Elle Cosimano’s bestselling novel, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, is officially getting a TV adaptation, which will be developed by Peacock!
Executive producers include Lang Fisher, Tina Fey through her Little Stranger, Inc. production banner, Eric Gurian, David Miner, and Cosimano herself. Universal Television is the studio.
Cosimano’s reaction on social media was exactly as delightful as you’d expect from the author of a series this warm and funny:
“I am elated! I am floating!!! This is the announcement dreams are made of, and this team is everything!!! Who’s ready for a TV series?!?!”
The answer, clearly, is everyone.
What Is Finlay Donovan Is Killing It About?
The premise of this book is one of those ideas that, once you hear it, you cannot believe didn’t exist before.
The official description captures it perfectly:
Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not. She’s a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist; Finlay’s life is in chaos: the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors. When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet . . . Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.
It is described by its author as “a rompy, fun, lighthearted, heartfelt series of mysteries.” The endorsements tell the same story from every angle. Janet Evanovich called Finlay Donovan irresistible. Christina Lauren called the series magical.
The Series That Keeps Growing
The Finlay Donovan series is now seven books long, and still going. Here’s where things stand across the full run:
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It introduces Finlay and her situation. Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead follows with the stakes raised and the cast of complications expanded. Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun was an instant New York Times bestseller, confirming that the readership had grown with each installment rather than diminishing.
The series has continued through Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice, Finlay Donovan Plays with Fire, and Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line—in which Finlay’s nanny and partner-in-crime faces extradition to Maryland on criminal theft charges, and Finlay has to prove her innocence.
The seventh book arrived alongside the Peacock announcement.
Who Is Elle Cosimano?
Elle Cosimano’s path to becoming the author of one of the decade’s most beloved mystery series is one of the more surprising origin stories in contemporary publishing.
Cosimano spent fourteen successful years in real estate before stepping back from a career that had left her unfulfilled. Her mother originally suggested she take a break and try her hand at writing a novel. Cosimano took the advice and began writing with no formal training in creative writing.
She went on to build a YA career that earned her significant acclaim. She is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, an International Thriller Writers Award winner, and an Edgar Award nominee. Her acclaimed young adult novels include Nearly Gone, Holding Smoke, The Suffering Tree, and Seasons of the Storm.
But Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, her debut adult novel, published in 2021, changed everything. The novel was a People magazine pick and one of the New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2021.
Why Tina Fey and Lang Fisher Are the Dream Team
This is the part that should have every reader feeling extremely good about this adaptation.
Lang Fisher is the creator of Never Have I Ever—one of the sharpest, funniest, most emotionally intelligent coming-of-age comedies of the streaming era.
She co-created The Four Seasons with Tina Fey, which premiered earlier this year. She understands how to build shows around women in chaotic, funny, emotionally real situations without losing the warmth or the humanity that makes the chaos bearable to watch.
Tina Fey, through Little Stranger, Inc., brings a track record in smart comedies built around brilliant but overwhelmed women that speaks for itself. 30 Rock. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Girls5eva. Fey’s comedic sensibility—precise, warm, willing to be genuinely absurd without ever being mean—is so perfectly calibrated for Finlay Donovan that the announcement almost felt inevitable in retrospect.
Cosimano herself is executive producing, which means the series has the author’s eye on every creative decision. That matters enormously for a series this specific in its voice and its heroine.
No casting has been announced. No premiere date has been set. The project is in development at Peacock with Universal Television as the studio.
The Body Count Is Already High—Read Fast!
Finlay Donovan has been accidentally entangled in murders, extraditions, neighborhood feuds, gambling schemes, and at least one genuinely unhinged custody situation—and there are seven books worth of chaos to catch up on before the show arrives.
Start with Finlay Donovan Is Killing It. Read it in one sitting, which is almost certainly what will happen anyway.
Then work through the series in order because each book escalates the comedy and deepens the characters.
I kid you not, the friendship between Finlay and her nanny, Vero, is one of the great platonic partnerships in contemporary mystery fiction, and it’s one you don’t wanna miss out on!
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