Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice

The continuation of a fun, comic mystery series where a dysfunctional family travels to Atlantic City and faces mayhem, mischief, and murder.

Fast action and clever wit course through Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice, the fourth installment in a wildly fun, comic mystery series by Elle Cosimano.

 

Finlay “Finn” Donovan is a divorced, mother of two; a chronically blocked romantic suspense novelist who, over three books, has been up to her eyeballs in mayhem, mischief, and murder. She’s been mistaken for a contract killer. She’s kept her ex-husband safe, away from someone (other than her) wanting to kill him. And she’s gone up against the Russian mob. Along the way, Finn’s been wooed by a ‘hot’ police officer.

 

The antics continue when Finn and her tribe travel from Virginia to Atlantic City, NJ, on the pretext of a much-needed, get-away weekend. The trip covertly involves Finn tracking down a stolen car, negotiating with a devious loan shark, and rescuing the long-lost beau of Vero—her bilingual, live-in nanny, confidante, and crime-solving cohort. A posse piles into an old Buick and sets off on a zany adventure. The passengers include Finn and her two young children; their father, Finn’s jealous ex, Steven; Finn’s overbearing mother; and Vero. Once in Atlantic City, a murder suddenly upends the secret agenda. Will the clever ingenuity of Finn and Vero bring luck enough for them to hit a jackpot for justice?

 

Cosimano (Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun, Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead) ups the stakes, once again keeping readers laughing all the way through a maze of well-plotted danger. 

Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice (The Finlay Donovan Series, Book 4) by Elle Cosimano

Minotaur Books/MacMillan, $28.00 hardcover, 9781250846006, 320 pages

Publishing Date: March 5, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (March 22, 2024), link HERE 

Night and Its Longings

A dark, deeply engrossing crime noir about a soul-searching, middle-aged writer determined to find out what happened to his missing ex. 

Night and Its Longings is a hauntingly atmospheric, beautifully crafted crime noir written by accomplished novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright and filmmaker, Philip Cioffari.

 

The book, set in June 1995, centers on Jake Garrett, a “less-than-famous,” hardboiled crime novelist. On the brink of age 40, Jake is “short on money and friends.” He does his best writing late at night and often keeps company via the disaffected, spiritually wounded lonely-hearts who call in to an after-midnight, radio program. Jake has been known to take walks in the shadowy wee-hours, through "abandoned city streets, past shuttered bars, darkened storefronts."

 

“I wasn’t what you’d call a fearful man, except in the way most life-long New Yorkers are fearful,” Jake tells the reader. “Never leaving my car unlocked. Always keeping tabs on my surroundings. Trusting my sixth-sense to detect danger…The fact of the matter was this: the self was the enemy I feared most, not strangers on the street.”

 

One night, just as Jake is hitting his writing stride--drawing “wisdom in dark hours”--he’s jarred by a knock on the door that opens onto the courtyard of his Village (New York City) apartment building. There, he is surprised by Norm Davison, the husband of Vera Davison, a woman with whom Jake had a passionate, one-year love affair ten years prior. After Vera went back to Norm, Vera and Jake had lost touch. However, on this dark night, the spirit of Vera is suddenly resurrected in a chilling and foreboding way.

 

Norm is beside himself, worried about Vera, who has disappeared for 11 days. Is she in danger? Alive? Dead? Did she leave by force or vanish voluntarily? Norm, Vera’s husband, is frustrated by the police investigation. While he was aware of Jake and Vera’s affair, he is now desperate to find his wife—this includes his enlisting his wife’s adulterous ex-lover to aid the search.

 

What ensues is a dark, deepening story that reveals, layer by layer, details of the love affair shared between Jake and Vera and the life Vera went on to live without Jake—as a wife, mother, and budding photographer. When Norm allows Jake access into the minutia of Vera’s life--including his poring over her journals and photographs--even more questions arise. Amidst an extensive search that winds through New York and later, South Carolina, Jake’s crime-writing detective skills are put into action. Along the way, he begins to search his own soul, realizing that Vera’s departure from his life created a “dead center” in him—an abyss of sorrow, guilt, and regret. Might Vera have experienced a similar void?

 

The introspective intrigue of Jake’s narrative voice propels a suspenseful plot where danger unspools via short, ratcheting chapters. Cioffari (If Anyone Asks, Says I Died from the Heartbreaking Blues) delivers a spellbinding--profoundly thought-provoking--literary mystery that ultimately unravels with surprising twists.  

 

Night and Its Longings by Philip Cioffari

Livingston Press, $18.99 paperback, 978-1604893748, 234 pages

Publishing Date: March 26, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

To learn more about Philip Cioffari and his extensive body of work, link HERE