Finlay Donovan Is Killing It

“My husband . . . He’s . . . not a nice man. Was he ‘forgets our anniversary’ not nice, I wondered? Or was he ‘sleeping around’ not nice? […] killing a man for cheating on his wife would be wrong. Wouldn’t it?”

Finn reflects on Patricia’s description of her husband. The intrigue stems from Finn’s own experience with a “not nice” husband, as she understands Patricia’s need for vengeance. However, that Finn doesn’t dismiss the offer outright, and in fact questions whether a cheating husband deserves to die, displays her moral equivocation.

“Three hundred acres. I couldn’t even finish three hundred pages. Couldn’t keep one little girl’s hair cut as neatly as Steven kept up all these fields.”

As Finn drives off the sod farm, she contemplates the 300-acre property and feels inadequate in her own achievements. Finn’s reflection is both a sign of how under-appreciated she was in her marriage to Steven, as well as a hint to how overworked she is as a single mother. The sod farm is also symbolic of Steven’s financial status, and resultant power over Finn.

“I gnawed my lip, considering all the things she’d ever secretly taken from me. All the things she was still trying to take from me. Before I could change my mind, I rolled the dress into a ball and tucked it under my arm.”

Finn snoops around in Theresa’s closet and ends up stealing a black dress that she wears that night to The Lush. Finn justifies her actions as retaliation for the numerous things Theresa has and continues to take from Finn. The manner of Finn’s divorce and the role Theresa played in it offers the readers justification for Finn’s sometimes unscrupulous behavior toward Steven and Theresa. It also points to the theme of Poetic Justice through Women’s Vengeance, as Finn displays tendencies to react impulsively and vengefully toward those who have wronged her.

“If Steven hadn’t insisted on being such an asshole, I never would have thought about it […] But can you blame me? Anyone in my shoes would have considered it for fifty thousand dollars.”

Finn laments her situation out loud, in earshot of Vero, when the latter finds her in the garage with Harris’s body. This statement sums up exactly what drew Finn to Patricia’s offer: her personal experience with a “not nice” husband, and her desperate need for money to run her house and keep custody of her children. Money is an important player in the book, and motivates not just Finn’s, but several other characters’ actions as well, including Vero, and even Theresa, in her dealings with Feliks.

“Nothing sticks to these guys. The Russian mafia could murder half the city and still find someone to bribe. That asshole will never spend a day behind bars as long as Zhirov’s around to bail him out.”

Feliks Zhirov is mentioned early in the story, though apparently as a background detail; Georgia mentions that the Russian mafia gets away with several crimes because of Zhirov’s money and connections. In this passage, Georgia equates one with the other, pointing to the theme of The Relationship between Money and Power.

“‘Are we doing the right thing?’ I asked. In answer, she reached in her pocket and offered me Harris’s phone.”

Despite Finn’s initial curiosity about Harris, she is horrified at his death, and not entirely convinced that she ought not turn herself in to the police. It is Vero who eggs her on to complete the task set for Finn by Patricia. Vero as a character displays more conviction in her actions; her motivations, besides the large sum of money, are also justice related. She believes Harris deserves to die because of his crimes against women, hence her response to Finn’s query.

“Maybe Harris Mickler did deserve what had happened to him. […] But […] I wasn’t feeling optimistic. I’d killed a man. Whether or not I had done it intentionally hardly seemed to matter anymore.”

Finn questions the set of events surrounding Harris’s death. Despite agreeing Harris deserved to die, Finn also feels some degree of guilt and culpability about the part she played in the situation. Finn’s constant second-guessing displays that, despite her actions, she does in fact subscribe to and try to live by an inner moral code.

“Sometimes, she’d said, you can’t see the whole story until it’s laid out on the page, and the only way to figure out what happens next is to write your way through it, one scene after the next, until it’s done.”

Finn recalls her agent’s advice to her in the past when she was faced with writer’s block. This description of writing a story mirrors the way the case unfolds for the reader, as the story is presented through Finn’s eyes. As with the stories she drafts, the Harris case, and thus the plot of the book, come together scene by scene, with the pieces gradually falling into place. Elle Cosimano employs this tactic of having Finn’s life, her stories, and Cosimano’s writing itself mirror each other in different places.

“Something loosened inside me as I trailed a finger over the squeaky-clean surface of my desk. It was a relief, having someone around to balance the load. A comfort to have someone to handle the bills and help me clean up my messes, rather than rubbing my face in them.”

Finn returns home to a clean and well-organized house, courtesy of Vero. The relief she feels even during the stress she is experiencing owing to the Mickler case is testament to how large a load parenting and running a house is without a partner. Her reflection that Vero helps clean up messes rather than rub Finn’s face in them also sheds light on Steven’s character and how he treated Finn during their marriage.

“Theresa hadn’t looked at me once since she’d walked into my house. Maybe it was guilt, but I doubted it. She’d looked me dead in the eyes the day Steven told me he was moving out, hungry to record the precise moment of my emotional demise. She’d practically gloated the day he put that ring on her finger.”

Finn describes Theresa’s behavior toward her at Delia’s birthday party, also remembering how this fits in with her past behavior toward Finn. This passage paints a portrait of Theresa as cold-blooded and unscrupulous, which fits in with her actions not just toward Finn, but also with respect to Feliks. Theresa’s character also earns Finn more sympathy and sees her otherwise suspect behavior, such as stealing from Theresa and impersonating her, as justifiable.

“I leaned closer to the photo, my gaze narrowing on her hand. Her ring finger was naked, her diamond-encrusted wedding band noticeably absent.”

Finn notices a picture of Patricia in the employee lounge of the animal shelter, where she is seated next to Aaron with her wedding band missing. Finn’s observation of this is a clue to Patricia’s whereabouts, and Finn later puts it together with other clues to divine that Aaron is Patricia’s lover and the person who killed Harris.

“‘I sold a book.’ ‘Two books,’ Vero corrected me. A lump formed in my throat at the pride I saw in her fierce dark eyes. No one had ever treated my job as . . . well . . . a job. No one had ever defended it, been proud of it, boasted about it.”

Finn is moved by Vero not only defending her to Steven, but taking pride in Finn’s accomplishments. Finn’s reaction points to how Steven had and continues to undermine her professional and financial capabilities, possibly in a bid to exert power and control over her. In contrast, Vero serves as the perfect partner, making up for all of Steven’s failings, from her involvement with the kids to her help around the house, and even respecting and appreciating Finn’s work.

“My mom was a single mother. She was resourceful and gutsy . . . like you. If I had to pick a partner to stake my future earnings on—and maybe my freedom, […] I figured it was a safe bet to put my money on you.”

Vero confesses that part of the reason she chose to throw her lot in with Finn is because her own mother was a single mother, and she knows how scrappy and capable a motivated single mother can be. Vero’s confession points to the theme of Single Motherhood, highlighting not just the struggles of a single mother, but the power of a single mother’s motivation and determination to provide for her family.

“This had to be the line I wasn’t willing to cross. I couldn’t bring Harris back from the dead, but maybe I could keep someone else from paying the price.”

When Finn discovers that Theresa is a person of interest in the Mickler case because of Finn’s visit to The Lush, she decides to try and keep Theresa safe. Although Finn has every reason to see Theresa suffer and has displayed vengeful and spiteful behavior in the past, her choice in this instance once again displays a strong moral code that overrides baser emotion.

“The killer had to be some larger-than-life character, some archetypical villain people could believe I had made up because they’d already seen him play out on a TV or a movie screen.”

Finn decides to draft an “archetypal villain” in her story, not wanting to point attention toward Theresa and Aimee, whom she believes to be Harris’s killers. As in her story, in Finn’s life, too, this character is who eventually gets arrested for the murders: Feliks Zhirov, a mob boss who has been present in the background of the story throughout, and who is on TV at one point in the story.

"I can’t tell him where I was. He’ll completely freak out. And now I’ve got this detective calling […] I can’t risk Steven finding out.”

Finn overhears Theresa talk to someone on the phone, revealing she is keeping secret where she was on the night of Harris’s death. This strengthens Finn’s suspicion that Theresa and Aimee killed Feliks; however, this turns out to be a red herring, and in a turn of events, it is Steven and Nick’s respective suspicions that are proved right: Theresa was, in fact, involved in Feliks’s illegal business, in addition to sleeping with him.

“…[H]e has friends that can make almost anyone disappear . . . new name, new passport, and wipe them off the map as if they’d never existed. He’d skip bail, and we’d never see or hear the name Feliks Zhirov again.”

Nick explains to Finn the kind of power and connections Feliks has, including the ability to erase an identity completely, and possibly start life elsewhere under a new one. This is a clue that points to Patricia’s fate; Irina, who has the same connections, has helped Patricia disappear in a manner that there is nothing left to find of “Patricia Mickler.”

“In the book, […] she buries the guy in a cemetery, in a freshly dug grave. You know, on top of some other guy who’d been buried there earlier.”

Finn tells Vero that in her book, the assassin buries the body on top of other bodies in a cemetery; she has changed the location of the sod farm, as it hews too close to the truth. However, unbeknownst to Finn, the detail in her book foreshadows what she and Vero will eventually discover when they try to move Harris’s body: he had, in fact, been buried on top of other bodies belonging to Feliks’s victims.

“You don’t look anything like your picture, […] You know, the one in the back of the book? You’re blond in your photo. And with the dark glasses, it’s sort of hard to see your face. […] If I didn’t know you were coming, I totally wouldn’t have recognized you.”

Pete points out to Finn that she looks nothing like her author photograph. Pete recognizing Finn and reconciling her actual appearance with her wig-wearing one is symbolic of the point at which Finn’s double life is beginning to spiral out of control. Shortly after this, Nick discovers that Feliks was visiting Steven’s sod farm and the story races toward its climax.

“I couldn’t hear much of anything over the dogs down the street. They must have seen the thief and it got them going. They seemed to quiet once he was gone.”

Mrs. Haggerty reveals that she saw someone peer into Finn’s car on the night of Harris’s death, after Finn entered the house. A seemingly inconsequential detail is the barking of dogs that Mrs. Haggerty hears, which quiets down once the man leaves. However, this, along with other seemingly inconsequential details, is part of a set of clues that helps Finn decipher the killer’s identity. Cosimano consistently works significant details into the background, ensuring that she captures the reader’s attention throughout, and maintaining the narrative tension.

“He reached into his coat, withdrawing something from the inside pocket. He dropped it in my hands. My wig-scarf—the beautiful disguise I’d been hiding behind, the successful person I was pretending to be all this time, the identity that was supposed to keep me safe and out of trouble—was a tangled mess in my lap.”

Nick hands Finn her blonde wig-scarf that she left abandoned at Ramón’s garage. Her description of the scarf aptly captures its symbolism, pointing to the aspirational life, as well as the actual double life, that Finn is simultaneously living. Its current ragged, “tangled” state signifies that these different lives are similarly “tangled” in a messy chaos.

“Nick wouldn’t be here to take credit for the bust, but he would get the satisfaction of knowing he’d solved the case that finally put Feliks Zhirov behind bars. Patricia and Irina would be free of their husbands, Patricia and Aaron could come out of hiding, and Vero and I could get on with our lives.”

Finn decides to leave Andrei’s body buried on top of Harris’s. Her assumption of what will happen once the police finds the bodies is exactly what comes to pass. Finn’s calculations display her intelligence, and how her characteristic impulsiveness also translates to her being able to think on her feet when she is in a tough spot.

“‘Moving on, huh? […] You and Nick?’ […] ‘No. Just me. Me and Vero and the kids. We’re going to be okay.’”

To Finn’s conviction that she will not take Steven back, Georgia wonders if Finn is moving on with Nick; however, Finn clarifies that she, Vero, and the kids will be just fine. Finn’s statement points to the idea that, although it takes multiple hands to make a home and a family work, the support need not come from a husband or a romantic partner: Vero more than fulfills Finn’s needs for a partner in crime, as well as in life.