Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice 

• Author: Elle Cosimano
• Genre: Mystery
• Publication Date: March 5, 2024
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Series: Finlay Donovan #4

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

From New York Times bestseller Elle Cosimano comes Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice―the fiercely anticipated next installment in the beloved Finlay Donovan series.

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?

I have dearly missed having Finlay and Vero and all of their shenanigans in my life, bringing chaos and excitement with them. Seriously though, this series has brought so much enjoyment to my life, and it now feels like these two are friends that I get to tag along with for a while every now and then. Naturally, I was thrilled to jump into this book and see what these two have gotten themselves into now.

What I discovered was that Finlay and Vero picked up immediately where they left off in the last book, and somehow managed to get themselves into the biggest mess yet. And just to make things a little more interesting, they find themselves on an impromptu road trip to Atlantic City with Finlay’s mother, her ex-husband Steven, and her two young children who are borderline feral. But wait, there’s more … because a certain hot detective shows up with a few law enforcement buddies to add some extra tension to the story.

I have to admit that part of the draw of these books is the ridiculous, over-the-top fiascos that Finlay and Vero find themselves in on a regular basis. There’s at least one situation that occurs in each book that never feels believable, like two petite women being able to move the bodies of full-grown men, but honestly, the entire storyline of any of the books in the series would be about as likely to happen in real life as a petite woman being able to move the dead body of a full-grown man. But that’s what makes the series so charming to me, that I can willingly suspend my disbelief and lose myself in a silly, fluffy book.

The other draw, for me, is seeing Finlay’s character evolve throughout the series. She’s so much more confident and assertive than she was when we met her in book 1, and she seems to be able to juggle life’s stressors better. I wanted to shout a cheer for her when she learned how to stand up to Steven, since he has spent three previous books kind of walking all over her and not really doing much when it comes to being a dad. I’m hoping that he has learned his lesson and makes some changes in the next book. And while Steven hasn’t shown much growth, the relationship between Finlay and Vero seems to be rock solid and as full as trust as ever, drawing them closer with every illegal act that they find themselves mired in.

I’m a sucker for a good, fast-paced book with plenty of action and lots of humor, and I know that a Finlay Donovan book is going to give me that. I found myself laughing out loud often while reading, and the fast pace of the story started early, and kept up right until the end. There were plenty of characters from earlier in the series that made appearances, some good guys, some bad guys, and we got to meet some new characters too, but they’re all so distinct that I never found it difficult to keep them straight in my head. 

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It gave me a little more insight into Vero, but it still left me frustrated at how rash she was at times. She jumped into situations and made things worse more than once, and I wanted to reach into my kindle and shake her, and I had to remind myself that she was acting on her emotions rather than logic. Other than that, I loved how this story included a little bit of other genres: themes from women’s literature in the relationship between Finlay and Vero and Finlay’s journey towards standing up for herself against Steven, romance in the slow-burn relationship between Finlay and Detective Nick Anthony, and now that I think about it, they’re reminiscent of the Stephanie Plum novels in a lot of ways. This is a book that I can wholeheartedly recommend, with a caveat: these books are better when read in order, since you’ll be lost if you don’t.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission, at no cost to you, if you purchase through my links. You can purchase this book through Amazon by clicking the image below.