“Crosses the Line” is the sixth in the Finlay Donovan series which began in 2021 with “Finlay Donovan Is Killing It,” and has continued, one a year. I have enjoyed several of these. “Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun” is perhaps the best. This latest, however, is a disappointment.
A divorced woman living in the Washington, DC area, Finlay is a popular novelist, with an ex who was unfaithful and two small children. She is now in love with Nick, a police detective and a good guy. Along the way, Donovan acquired a nanny, Veronica Ramirez, known as Vero. The two are not detectives, just innocents who find themselves caught up in messes which can include cartels and dead bodies.
While an undergrad at Maryland, Vero and her Kappa Gamma sisters had been running an illegal poker game, the players being, no surprise, mainly frat boys. The “house” had accumulated $200,000 in winnings. The scheme came to light when a freshman lost his tuition money in the game and told his parents, who complained.
The cash, kept in a knapsack, was stolen from Vero’s room. Vero is accused, and is now under house arrest in Maryland, with an ankle monitor. Finlay drives there to find the real thief. The sleuthing is done with talk, interviewing potential suspects and witnesses, and electronic hacking of various sites and jamming of Vero’s ankle monitor.
Since Vero’s movements are limited and a policewoman is watching her, much of the action is Finlay and Vero going in and out of windows, like the split-second door slamming in a Georges Feydeau French farce.
Even when it is thought there was a murder, the potential violence is offstage. There is no scene of the poker nights, only allusions to them. There is one lively scene where Emory Willingham’s obnoxious father threatens to sue the university if he doesn’t get his money back.
For a novel focused on what happened in a sorority, we learn very little about sorority life except a description of the sexy Zoey who wears “artfully shredded jeans and paint-smattered Vans.” In a discussion of sexual infidelity one sister laments: “We were supposed to be sisters. What ever happened to KG’s before D’s?” There are few specific details, little feel for the place, no ambiance. This tangled tale could just as well have taken place in a retirement home or a community clubhouse.
One hears of a new phenomenon, where the author’s agent, editor or publisher examines the contemporary offerings and suggests to the series author what her next book ought to be about. The marketplace provides the inspiration. There has been a lot of buzz about sororities lately—the novel “Rush” and very recently “Sisterhood Above All.” If Cosimano was talked into this subject, she made a mistake.
