Thursday, October 12, 2023

FINLAY DONOVAN ROLLS THE DICE Review

Author: Elle Cosimano
Series: Finlay Donovan #4
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Release Date: March 5, 2024
Preorder Link: Amazon

Many thanks to the publisher for an arc.

Review published in Mystery & Suspense Magazine

Review:
Finlay Donovan and crew are back in the most outrageously funny, sexy, fast paced story yet in FINLAY DONOVAN ROLLS THE DICE.   Author Elle Cosimano doesn’t miss a beat or trick in giving fans of the series all they’ve been clamoring for and then some in book four of the Finlay Donovan series.  Get ready to repeatedly laugh out loud while holding your breath in anticipation of the next fine mess these two hard luck ladies will inadvertently land in.  It’s never a matter of “if” but rather “when” another dead body will surface as Finlay and Vero entertain readers in another adventure of a lifetime.  They’re in Atlantic City, baby!  Let the good times and dice roll!

 Under the guise of a girl’s weekend away, Finlay and Vero plan to slip away in a desperate search for Vero’s guy Javi who’s been kidnapped by a loan shark willing to exchange him for the money Vero owes him.  Simple, right?  Not with these two self-appointed sleuths!  Before they can skip town, an entourage including Finlay’s mother and kids plus her annoying ex Steven pile into their rental to join their getaway.  It’s only a matter of hours after their arrival at a rundown hotel until Finlay and Vero break into the loan shark’s room and discover him and an accomplice dead.  They do what any responsible citizen would do . . . put the bodies on ice in the bathtub and start covering their tracks, of course!  Complicating an already stressful situation, they return to their seedy hotel to discover that Finlay’s crush hunky cop Nick and dirty partner Charlie plus Finlay’s sister and her cop lady friend have checked into rooms across the hall under the ruse of protecting Finlay and family from Russian mobster Feliks Zhirov.  In a matter of hours, a bad situation hits rock bottom with conflicting personalities, desires and motives clashing and more dead bodies surfacing.  The story that unfolds is a hysterical runaway train of impossible situations careening off the tracks as the twists and turns keep coming page after page.  Plan on reading straight through as there’s no more chance of you pausing reading than there is a prayer of stopping the train wreck happening on page.

 From start to finish, FINLAY DONOVAN ROLLS THE DICE is pure reading entertainment with fast-paced action, over the top suspense and slapstick style comedy reminiscent of the age-old antics of Lucy and Ethel fame.  If that’s not enough, it’s also sensuously sexy and steamy as affairs between Finlay and Nick heat up much to the delight of fans, but the despair of Steven who’s delusional in clinging to hope of a reconciliation with Finlay.  Cosimano excels at rendering visual scenes that draw readers into the story while charging them with figuring out how in the world these two seemingly doomed characters will worm their way out of another catastrophe resulting from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Highly entertaining, hilarious and heartwarming, FINLAY DONOVAN ROLLS THE DICE pushes all the right buttons for fans of the series.  While each book stands alone, I recommend beginning with book 1 and enjoy each subsequent title in turn.  You won’t regret getting to know these characters firsthand as the overall story arc unfolds from book to book.  This reader’s already looking forward to the next addition to the series and the convoluted adventures this duo will undoubtedly find themselves in.  Highly recommended to fans of the series and readers who enjoy a hardy laugh along with their suspense.

Synopsis:
Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero are in sore need of a girls’ weekend away. They plan a trip to Atlantic City, but odds are―seeing as it’s actually a cover story to negotiate a deal with a dangerous loan shark, save Vero’s childhood crush Javi, and hunt down a stolen car―it won’t be all fun and games. When Finlay’s ex-husband Steven and her mother insist on tagging along too, Finlay and Vero suddenly have a few too many meddlesome passengers along for the ride.

Within hours of arriving in their seedy casino hotel, it becomes clear their rescue mission is going to be a bust. Javi’s kidnapper, Marco, refuses to negotiate, demanding payment in full in exchange for Javi’s life. But that’s not all―he insists on knowing the whereabouts of his missing nephew, Ike, who mysteriously disappeared. Unable to confess what really happened to Ike, Finlay and Vero are forced to come up with a new plan: sleuth out the location of Javi and the Aston Martin, then steal them both back.

But when they sneak into the loan shark’s suite to search for clues, they find more than they bargained for―Marco's already dead. They don’t have a clue who murdered him, only that they themselves have a very convincing motive. Then four members of the police department unexpectedly show up in town, also looking for Ike―and after Finlay's night with hot cop Nick at the police academy, he’s a little too eager to keep her close to his side.

If Finlay can juggle a jealous ex-husband, two precocious kids, her mother’s marital issues, a decomposing loan shark, and find Vero’s missing boyfriend, she might get out of Atlantic City in one piece. But will she fold under the pressure and come clean about the things she’s done, or be forced to double down?

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