Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars rounded up**
Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice is the highly-anticipated 4th-installment to Elle Cosimano’s Finlay Donovan Cozy Mystery series, featuring my favorite gal pals, Finlay and Vero!
When Finlay and Vero mention they need a Girls Weekend, people think rest, relaxation, that the women need to let their hair down. After the events at the Citizen’s Police Academy, it wouldn’t be surprising if they needed a break.
This is Finlay and Vero though, so you know there’s more to it than that. What they’ve really got planned is negotiating with a loan shark, rescuing Vero’s childhood crush, Javi, and finding a stolen luxury car.
Getting away won’t be so easy though. After Finlay’s mother hears about the Girls Weekend to Atlantic City, she insists on going. They’ll need help with the kids and she’s a girl too. She wants in.
Then Steven, Finlay’s ex-husband, gets word of the trip and insists that Finlay cannot take the kids over a state border without his permission, which he’s not giving, but he’s willing to go along.
Thus begins the most hilarious road trip from hell.
They check into a seedy casino hotel, two rooms of course, and Finlay and Vero get to work right away. It’s tricky, but they don’t have a lot of time.
After negotiations with the loan shark, Marco, fail, the gals have to move on to Plan B. They’ll just have to find the whereabouts of Javi and the Aston Martin themselves, using nothing but their phenomenal sleuthing skills.
They figure out where Marco’s suite is and decide to break in to search for clues. I mean, obviously, right!?
Unfortunately, they discover much more than they bargained for in that suite; Marco’s dead body. With police circling like birds of prey, Finlay and Vero need to stay out of their sights, find Javi and get the heck out of dodge before they get accused of killing Marco themselves.
Y’all, I had so much fun with this. First of all, I was stoked to be back with this outrageous cast of characters. I love Finlay and Vero with my whole heart, but it’s not just them. All the side characters are wildly entertaining as well.
The way this one kicked off, with the road trip to Atlantic City, was hilarious. Just how the girls thought they could get away real quick and do what they needed to do, and the next thing you know, we’ve got two rambunctious kids, a opinionated mother and a jerk of an ex-husband in tow.
Then Marco’s hotel room. OMG, I was laughing out loud, exclaiming things. I couldn’t believe how much they were bumbling up that crime scene. It was hilarious.
And people kept showing up! Like, oh, now Nick is here!? I loved that, how even though the setting had changed, we still ended up having the full cast of wacky characters.
I absolutely adored the Atlantic City setting. It’s absurd how many opportunities for hi-jinks they had there. I was living for every minute of it.
This is an extremely strong addition to the series. At this point, my level of attachment for these characters is off the charts and this is one of my favorite mysteries so far.
Overall, Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice is another well-plotted, explosive, uproarious, utterly ridiculous adventure with Finlay and friends. 100% recommend to Readers who have enjoyed other books in this series.
If you haven’t started the series yet, but enjoy Cozy Mysteries full of OTT-humor and wild escapades, you definitely should give it a go.
I have listened to the audiobooks for the last three and have loved that format so much. The narration is perfect, A++!!!
Thank you so very much to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I love this series and hope that it continues for a long, long time!
