Janice Tangen
murder, murder-investigation, Brooklyn, family-business, family-dynamics, friendship***** Odessa Dean is from the Bayou in Louisiana and the story takes place in Brooklyn, NY. She has been in NYC only about a month, is cat sitting for her aunt in a posh apartment, works in a bookshop/cafe (with the manager from Hades), has some doormat tendencies (because she is just too nice), and has some really interesting friends (especially Izzy the chameleon!). The Meme in the title is because the manager has coerced her into taking care of their media presence (with no monetary compensation) and wants her to get into the meme game, and the Escape part is because she winds up finding the body while on an Escape Room thing with Izzy and others. Add in a Homicide Detective who has the hots for Izzy, some really exotic new characters, an unexpected deadline, and you have a terrific new cozy that easily could stand alone (but I had read the first one and loved it, too!). The imagery is terrific, the characters are marvelous, and the humor is just my style. I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley. Thank you!