Olivia Blacke

Bayou transplant Odessa Dean scored a rent-free apartment in one of the nicest neighbourhoods in Brooklyn and has a new job working at Untapped Books & Cafe. Hand-selling books and craft beers is easy, but then things turn sourer than an IPA when the death of a fellow waitress goes viral. Nothing about Bethany's death feels right to Odessa. As an up-and-coming YouTube star, Bethany had more than one viewer waiting for her to fall from grace. Determined to prove there's a killer on the loose, Odessa takes matters into her own hands.

Killer Content

Really enjoyable little mystery. There was a little less “detective” work than I thought there was going to be but still good! And the main character was great loved her. 

Hannah Williams

Heather Harrington

*I received a copy of this via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Odessa Dean is used to her small bayou town where the pace is slow and everyone knows one another's business, so when she moves up to her aunt's Brooklyn apartment to cat-sit for a few months, she's like a fish out of water. It's loud, it's crowded, and dear god does it smell, but Odessa is determined to make the best of her time in NYC. She gets a job at a local bookshop/diner and during one of her shifts, another waitress, Bethany, rushes out and never comes back. The next thing Odessa knows is a massive flash mob proposal goes viral when it catches the death of Bethany in the background. The police rule her death as accidental, but Odessa can't shake the feeling that Bethany was murdered. Channeling her inner detective, Odessa will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of the case, but will her digging put her right in the path of a killer?

This was a cute read, but I was hoping for just a little bit more. I like my mysteries to make me work for it, and I was able to tell who the murderer was within the first few chapters. Another issue I had was the need to go in-depth over minute things. Nothing about what Odessa ate for breakfast or about how hot NYC summers are is crucial to the storyline, so these random details did nothing to move the plot along and instead made it drag. Character-wise, I liked Odessa and found her sarcastic and driven, but as for the others, I could really take or leave them. While I had a few issues with this, I do still think it would be a good book to pick up if you're looking for a filler read or just one you don't have to think too hard on.

Deborah Kerr

2.5/5 stars

There is nothing outright wrong with Killer Content, but I found a great deal of it lacking.

For a character-driven cozy, the characters were... not great. And I don't mean that they were not great people, I mean they were poorly developed characters. Every person in Williamsburg that Odessa interacts with is "not what she thought New Yorkers would be like," and yet they all have 2 typical millennial NYCer characteristics, and that's it. From Parker to Izzy to Todd and literally every member of the supporting cast. As a New Yorker, it was very... disappointing. 

The MC Odessa was exactly who I thought she would be and was written like every other "southern small-town transplant to the big city" character before her. She had a thick accent, wore cowboy boots, and was polite to a fault. She also had never had avocado toast before living in Brooklyn because Lousiana grocery stores apparently don't have avocado?

Overall, this was a decent book. I enjoyed reading about all of the places I see/go regularly and while the characters weren't great, they weren't the worst. The "mystery" was not a mystery at all as I had figured it out before the murder had even happened. Do not expect anything resembling a plot, nor pacing that keeps you intrigued (there's an entire chapter dedicated to giving a dog a bath, because why not?).

Killer Content

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