Killing It is her first book aimed at an adult audience.

Finlay Donovan’s life is a disaster. Her ex-husband left her for Theresa, a blonde real estate agent, and is seeking custody of their two young children. Finlay is an author and although she has an agent, she hasn’t met with much success just yet. She thanks God every time her minivan actually starts and has to call Steve, the ex-husband, to get the electricity turned back on when it’s shut off.

On a morning when everything seems to be going wrong, Finlay meets with her agent at a local Panera Bread. She’s coming up with a deadline for an advance for a book she’s already received (and spent), and she hasn’t written anything yet. Over coffee, she rattles off an idea for a plot and is overheard by a woman sitting nearby, who mistakes Finlay for a contract killer and offers her $50,000 to take out her husband.

The book follows Finlay as she wavers about whether she wants to kill him or not. The money is so tempting, and she finds out he’s not such a nice guy. Still, the thought of murdering someone in cold blood doesn’t sit so well with her, until it happens. Did she accidentally cause his death? Or was there someone else involved?

Finlay Donovan is Killing It is a rather convoluted tale, but it’s a fun one. I could sympathize with Finlay, although I think any divorce court would have given her a much better deal. She’s getting a raw deal from her ex-husband and is overwhelmed with what life is throwing at her. Fifty thousand dollars could mean she gets to keep her kids. Steven fired their nanny, Vero, who shows up at Finlay’s house to collect her things and becomes involved in the murder for hire. Vero is the buddy Finlay needs to prod her along, as well as help her get her life together. When Vero uses the down payment to pay off all of Finlay’s bills, there’s no looking back.

There’s some romance as Finlay is set up by her sister, who is a police officer, with another police officer who just happens to be working on the case of a missing local couple. The wife is the woman who hired Finlay and she knows where the husband is. There’s a lot of tension here. At the same time, Finlay meets a bartender who is studying law and who has a sympathetic ear. Both men are hot and Finlay is single.

It took a while to figure out what happened as there were many red herrings along the way. I had many different suspects, and it didn’t help that the victim in question had ties to the Russian mob. The story was fun to follow, though, and it wasn’t so outrageous that I found it unbelievable. Finlay has a good heart, she’s just in a very rough spot at this point in time. From the beginning to the end of the book, there’s a transformation in her as she gains confidence in herself, which she lost when her husband left her.

This is the first book in a series where all of the books were offered to me as advanced reader copies. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series. As the first adult fiction book of Elle Cosimano, it’s quite good and a lot of fun.

Next book in the series: