In the third installment of Finlay Donovan’s story, she is still trying to figure out who contract killer EasyClean is—and she has to figure it out fast before mob boss Feliks gets impatient and takes it out on her. Plus, we’re finally getting a little more insight into her sidekick/nanny/accountant, Vero, which I’m excited about because I really like that character.

Author and single mom Finlay Donovan has been in messes before―after all, she’s a pro at removing bloodstains for various unexpected reasons―but none quite like this. When Finlay and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero accidentally destroyed a luxury car that they had “borrowed” in the process of saving the life of Finlay’s ex-husband, the Russian mob did her a favor and bought the car for her. And now Finlay owes them.

Mob boss Feliks is still running the show from behind bars, and he has a task for Finlay: find and identify a contract killer before the cops do. The problem is, the killer might be an officer themself.

Luckily, hot cop Nick has just been tasked with starting up a citizen’s police academy, and combined pressure from Finlay’s looming book deadline and Feliks is enough to convince Finlay and Vero to get involved. Through firearm training and forensic classes (and some hands-on research with a tempting detective), Finlay and Vero use their time in police academy to sleuth out the real contract killer to free themselves from the mob’s clutches―all the while dodging spies, confronting Vero’s past, and juggling the daily trials of parenthood.

I haven’t reviewed a series back-to-back-to-back before, and I’m finding it very hard to make the reviews different because often my issues with the book continue into the next one. So I’m going to keep this short and sweet. This is my favourite book of the series so far—which seems to be unlike the consensus I see on Goodreads, but here I am. I really liked that this book was mostly isolated at the police academy. It made some of the decisions that Finlay makes make a little more sense—and is a good reason to keep her kids out of her hair for a large portion of it (her motherhood is a bit problematic for me, if you’ve read my other reviews). I liked that there were few outside distractions, that we got to know the police officers a little better and that I once again didn’t expect things to end the way they did. This one kept my interest and I flew through it. I sort of wish it was the end, but there’s at least one more in the series—and that’s up next!

4 STARS

“It was the first time I saw the glimmer of a detective inside them, and I hoped he hadn’t seen the glimmer of a criminal in mine.” —Elle Cosimano, Finlay Donovan Jumps The Gun