As a cozy mystery, this one was fine. It took a really long time for it to get going (I mean...she didn't even consider investigating the murder or getting the ex-husband-cop involved until 25% of the way in). I loved the setting and the soul food descriptions, but it leaned a little too heavy on Essie's sayings than saying something itself. I think Savvy thought she was a much better detective than she actually was, if that makes sense? A lot of things just happened to her instead of Savvy investigating (or using her lie-dar).

Oh well. It's always good to see a more diverse offering of cozy mysteries, especially when they have recipes included.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Savvy Summers, now retired, is running Essie's Place cafe in the Woodlawn area of Chicago. The next day, after she catered a 50th anniversary party for friends, the husband comes into the cafe, orders his usual and dies of a heart attack. All of her customers think it was her late aunts famous sweet potato pie that was poisoned and stop coming in. As she soon finds out from her ex-husband, a police officer, that the man died from an overdose that stopped his heart. Savvy, along with her sous-chef and friend, Penny, start to ask questions as to who might have caused his death and it wasn't her food. When another death occurs in a similar manner, Savvy has a list of suspects: the wife, the girlfriend, the band manager, a realtor and even a cameraman. But as she gets closer to the truth, she is putting herself in danger.
A highly enjoyable cozy mystery, with quirky characters, a smart and funny heroine and Chicagoland locales.
Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read this e-galley of "Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes".

Rounding up from 3.5⭐. This book was a nice cozy mystery. The characters were all painted well enough to be able to envision them. I just found the story a bit slow moving and occasionally lost my interest. However whole my initial suspicions were right, I was still second guessing myself for a good part of the story.

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes
by Sandra Jackson-Opoku
7059805
Kristi Lamont's reviewApr 26, 2025 · edit
really liked it

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes, by Sandra Jackson-Opoku, from St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

OK, I’m about as white and middle-aged lady as one gets. So take EVERYTHING I have to say in that context.

First of which, is, SISTER-GIRL? (Yeah, yeah, I know that I am not supposed to say SISTER-GIRL if I’m not black. But goodness, gracious, the lifelong friends that I have, my own background….yeah, I’m gonna go there.)

What in the WORLD are you doing writing about black-eyed pea fritters, served in Chicago by the descendants of ancestors from the South, without including a specific recipe for Mississippi Comeback Sauce?

Second of all, why in the world would say this doesn’t look like a typical cozy? It totally does!

Next of all, what a love letter to Chicago, and the black migration back in the day, and to families, in all their love and mess.

Were the various mysteries seen/solved about a mile and a half out coming? Well, yeah, of course. Were some of the characters bordering on/if not right out caricatures? Well, yeah, of course.

But wouldn’t you expect all that from a first in a series? I sure did.

Can’t wait to read more.

DESCRIPTION
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.

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson-Opoku has interesting characters and a Chicago setting, and with the addition of good food, was a fun mystery to read. Savvy Summers has a soul food cafe that she is trying to keep open despite a murder. She and her coworker Penny Lopes and her detective ex husband tackle solving the case while fending off developers. This was a very fun read with a lot of history to learn.

I really enjoyed Savvy and her adventures in this story! It is the beginning of a series so it does have a lot of introductions at the start but that is just so much fun, getting to know the "players" in this adventure and murder mystery. I also adore the food talk. I am a foodie at heart so talking food, and learning about new foods, is just my vibe. The action and mystery is right on point and the pacing is a delight. I loved this story and everything about it! I want a copy for my physical library. I cannot wait for the next in this series! Savvy is my new leading cozy lady!!

This is a fun and different cozy, one in which the mystery itself is less important than the life of the amateur sleuth working on it. Nobody liked the victim much anyway. The evocation of South Side Chicago, especially from the standpoint of a soul food restauranteuse, made for a fascinating escape. The constant descriptions of the food bring prepared and eaten had me salivating most of the time I was reading, and they figure nicely into the story. The author provides some explanations of the phrases being used - she called them epithets but I would call them proverbs - and in fine cozy tradition, she also provides some recipes (I really wanted the one for smothered chicken but I think I can figure it out now). I've only been to Chicago one time in my life, but I think I'll have to get back there again.

I really enjoyed this cozy mystery set in the Chicago area. There were plenty plot of twists, the characters were interesting, the setting was well described and used to advantage and I really enjoyed the local slang used throughout and thought it made the characters seem more real. I would absolutely read more in this series!!

Thanks to Netgalley, Minotaur Books, and Sandra Jackson-Opoku for this ebook arc to read. All opinions are my own.

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes is hopefully the start of a new restaurant mystery series. Savvy is our likeable protagonist who leads us through a complicated mystery to a satisfying resolution. Along the way we encounter a number of interesting characters, possible solutions and mouth-watering food.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson - Opoku.


Savvy owns a delicious restaurant and catering company. When two different men die “eating” her sweet potato pie at two different occasions she puts her detective skills to work to find out what is really going on.

Savvy inherits her aunts southern restaurant and is trying to make a go of it. A developer wants to buy the shop and she is one of two holdouts on the block. She keeps telling him no and then the deaths occur. The first one was a philandering husband who had celebrated his 50th anniversary the night before. He came into the restaurant for breakfast and ended up dying from a Viagra overdose. People said it was due to Savvy's award-winning sweet potato pie. But then another person dies from a Viagra overdose. The police don't see the deaths as homicides so Savvy with the help of her employee and her ex-husband start to investigate.

An entertaining, cozy mystery. There were some slow parts, but I thought there was a good balance of characters (albeit a lot of them) and the story has a satisfying - and plausible - ending.

The description of this book is also accurate, which I always appreciate.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson-Opoku

This mystery book was certainly entertaining. I enjoyed reading Savvy’s descriptive thoughts on everyone around her. There’s so much warmth and camaraderie in this book based on Chicago’s South Side.

Savvy, who owns her own Southern cooking inspired restaurant, turns up her investigative skills when a long-time patron dies during breakfast. Hilarity ensues when she tries to piece together the mystery. Throw an ex-husband and interesting side characters into the mix and it’s quite the story!

A delicious mystery debut!

I really wanted to love this one but I think there are a lot of other authors doing very similar things in a better way.

Savvy Summers is a cozy murder mystery following a black, 50 something cafe owner figuring out who poisoned her patron in her own cafe. Honestly I struggled with this. There were so many characters with most of them being rather unlikable. It was hard to keep track of. Savvy herself is fine, but does a rather poor job of figuring out who the killer is. It feels like nothing is happening and I never felt like we were actually close to figuring out what was going on. The ending was fine, but I was missing the detecting and solving of the mystery

This is the first book Imhabe read in this series.
I recommend reading the series in order to
not miss out on the background.. This is
a fun story with quirky characters and delicious
recipes, and the story wraps itself up nicely.!
My thanks to St Martin’s Press for the download
copy of the book dor review purposes..

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson-Opoku (out July 29, 2025) is a charming debut, filled with mystery, humor, and soul food. When Savvy Summers' popular café is suddenly at the center of a murder investigation after a customer, Grandy Jaspers, dies at one of her tables, Savvy’s life turns upside down. Though the police rule it an accident, Savvy faces a flood of bad press and a desperate need to clear her name. With the help of her assistant, Penny, Savvy embarks on a mission to uncover the real culprit behind Grandy’s death. Meanwhile, she’s dealing with a shady investor, a drop in business, and the return of her ex-husband, a police sergeant. Will Savvy save her café and solve the crime before everything falls apart?
I thank Netgalley, the publisher and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in advance in exchange for my honest opinion.

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson-Opoku (out July 29, 2025) marks an interesting debut, though not one that entirely captures your attention from start to finish. The novel follows Savvy Summers, who runs a soul food café in Chicago. Her life takes an unexpected turn when a local man dies suddenly at one of her café tables, and her famous sweet potato pie is dragged into a murder investigation.
Despite the police deeming the death an accident, the incident sparks a wave of negative press, putting Savvy's business in jeopardy. With the help of her assistant manager Penny, Savvy decides to investigate further to clear her name. In the process, she must also deal with a persistent investor, wary customers avoiding her pie, and her ex-husband, a police sergeant, reappearing just when things get complicated.
The premise of a cozy mystery with some lighthearted humor has potential, and while the quirky characters like Penny add charm to the story, I found the pacing a little slow at times. The mystery itself is engaging but doesn’t feel quite as gripping as it could have been. There are moments of fun, but overall, the book didn’t fully draw me in.
Many thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the chance to read this book in advance in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book!

In this captivating and cozy mystery read, Jackson-Opoku draws readers into a suspenseful world filled with secrets where everyone is a suspect! A web of dangerous secrets and morally ambiguous choices will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Jackson-Opoku skillfully crafts a cast of characters that embodies the duality of human nature, with ulterior motives often expertly masked. The interplay between desperation and ambition drives the plot forward, inviting readers to explore themes of trust, deception, and the lengths one will go for a chance at keeping secrets hidden. This book is perfect for fans of cozy mysteries, underdog protagonists, and female main characters with everything to lose and everything to give!

I thought the story a little slow and too many characters. The story was interesting and I liked Savvy but I just couldn’t seem to get into it.