Book ~ "Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun" (2023) Elle Cosimano

From Goodreads ~ 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.

Finlay is an author and divorced mother of two. She and Vero, her friend and nanny, have been involved in a couple murders ... people think they did the killing but they didn't. They have gotten themselves involved with a Russian mob boss who wants them to find out who EasyClean, a contract killer, is. Finlay and Vero suspect it's a police officer so when Nick, a hot cop who likes Finlay, conveniently is starting a weeklong citizen's police academy, they sign up so they can figure out if EasyClean is there. The situations they got themselves into while at the academy were ridiculous.

This is the third in the Finlay Donovan series ... I recently read the first two. Though it does work as a stand alone, it's really helpful if you read the first two books first to get the background on what's going on and the relationship dynamics. It's written in first person perspective in Finlay's voice. I thought there were a lot of characters and at times I had a hard time remembering who they were and what they were about. As a head's up, there is swearing. 

At the end of this book, there is a cliffhanger (the first two books did too) ... and I hate cliffhangers! I like stories to be wrapped up by the time I get to the end of a book rather than an author leaving us hanging so they can make us buy the next book.