Finley Donovan returns for another thrilling adventure, this time with her clever and resourceful friend Vero by her side. Together, they find themselves entangled in a web of murder and intrigue, all while juggling the chaotic demands of Finley's spirited 4-year-old and the mischievous antics of her 2-year-old, alongside a husband whose questionable activities only add to the drama. The strength of Finley and Vero's friendship shines through as they navigate these challenges, providing unwavering support to one another. The diverse and fascinating cast of characters that surrounds them adds depth and excitement to their journey, making each twist and turn even more captivating.

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for an advanced copy of Finley Donovan Digs her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano. This book publishes on March 4, 2025.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my copy of Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano in exchange for an honest review. It publishes March 4, 2025.
This was an excellent installment in this series, the character development was so good, and it definitely keeps me coming back for more!
I really enjoyed the overall mystery, and getting to know more of neighbors and friends was great! If you’ve enjoyed any of the other books in the series, you’ll love this one, too!

With the same infectious recipe of a Finlay Donovan novel. we fall back into another mystery when a dead body is found in her neighbors yard. I appreciated the consistency in the pacing and style that Cosimano has breathed into Finlay, it feels like we never truly left her in between books and is almost in the realm of a procedural! I really enjoyed Vero's one-liners in this book as well, overall a very good mystery to add for a mystery buff in your life.

✨Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano- 4⭐️

The 5th book of the Finlay Donovan series is such a fun, witty, fast-paced thriller. I love every book of this series and they always get me out of a reading slump. It gives Good Girls/Thelma and Louise vibes 💅🔪

Finlay is a single-mom of two young children who finds herself always tangled-up in the wrong side of the law with her nanny Vero. To add insult to injury, she’s dating a hot cop who knows she is hiding secrets.

In this book, a flood digs up a body in Finlay’s 80-year-old neighbor’s yard, her cheating ex-husband is blamed for the crime, and hilarity ensues when Finlay and Vero try to solve the case.

Make sure you pick this one up when it’s published on 3/4! And if you’re into audiobooks, Angela Dawe is fantastic!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, NetGalley, and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC.

Finlay Donovan is BACK! As always, I loved following on her crazy- if highly unrealistic- adventures. Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave feels like it has shifted tonally from the rest of the series in a way I didnt necessarily dislike. This new mystery opened to an underground society that I LOVED. SPOILER: Killer book club with each member using their special job and skill at each step is brilliant. I still don't particularly love Mrs. Haggerty but I am glad we got to spend so much time with her- she did some good for Finlay and Vero. Towards the end I was wondering what's going to be next and I don't think I'm ready for Vero's past to catch up with her.

I really enjoyed this Finlay Donovan installment and cannot wait for the next one!

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for an advanced copy of Finley Donovan Digs her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano. This book publishes on March 4, 2025.

The latest installment of the Finley Donovan series was yet again, a quick and fun read! In this book, we learn more about the nosy neighbor, Mrs. Haggarty, and we see more of our favorite characters. I’m excited to see where this series goes in the future!

#books #netgalley #finlaydonovan #mysteryreads

Title: Finlay Donovan Digs Her own Grave
Series: Finlay Donovan #5
Author: Elle Cosimano
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press-Minotaur Books
Genre: Mystery Thriller, Humor
Pub Date: March 4, 2025
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
Pages: 320

Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero have not been best friends with Fin’s neighbor Mrs. Haggerty; however, when a dead body shows up in Mrs. Haggerty backyard, our super sleuths know they have to help. Finlay didn’t realize that helping to find whodunit also included babysitting.
Mrs. Haggerty was in jail for a week and while she was gone her power was turned off plus her home is a crime scene so she decides she wants to stay at Finlay’s home. Yikes! (Hmmm, Perhaps Mrs. Haggerty can help potty-train Zach, Finlay's two year old son and then deal with Delia her five year old daughter who has been suspended from pre-school for beating up Cooper a classmate as he was pilling her hair and is an all-around mean boy!.)
Hmmm and then there is Book Club. I read a lot of thrillers so know there something suspicious going on!

Of course, everything gets worse when another body shows up and Steven, Finlay‘s ex-husband is a suspect.

I enjoyed this- in fact I liked it BEST in this fun series.
My only negative is the foul language. It is such a fun story and the foul language really isn’t necessary.
But as a faithful Finn reader, I have already put #6 on my TBR list. I don’t know the title but something along the lines of “The Extradition of the Babysitter or Who is Veronica Ramirez?”

Thank you NetGalley and Saint Martin’s Press ~Minotaur Books for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for March 4, 2025.

Finlay is back! I loved the 5th book in this cozy and entertaining mystery series. "Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave" kept me hooked from the start and I love the way it ended.

I enjoyed this one! This might be my second favorite in the Finlay Donovan (after the first). The book starts right where the last ended, and instead of traipsing through multiple locations, things are fairly limited to a neighborhood. I felt this made it easier to follow. There weren’t as many people to keep track of (which helps when listening to the book) though I did miss not having as much of Finlay’s sister.
While I thought the stories for all were coming to a close the very last sentence said there may yet be more in store.

Elle Cosimano does it again, Finlay and Vero are up to their own shenanigans yet again, but this time it's with nosy neighbor Mrs. Haggrity who is being accused of murder. Always hilarious and a great read!

4.5 ⭐️

How apropos that Janet Evanovich promotes this book on the cover~I have always said that these books were perfect for fans of her Stephanie Plum stories!

If you haven’t read any of the Finlay Donovan books yet- I do recommend that you read them in order-but you can click on my spoiler free review for the first book to get a hint of what to expect!
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3609201519

Each book ends with a cliffhanger, so we pick up right where we left off last time…

Finlay Donovan has just submitted her latest book-so she should have some time to relax, and maybe get to know her “hot cop boyfriend Nick” just a little bit better. But when a dead body is discovered in her nosy neighbor’s backyard, the neighbor-Mrs. Haggerty-will need Finlay and Vero’s help.

Initially, Mrs. Haggerty is the prime suspect.

Although SHE is quickly cleared by the police, her house, unfortunately, remains an active crime scene. With nowhere else to go she ends up moving into Finlay’s house temporarily-since she is right across the street-despite the fact that the two have not always seen eye to eye on things!

Instead of being a grateful guest, she is demanding grocery runs, and rides to her book club meetings, but she does chip in on home schooling and childcare while staying with Finlay and her scenes with Finlay’s children are some of the funniest in the book!

I have to admit, I haven’t had this much fun reading a Finlay Donovan book since the first one, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to continue the series. It had become too slapstick for me with all of the caricature mafia characters in books two through four-but once I heard that Mrs. Haggerty would be back-I was all in and she didn’t disappoint!
(She is a SCENE STEALER !)

As always-we have a cliffhanger at the end-so it does look like this series will continue…

I paired my reading with the AUDIOBOOK, as this is a series that I actually prefer LISTENING TO! 🎧

AVAILABLE MARCH 4, 2025

Thank You to St. Martin’s Press for the gifted copy provided through NetGalley. As always, these are my candid thoughts!

3.5⭐️

I've gone through a bit of a Finlay Donovan marathon recently and was so excited when I saw this on Netgalley! Considering Book 4 is my favorite of the series, I had high hopes for Book 5. Unfortunately this felt like one of the weaker books of the series for me.

I loved that we got to learn more about Mrs. Haggarty! Between her midnight neighborhood watch walks, her willingness to play (and enjoy) GTA with Cam, her ability to get Finlay's kids inline for lessons, and her very close knit book club, I feel like Mrs. H was really humanized in this book. We spend so much of this series just assuming she's a busybody with nothing else to do but she's proven on more than one occasion that she's who you want on your side during a problem.

I think ultimately the stakes felt a lot lower in this book and I got a little bored in the middle. And because the stakes were so low, it made the things I normally find annoying or unbelievable to be more obvious. Like Vero's shitty attitude all around and how bad Finlay is at telling everyone no. It also amazed me that even after all that has happened in this story that Fin talked to a cop (that's not Nick) without a lawyer even though Nick has already told her that the investigation has gotten to close to her. I did love that we got to see Julian again, though.

Thanks Netgalley and Minotaur Books for providing this ARC to me!

Finlay Donovan and her partner-in-crime, Vero, are no strangers to chaos, but they were hoping for a break from dead bodies—until one turns up in their nosy neighbor Mrs. Haggerty’s backyard. While she’s quickly cleared as a suspect, her house is still a crime scene, leaving her with nowhere to go but Finlay’s already hectic home. As much as Finlay and Vero want to avoid another murder investigation, trouble has a way of finding them, and this time, it’s right across the street.

Spending time with Finlay and Vero is like hanging out and drinking a glass of wine with your most chaotic but lovable friends. This book was fast-paced, filled with humor, mystery, and plenty of action—plus, that cliffhanger ending was something! The banter between all of the characters was as entertaining as ever. The story kept me hooked from start to finish, I finished it in one day. Picking up right after the fourth book, this one might just be my favorite in the series. A perfect mix of crime, romance, suspense, and fun!

I switched between reading and listening - I love the audio book of this and highly recommend listening!

Out on March 4, 2025! Thank you to the publisher @minotaur_books, @ellecosimano and @netgalley for an arc for an honest review!

Usually as a series goes on it becomes less and less appealing. This fifth book is just as good as the first. Elle Cosimano has done such a great job making her characters so likeable. With every book it is like I'm returning to visit old friends. I wish this series would be picked up as a movie series (preferably one starring Henry Cavill as Nick).
Thank you NetGalley for the advanced preview.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reader copy!
Always love a book that keeps your attention!
Good series!

I really love these books. I don't know how I found them to begin with (probably Kindle Unlimited) but I read the first three in less than a week and eagerly awaited the fourth, and now finally the fifth! This book tied up a lot of lose ends and answered some outstanding questions about Mrs. Haggerty. I also know it's a bit tropey, but I do really like how they always end up on a cliffhanger so you know there's another one coming soon. I really enjoyed getting to learn more about Mrs. Haggerty and I also love the fact that we always see the return of old characters like Patricia and some of the others. Really addictive and easy fun read.

Thank you to Minotaur for the ARC!

I have been one of the biggest fans of this series since book one! Book one is one of my all-time favorite books that I will always recommend to all audiences!

Since book one, I think some books have been great and some have been just okay. I think this one falls more into the "just okay" camp for me. As far as the plot itself goes, I never really felt any tension or felt like I HAD TO KNOW what was happening.

While it was fun to be back with these characters, I thought the story itself was just okay!

I'll continue to read these as long as she writes them, but I hope for more in the next couple books!

4.5 stars rounded up. Thank you to Netgalley and St Martins Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book was SO. MUCH. FUN.! I am a huge FD fangirl. and this one might be my new favorite in the series. Fin and Vero are back home after their adventures in Atlantic City, and they are expecting things to calm down and be quiet and peaceful - after all, what could possibly go wrong? Well, for starters Mrs. Haggerty is accused of a serious crime, and then ends up living in Finlay's house. Things spiral from there, and the story is a wild ride of murder, humor, car chases, hot cops, book agents, dogs and ... book club? The fun starts on page one and the action never stops. This is a must read for fans of the series. I won't say much more since this is part of a series, but I will say that ALL of your favorite characters from past books, along with a few unexpected ones, make appearances in this book. I am already counting down the days to the next installment in the series!

Finlay Donovan is back at it in this hilarious (and honestly heartwarming) fourth installment of the series.

I laughed out loud plenty of times during this quick read, and highly recommend to fans of the genre.

As usual, and so inconvenient, this is a book I can't put down once I start reading! Finlay and Vero get into the most interesting and complex situations even when minding their own business. Their nosy neighbor incites new drama when she moves in with them (uninvited) and reveals more aspects of her character than Carter has liver pills. Is she a murderer? She makes her likes (Nick) and dislikes (Fin's ex) known with no hesitation. How will Finlay and Vero dislodge her? Loved this story!