Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes: A Mystery by Sandra Jackson-opokuSeries: Savvy Summers Mysteries #1
Publication Date: July 29, 2025
Pages: 336
Add on: Goodreads
Rating: ★★★★
Source: From the Publisher
Genre: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Cozy / Culinary
Publisher: Minotaur Books / Macmillan
A sparkling debut mystery set on the south side of Chicago, featuring the quick-witted, unforgettable Savvy Summers, proprietor of a soul food café.
When Savvy Summers first opened Essie's soul food café, she never expected her customer-favorite sweet potato pie to become the center of a murder investigation. But when Grandy Jaspers, the 75-year-old neighborhood womanizer, drops dead at table two, she suddenly has more to worry about than just maintaining Essie's reputation for the finest soul food in the Chicagoland area.Even as the police deem Grandy’s death an accident, Savvy quickly finds herself—and her beloved café—in the middle of an entire city’s worth of bad press. Desperate to clear her name and keep her business afloat, Savvy and her snooping assistant manager, Penny Lopés, take it upon themselves to find who really killed Grandy.
But with a slimy investor harassing her to sell her name and business, customers avoiding her sweet potato pie like the plague, and her police sergeant ex-husband suddenly back in the picture, will Savvy be able to clear the café’s name and solve Grandy’s murder before it all falls apart?
After all, while Savvy always said her sweet potato pie was to die for, she never meant literally.
REVIEW
REVIEW
Sandra Jackson-Opoku’s, Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes, a debut mystery novel serves up exactly what you didn’t know you were craving: a soul food café owner who solves crimes between cooking up collard greens and cornbread.
Set in Chicago’s South Side, the story follows Savvy Summers, whose sharp mind matches her name. She’s the kind of protagonist who feels real from page one – the sort of person you’d trust both with your dinner plans and your deepest secrets. When trouble starts brewing in her neighbourhood, Savvy proves she can handle the heat in more ways than one.
Jackson-Opoku writes like someone who knows both her spices and her streets. Every scene drips with authenticity, from the steam rising off a pot of black-eyed peas to the gossip floating through local barbershops. Her experience crafting award-winning literary fiction shows in the quality of her prose, but she keeps things moving at a brisk clip that mystery lovers will appreciate.
The supporting cast sparkles with personality, each character adding their own distinct seasoning to this literary gumbo. The mystery itself unwinds with plenty of surprises, though some readers might find themselves lingering too long in Savvy’s kitchen between clues. But even these slower moments have their charm – especially when they lead to the collection of soul food recipes tucked into the back of the book.
For anyone who loves their mysteries with a side of comfort food, Savvy Summers delivers a satisfying first course in what promises to be a feast of a series. Just don’t read it on an empty stomach.
4/5 stars
For fans of Hannah Swensen’s sweet treats and Goldy Schulz’s culinary adventures, but with a whole lot more soul.
