Killer Content

A Brooklyn Murder Mystery #1

by Olivia Blacke, Megan Tusing (Narrator)

It's murder most viral in this debut mystery by Olivia Blacke.

Bayou transplant Odessa Dean has a lot to learn about life in Brooklyn. So far she's scored a rent free apartment in one of the nicest neighborhoods around by cat-sitting, and has a new job working at Untapped Books & Café. Hand-selling books and craft beers is easy for Odessa, but making new friends and learning how to ride the subway? Well, that might take her a little extra time.

But things turn more sour than an IPA when the death of a fellow waitress goes viral, caught on camera in the background of a couple's flash-mob proposal video. Nothing about Bethany's death feels right to Odessa--neither her sudden departure mid-shift nor the clues that only Odessa seems to catch. 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. But can she pin down Bethany's killer before they take Odessa offline for good?

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Fiction, Cozy, Contemporary, Adult

8 pages, Audiobook

First published February 2, 2021

About the author

Mysterious, Spooky, Cozy & Kooky

Olivia Blacke (she/her) is the Anthony Award-winning author of the Ruby and Cordelia Mysteries, as well as the cozy Record Shop Mysteries and the Brooklyn Murder Mysteries. She had her first ghost encounter when she was five, but wasn’t involved with an active crime scene until much later, when she accidentally stepped into a chalk outline on a Manhattan sidewalk. Armed with a Criminology degree, she channels her love of the supernatural and passion for writing into darkly humorous supernatural mysteries. She wants to be a unicorn when she grows up.

A NEW LEASE ON DEATH: https://bit.ly/ANLOD

Social media links, blog, and up-to-date news is found at: OliviaBlacke.com

Newsletter signup: http://www.oliviablacke.com/newsletter

Reviews

[Nilufer Ozmekik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wowza! I adore the way the author awakened the inner New Yorker of me! Even though I live in West Coast / shiny angels and Mr. Morningstar’s city, I spent more of my years in NYC and these were the best years of my life!

Ms. Blacke is amazingly talented author because the realistic, snarky, vivid depictions of Brooklyn and her reflections of artistic, complex, intense, entertaining mosaic of its hipster universe was so strict to the point definitions. Her perspective is so genuine, true and smart just like her MC Odessa’s characterization.

The girl comes from smallest city/ island with no experience tries to blend chaotic, adventurous, complicated, crowded, multicultural Brooklyn world and interestingly she is resilient to blend in perfectly. She has so many different interests, talents including being seamstress, knowing lots about designs, colors, styles and she also addicted to true crime podcasts which will help her to conduct her own investigation to solve her friend’s murder.

Let’s take a look at the story line: Odessa Dean, our smart, natural, sarcastic heroine perfectly adjusts to be Brooklynaire by having a rent free apartment at the one of nicest neighborhoods, working at a bookstore/ cafe named Untapped Books& Cafe, selling organic, tasty sandwiches, appetizers and local brands of brewery.

I have to admit the mouth watery depictions of brewery and sandwiches just made me drool. (Sprinkling Feta cheese pieces on avocado toast was brilliant idea! I tried and it’s delicious! Californian cafes should add the ingredient to their recipes ASAP!)

But at the same day one of the waitresses and her acquaintances Bethany wants her to take care her customers at the busiest hour of the cafe, leaving the place without any explanation and as Odessa watches a viral video on YouTube, she realizes a girl falls off the elevated way of Domino Park. The girl wears same cafe uniform she wears. Could she be Bethany? Could she leave the restaurant to Domino Park in hurry?

Odessa dashes out from her work place quickly to find out and as the paramedics carry the body on a stretcher at the park she sees the turquoise owl tattoo on the underside of her wrist! Bethany has the same tattoo at the same part of her body.

Later Odessa learns Bethany is rising star of the YouTube and she has so many rivals want her fall down! As a big fan of true crime podcasts, Odessa already finds herself dig more to find out what happened to her friend which means she may be the next target of the perpetrator!

This was my another quick reading! Normally I’m not into cozy mysteries but this book truly exceeded my expectations. I had so much fun! I adored the heroine! It is impossible not to enjoy a book takes place in one of my favorite locations in the earth! It was pleasure for me to trip down on a memory lane!

I’m giving four I love Brooklyn, snarky and clever heroines, intellectual hipsters stars!

Special thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy in exchange my honest opinions.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Killer Content. The story grabbed my attention from the very beginning. The characters are definitely one of the best parts of Killer Content. Odessa is quirky and relatable. Her aunt offered to pay her to stay at her apartment, but Odessa refused. She decided to get a job as a waitress instead. Her boss makes her do odd jobs that he doesn’t feel like doing like walking his dog. Odessa works had and doesn’t let this bother her. Odessa doesn’t fit in with most of her coworkers and even when she hears them making fun of her, she is still nice to them. When Bethany dies, she will do anything to find out what actually happened even when people try to convince her to give up. When another coworker she hardly knows needs somewhere to stay, she breaks her aunt’s rules and lets Izzy move in. Izzy and Odessa quickly develop a friendship. Izzy tries to be a good house guest by cooking and cleaning for Odessa. Bethany is an interesting character. Odessa discovers many things about Bethany during her search. Odessa is put in some interesting situations that are very entertaining.

Thank you Berkley Publishing, NetGalley and Edelweiss for Killer Content.

Full Review: https://justreadingjess.wordpress.com...

[Hannah B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

✨This woman called herself curvaceous TWICE✨

Safe to say I’m ✨confused✨ I mean the mystery didn’t make much sense if I’m being honest, but more so just at literally everything else. Odessa was, in the nicest way possible . . . denser than a Bundt cake. She was supposed to be all southern charm and sweet as sugar but y’all she was just not smart. She never really made any choice that made sense, including moving to New York in the first place. Her life stressed me out and I didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t really like a single person in the book. This was not at all cozy. It just made me feel confused and a little bit sweaty.

What was up with this Izzy and her life? I’m stressed about you hon! But also. Boo you suck. Staying? In? Her? Aunt’s? Apartment? In? The? BEDROOM? While? Odessa? Sleeps? On? The? COUCH? Then getting the guy? AccaSCUSE me BITCH? I mean I know she offered the bed but HONEY get a backbone and some sense while you’re out shopping for a clearance rack mystery to solve.

I have questions! How were we supposed to care about a rando person being killed and investigated by an incompetent sleuth? Sorry Bethany but you meant nothing to me. How was her boss still running a successful business? Soap making? Now Odessa is a tailoring goddess? I couldn’t keep track of the random animals but she did keep calling one roofie? The murderer? The death? Her “friend” who got with the hot detective? Like . . . what? The random ex-boyfriend? The pack of birds? Random neon green shirts that were described 10 million times but had nothing to do with anything? And they literally dyed her green? Did I make that up? I swear this was a fever dream.

There were just so many random tangents to this book that I got embarrassed. There was just so much 🤪kooky🤪 and 😜quirky😜 shit happening that was described for pages and pages without ever applying to the murder or mystery. Bathing a dog took like ten minutes of description and for what??? Absolutely nothing! This happened so many times I just had to have a cry.

I also wept whenever she said curvaceous I mean really. What a terrible terrible terrible descriptor. I have no proof or further explanation than this but just know that word is on my no-fly list. Just don’t say it. Unless you’re attempting to be Moto Moto level cheesy. It just doesn’t sound like a natural word???? Sue me idc idc.

Overall, when the murderer was revealed I was like . . . 👁👄👁 who, now? I barely even recalled the character and it just . . . was a stretch. It somehow made me care less? Like it brought nothing to the table and was very cookie-cutter—if the cookie-cutter was deliberately in the shape of something trying to pretend it wasn’t using a cookie-cutter. Does that make sense? Probably not and neither did this book. Odessa literally confronted the murderer and then went “imma scrub down these books when they leave” and I was like BITCH they are a M U R D E R E R they ain’t leaving without a F I G H T especially after you called them a M U R D E R E R. I can’t possibly imagine what book two will attempt to undertake and I’m never going to find out. I still have no clue who any of these characters actually were.

⭐️⭐️.5/5

[Addie Motta · Rating 2 out of 5]

A buzzfeed article come to life and wrote this novel. Real people (even the cringiest millennials!) do not talk like this.

[Kerryann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Killer Content by Olivia Blacke is a Brooklyn based murder mystery novel. Odessa is from small-town Louisiana, only in NY for the summer. When her co-worker, a waitress by day and DIY soap making Youtuber by night is caught on video falling to her death Odessa knows it isn’t an accident. Sure, she doesn’t know Bethany all that well, but she has watched a lot of true crime podcasts. With the police telling her to back off and an absolute nightmare of a manager, Odessa is determined to find the killer.
As a New Yorker I am definitely biased, but there were entirely too many descriptions of random scenery from Brooklyn, the setting of the novel, for my taste. This book felt like it was half walking tour of Williamsburg half murder mystery. Blacke was also constantly reinforcing the small town girl meets the big city trope by including random facts about the small town in Louisiana and mentioning that Odessa wears cowboy boots. I found the character development to be incredibly lacking. For example, Odessa is cat and apartment sitting for her rich aunt. But, it is never made clear how her aunt got rich, where she went, if they were close or not, and why she has so many weird rules that Odessa seems to constantly be breaking. There was also no resolution on several matters, including the fate of one of her friends who is currently a squatter and if she stays in her job working for a boss who abuses his power daily. Finally, there were no twists-and-turns, no fake outs, and really little mystery. I was surprised to find out who the killer was, mostly because they seemed irrelevant for most of the book. Mostly, I was confused why Odessa was so obsessed with this girl’s death, when she barely knew her and everyone she knew was telling her to drop it.

[maddie (thenmaddieread) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Odessa Dean, newly minted temporary resident of Brooklyn, can't shake the feeling that her coworker at the local bookstore/cafe was murdered. People don't just fall off of bridges in Domino Park, right? So why can't she get anyone to take her seriously?

After really enjoying Arsenic and Adobo, I decided to check out some of Berkley's other cozy mysteries. I feel like the genre is getting a bit of a rebrand to appeal to younger audiences -- or at least that's my impression as an infrequent reader of the genre. This seemed like such an interesting premise, the accidentally-viral death of a local influencer (it sounds rather morbid when I write it out, actually). But as much as I feel like Blacke really got a lot about living in NYC, and as much as I now want to work at a combo bar and bookstore, this book was so flat to me.

Here's my main issue: it's a murder mystery, right? So why does it take us about 80% of the book to have anyone presented as an actually viable suspect? It's no wonder the cops won't take Odessa seriously. She's operating on a whim that ends up being true, but she's a really shit detective. Like literally, at one point she does dig through bags of waste from a dog park. And because Blacke waits so long to introduce any suspects, there're no real clues to the real killer and while it makes sense, it comes out of left field.

Aside from that, Odessa often detours to weird, one or two sentence internal monologues-slash-lectures. She'll briefly explain something both totally obvious to the reader and also totally meaningless to the plot of the book, including but not limited to: the student loan debt crisis, the impossibility of housing in New York City, the nuances of straw bans, the benefits of fresh taco ingredients, the dangers of diet culture, food waste and how we should be composting, reusable water bottles, and tipping in cash. They are so weird and do literally nothing for the book. She also thinks in hashtags and unironically tells someone that "it's not easy, losing your bae." I have never met a 23 year old who would say that.

Anyways, this was not a win for ol' Maddie. But I will be picking up the second in the series to see if this is a learning curve or a mismatch, and I'm also eager to read more of the cozy mysteries Berkley is putting out right now.

[eda · Rating 2 out of 5]

If Untapped books & café is a real place I wanna go there right now! Killer Content was a quick read. I personally don't read many 'cozy mysteries' and I'm not sure if it is my favourite theme/genre. One main issue I had with the book is unnecessary details given throughout as well is repeated/similar scenes. For example, Odessa talking about the heat wave in New York, the food that the cook makes, etc. It made the book a lot slower and did not add any value. Other than that, I liked the characters- especially Odessa. she was fun and I liked her inner-dialogue. All of them were interesting and had distinctive personalities. Overall, this book was a miss for me, but readers who enjoy cozy mysteries may enjoy this!

[Linda Langford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this cozy mystery. It was different in a good way. It takes place in New York where the protagonist works in a bookstore/bar/cafe as a waitress. Most of the characters are young, and some of the lingo used I’d never heard before, but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the plot. This was a new author to me, and she did an excellent job of capturing my attention from the beginning and holding it until the last page. The murder mystery was good because it kept me wondering why someone killed the victim.

[Matthew Galloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are few things I love more than an excellent new cozy mystery series -- and this is an excellent on to start the new year with. The "A Brooklyn Murder Mystery #1" next to the title in Goodreads gives me hope that there will be many more entries to come!

We all know that many cozies have a cute theme -- it's one of the reasons we love them! This one doesn't slot so easily into any of the usual categories, but that doesn't make it any less delightful. It skirts the edges of a few -- the protagonist knows plenty about food and beer and she works in a bookstore -- but I think the real theme is Brooklyn, itself, and how it looks to someone who is stepping over that line from outsider to insider. And that ties into a theme that is near and dear to my heart: finding out that home doesn't just have to be the place you were born.

The less concrete cozy theme is a benefit here, I think. While I love a good cooking cozy, this novel made me realize how much less fleshed out those characters usually are. I mean, I am THERE for the recipes and descriptions of delicious foods in those books... but that often means that's the main part of their protagonists' personalities we get to see. In this novel, Odessa gets to display a range of interests and traits from sewing to her Southerness to true crime podcasts and all of these, in one way or another, play into her drive and ability to solve the crime. She's not just an uncommonly clever or lucky amateur, but rather someone whose life has prepared her to both care and know enough to start sleuthing.

Odessa's voice is spot on, too. It's a joy to be in her head, even if there is murder and dog poop to be dealt with. The novel has a light, wry and funny tone that's still affectionate as Odessa observes Brooklyn and generation gaps and hipster culture. I think I'll view New York more generously, should I ever get to visit again.

[Ali Hazelwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

#MURDER, SHE TWEETED!
I loved, loved, LOVED this book.
What funny is, I thought I knew who the killer was. And yet, he was wrong. And I was wrong. Super wrong, but you know what? It doesn’t matter. Because the book was perfect and I loved reading it and it felt just like living in Williamsburg and hanging out with New Yorkers while sipping draft beer and, you know, solving a murder. As one does.
Okay, fine, as Odessa Dean does. My fave cowboy-boot wearing Louisiana transplant. I love her so much. I want her to be my best friend and I want to hear her accent and I want to eat her stuffed croissants and I want to catsit Rufus with her but above all I want to read twenty books about the way she uses social media to solve murders of influencer. Also, may we please have a Netflix series about her? Kthxbye.

Anyway: this book is the millennial MURDER, SHE WROTE I didn’t know I needed in my life 📱 🔪 ♥️ 🗽
.

[Kristina Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Killer Content by Olivia Blacke is the first A Brooklyn Murder Mystery. Odessa Dean is from Piney Island, Louisiana who finds Brooklyn amazing and overwhelming. She is cat and apartment sitting for her Aunt Melanie who is traveling through Europe. Killer Content is written in the first person allowing us to see things from Odessa’s point-of-view. We learn what she thinks about Brooklyn, the food, the microbrews, the people, etc. Izzy Wilson is a co-worker and Odessa’s friend who ends up living with Odessa when the schoolhouse where she squats is being fumigated. Izzy has a larger personality than Odessa and she could overshadow her. Odessa is an okay character. I just felt she faded into the background at times. She let people take advantage of her (from her boss to Izzy). The contradiction comes with Bethany’s death. Odessa is positive that Bethany was murdered, and she will not stop until she proves it. I felt that the whodunit was not the focus of the story. More time seems devoted to Untapped Books & Café (the people, the food, the brews served). There are a limited number of suspects. Odessa questioned people and dug through trash looking for clues. One piece of information is all that is needed to solve the case. If you are like me and read cozies for the mystery, then you will be disappointed. This is a character driven cozy mystery with the focus on Odessa. I felt there were details that we did not need to know such what Odessa ate for each meal, the weather (it is hot as we are told a few times), the mess Izzy left in the bedroom, the amount of luggage Izzy brought with her). I just felt that some of this minute details were not needed, and they slowed down the progress of the story. There was a repetition of information as well. I believe Killer Content will appeal to those readers in their twenties and thirties (obtain a sample to see if this story suits you). The author did take the time to give needed background information on Odessa as well as the neighborhood (where Odessa lives and works). I liked Rufus Talliwhacker (Aunt Melanie’s cat) plus the bookstore dog. Killer Content is a lighthearted cozy mystery with distasteful trash, flash mob fiasco, nasty neon green, a disobliging detective, a capricious roommate, and mouthwatering microbrews.

[Ordinary Person · Rating 2 out of 5]

**1.75⭐️**
*shakes head* What a mess.
since i can’t say i’m disappointed, since this book has a pretty dismal average rating, i’ll just say that this book was pretty bad. if you’re wondering why i gave this 1.75 stars instead of 1, it’s because i actually liked the setting of Brooklyn and though it was a fun environment. now onto things i hated 😊
-was this a mystery book? because most of the time it was just Odessa having little adventures around NYC, which would have actually been fun to read if this wasn’t a mystery book. i found myself thinking most of the time JUST SOLVE THE DANG MYSTERY PLEASE
-our main character would not shut up about how new York is soOoOo different from Louisiana and that sMaLl tOwN bAyOu LifE 🤠 🐊 ✨
-the characters sucked. they had no personality at all. and if they did it was being annoying ash
-the dialogue was pretty bad. our main character said dUcKy so many times i wanted to tear my hair out.
-i can’t buy that the cops were that dumb with the investigation… like they seriously didn’t think to check the skywalk security cameras???
-Odessa prided herself on being such a great detective just because she listened to a few true crime podcasts but how did she not solve the mystery sooner? it was so obvious who it was… the plot work in this “story” was abysmal.
-this is nitpicky, but i didn’t get the point of the tweets at the beginning of each chapter
in conclusion, do not read this book. i bet if the author didn’t go off on so many unnecessary tangents and plot points this book would have been less than 100 pages.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

The main character’s coworker dies, then we spend until 90% with LITERALLY NOTHING HAPPENING. She meets an author but does not have a substantial conversation with him and then he is gone, she looks through trash and finds nothing, she spends quite some time giving a dog a bath…it’s all filler. The writing is ALL “tell, not show” and is filled with excessive descriptions of food, tropes about NY that scream “the author is a transplant trying to pass as a native,” and Miley Stewart-esque lines about the south. There were lots of shoehorned generation comparisons, as if everyone’s entire personality is their age (Odessa, if you are 23 in 2021, you are Gen Z, not Millennial), but since the characters had little other personality traits, I guess that’s all the author had. About 40% in, the narrator speaks directly to the reader *for the first time.* Then, immediately after she solves the mystery, the killer just knocks on her door and confesses. The whole thing felt like a freshman writing class project. You could literally pinpoint which “beginner writer advice” the author was following during different paragraphs. I kept stopping to show different paragraphs to other people because it was just so unbelievably bad and unnecessary.

[Amanda Jayatissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

With everything that’s gone on this year, Killer Content is exactly the kind of cheerful escapism that we all need. The MC, Odessa, is unfailingly likable— huge heart, great instincts, and a strong moral compass all packaged up in a pair of cowboy boots.
I was immediately sucked into Odessa’s Williamsburg, which the author did a great job of encapsulating without it being too overpowering or needlessly descriptive. From the sense of community to the descriptions of the food, I felt immersed in the best possible way.
The mystery itself was intriguing, but more than the mystery itself, the way Odessa went about solving it is what really appealed to me. A nice relief from the usual gruff, crusty detectives, Odessa is drawn to solve her co-worker’s murder because that’s just who she is.
I look forward to reading more about Odessa’s escapades in New York, and hope the next book comes out soon!

[Jennifer Chow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blacke pens a delightful main character in boots-wearing Odessa Dean, a rural Louisiana transplant to Brooklyn. I loved this immersive whodunnit with its diverse cast and unique social media theme.

Odessa is such a charming protagonist. I love how she’s a transplant to the Brooklyn area, which gives her both insight into and appreciation of the New York area. The Untapped Books & Cafe serves as a great work backdrop, and her assessments about waitressing are spot-on. Blacke weaves in the social media aspects in a fun fashion and populates her book with diverse and wonderful characters.

A great mystery that kept me turning the pages to both solve the plot and to enjoy the fictional world. #killermystery

[Cayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5, fun - heavy on the cozy, light on the mystery. The story got bogged down with too many details at points, but overall the characters were fun, and the summertime in NYC setting was strong :).

[Brenda Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice intro to a cozy mystery series.
Odessa is apartment sitting for her aunt - she has a super cute cat, Rufus, who requires livein care.
After a few weeks, Odessa lands a waitress job at a local cafe specializing in craft bear, a lazy senior dog, hypster menu and eclectic staff. Bethany leaves mid shift to visit a local park - emergency situation.
While watching the YouTube video of a flash mob proposal, Odessa catches a glimpse of the cafe's neon green uniform shirt. Running to the park, she discovers it is Bethany- on a gurney, in a body bag.
No one else but Osessa thinks murder.
Odessa delves into Bethany's life to prove foul play. She also gains a roommate- Izzy, who helps Odessa become more outgoing.
A steamy detective, clumsy Odessa searching through a dumpster, Izzy and her vegan recipes - book with humor and heart.

[Kristie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ll start off by saying that I liked getting to know the characters and the fun quirks of Brooklyn. However, this book read more like a tour of Williamsburg and less of a murder mystery. Out of roughly 300 pages I’d say less than 100 of them actually focused on the murder, while the other pages were filled with talking about hipster food, describing the parks, apartments and living situations of New Yorkers. I really don’t feel like the author needed to include so many details about laundry and towels and unimportant stuff like that. There was practically an entire chapter on seagulls picking at the trash bag Odessa left on the balcony. That was ENTIRELY unnecessary and had absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the story. The mystery was half-baked and felt rushed in the end. I wished more time was spent on developing the mystery and less on laundry. It would have been better if the book didn’t pretend to be a mystery murder story and instead just on Odessa finding herself in NY.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a charming mystery! I loved Odessa who is spunky and stubborn, and her fish-out-of-water relationship with NYC. The secondary characters were great, and so was the backdrop of the cafe - everything felt very real with a hilarious quirkiness. And of course the mystery kept me guessing! It was lots of fun watching Odessa be an amateur sleuth.

[Bethany Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can I say how much I LOVED this book?!? It was so freakin’ good and I loved that it took place in Brooklyn and all the NYC vibes. The characters were well written, the story line had the perfect flow to drag a girl in and I’m dying to get my hands on book 2! I mean OCTOBER seems so far away, I might die! Too dramatic? Maybe, but a girl needs her book like ASAP!

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a lot of fun with this book, and I loved the setting! Between the apartment in Williamsburg and the awesome bookstore/cafe featuring craft brews, I found it awfully cozy despite not being set in a small town.

[Caroline David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is exactly the kind of mystery/thriller that takes the load off after reading something really dark. It's such an interesting concept and I just really enjoyed the execution of the plot.

[Gianna Lian · Rating 2 out of 5]

🤍for a more in depth review, watch my reading wrap up!🤍
https://youtu.be/8eEWlTN-zWI?si=mfo_l...

💫overall rating: 2.5/5⭐️s...💫

💫synopsis💫
follows odessa that is staying in her aunts apartment for the summer to cat sit in Brooklyn ny. She finds a job at a book & beer cafe wear she befriends Bethany whom she works with. It isn’t until Bethany is missing one afternoon and her death is caught in the back of a wedding proposal flash mob but is deemed as an “accident” . Odessa then becomes determined to prove her death was not an accident and becomes the detective that the police won’t be to prove that she’s right.

💫pros💫
•liked how it was based in Brooklyn ny and seeing the reality of what it’s like to live there
•the Twitter tweets and updates at the beginning of each chapter, I think it pulled the whole social media aspect together
•I did enjoy the authors writing and found a lot of the book funny but it didn’t make up for how boring the plot was and the ending was so bland.

💫cons💫
•I wish that we got more povs than just Odessa’s
•my main problem with this book was the repetitiveness. I don’t even know what it was about it but it felt so repetitive in the way that each section would get dragged on so much and just be repeating certain unnecessary things.
•I wasn’t able to guess the ending but it was not at all as satisfying as I thought it was going to be
•the story had no depth whatsoever
•character were extremely flat and uninteresting

💫overall💫
I wouldn’t really recommend this one because I personally feel like it was a waste of my time. I now see why it was $6 on clearance at my book store… 😭

[Martina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Killer Content is my first cozy mystery. I was drawn by the colorful cover.
I’m happy to say I really enjoyed it!

Odessa is a small-town Southern girl house sitting her aunt’s Williamsburg apartment and waitressing at a bar/bookstore in the neighborhood. When her coworker Bethany dies suddenly, Odessa isn’t so sure that Bethany’s death was an accident and starts her own investigation.

As someone who is obsessed with true crime podcasts, I could relate to Odessa’s obsession with solving this crime. I also found her to be such a cute character. Her sarcastic personality just spoke to my soul.

This was a quick and fun read and highly recommend it for anyone wanted a good cozy mystery.

Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for the eARC of this book.

[Sue Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fresh take on the cozy genre. Small town girl moves to big city instead of the typical reverse. Cat sitting for her traveling aunt, Odessa Dean leaves the blink-and-you-miss-it Louisiana town for hipster central, Brooklyn. Savings depleted, she begins working in a brew pub/bookstore where she falls into the rhythm of millennial big city life, Another waitress dies in a suspicious accident that she believes really was foul play. Filled with interesting characters, it also manages to avoid many of the typical plot points common to copies. Good mystery, good fun. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read it in exchange for an honest review.

[Elizabeth Everett · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun read! You can't help but love the main character, Odessa, a spunky waitress from Piney Island Louisiana who is cat-sitting in Brooklyn for a summer. She gets a job at a bookshop/cafe and after barely a week in the big city, is solving a murder! The secondary characters were wonderful, Odessa is sweet without being syrupy, and there was plenty of plot. Ms. Blacke has a clear and humorous voice and a gift for snappy dialogue. I hope we get to see more of Odessa and her friends very soon!

[India Holton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book thinking I'd just read a chapter or two before getting on with other things, and ended up reading it the whole way through in one captivated sitting. Odessa was so charming and determined. I loved reading a really nice heroine. And the cast of secondary characters was great. My only complaint was that I was so sure I knew who the killer was, I felt very smug for half the book just waiting to be proven right - and I was wrong! Completely wrong! What a delight to be truly surprised by a murder mystery. I hope we get more books about Odessa and her friends.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was interesting because did was Odessa the only one to witness this murder; however, I did not understand the reasoning behind our protagonist's motives of going as far as she does as due to her relationship being a stranger. If our protagonist was more developed one way or another it would make sense.

I received an ecopy of this book via Netgalley; however, my opinions are my own.

[Shelly Peskin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dumb book with little content

[Susan • BryantParkBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This year I’ve started trying out cozy mysteries a little and I think I found the perfect one for me! Killer Content is a Brooklyn based cozy. There were lots of quirky characters including few animals that really made this story for me.

This story stars Odessa, a fresh from the Bayou transplant to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. If you aren’t familiar with this area, it’s Mecca for hipsters. Odessa’s aunt left to travel and she’s spending the summer watching her apartment and feeding her cat, Rufus. She has a job in a craft beer and book store (my absolute dream place!) and one day Bethany, her fellow waitress ditches work to participate in a viral flash mob proposal video. Bethany is killed during this video and everyone assumes it’s an accident. But Odessa thinks it looks suspicious and decides to solve the suspected murder herself.

The hipster jokes in this book just really cracked me up. It was such a entertaining book and I loved Odessa’s fish out of water story. I enjoyed her tales of her former life in Louisiana. Who moves to NYC with only one pair of shoes? And those shoes are cowboy boots? 👢

Thank you to @berkleypublishing, @Netgalley, and @oliviablackeauthor. Killer Content is out now and the good news is the second book is out in October!