Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes is a cozy mystery set in and around Savvy's soul food cafe in Chicago.

Savvy and her sweet potato pies are getting in all kinds of trouble...including being present at 2 deaths.

Can Savvy find out who is behind these deaths before

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes is a charming and clever cozy mystery with a deliciously unique twist. Sandra Jackson-Opoku weaves food, family, and small-town intrigue into a story that’s as warm and flavorful as the sweet potato dishes it features. Savvy is a relatable and resourceful heroine whose determination and wit keep you rooting for her from start to finish.

The writing style is vivid and inviting, with cultural and culinary details that make the setting feel alive. The mystery itself has just enough twists to keep you guessing without losing its cozy charm. My only wish was for a slightly tighter pacing in the middle, but it didn’t stop me from enjoying every page.

If you like your mysteries seasoned with heart, humor, and a sprinkle of Southern flavor, this one’s a treat.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advanced digital copy!

This mystery novel takes place in the Chicago area pertaining to a soul food cafe owner, Savvy Summers, and the mysterious deaths around her famous sweet potato pie. Could it be possible that the deaths of her customers be related to her award winning pie?

I have always had a huge appreciation for soul food and with the combination that this is a mystery, I was excited to dive into this book. There are many characters to keep track of so I felt that it slightly deviated away from the storyline. The ending did take me by surprise. I find this to be a cozy mystery that is enjoyable, but not quite binge-worthy.

Savvy Summers is the owner of a popular diner. The most popular dish is sweet potato pie, until a local well known elderly womanizer does while eating it. Savvy has to save the reputation of her diner, and find the guilty party, even though the death was designated an accident by local police. People who used to go to the diner for the pie are either avoiding it due to the death, or are there to gawk at the table where the death occurred.

The story was well written with great dialogue between the characters. It was a fun read, and I can't wait to try some of the recipes included at the end of the book! This was a great quick read! I have already recommended it to some of my friends!

I was given the opportunity to read this by NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting murder mystery with some very entertaining characters. Savvy loves to feed people. When she retired from her other job, she opened a soul food cafe. When one of her customers dropped dead in her cafe, everyone seems to think her famous pie had something to do with it. She is out to prove them wrong. Savvy believes he was murdered, but the police really don't seem at all concerned. Then when another man is murdered in the same way, they start to look into it. Savvy isn't going to wait for them; she is going to find out on her own. When her life becomes endangered, she has to step it up a notch and keep herself safe. Can she do it?

This was a charming, laugh-out-loud read. Savvy Summers is a very clever gal, equipped with all her great-aunt's funny sayings. The portrait Jackson-Opoku paints of an African American neighborhood in Chicago is fascinating, with its roots in Southern cooking and language. The characters are over the top and yet believeable, and the plot simmers along like a pot of collard greens on a slow burner.

While Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes is a debut mystery for Sandra Jackson-Opoku, I am hoping that she will bring these characters back as a series. Savvy inherited her Great-Aunt Essie’s restaurant along with her words of wisdom for every occasion. She is known for her sweet potato pie, but when Grandy, one of her regulars, dies landing face down in a slice it is only the beginning of her troubles. She is shut down by the health department after an anonymous complaint. Noble, fronting for a group that is buying the surrounding properties, is pressing her to sell. He has convinced Grandy’s widow to sue her for poisoning her husband. Grandy’s death is finally determined to have been caused by a heart attack brought on by an overdose of the little blue pill. The lawsuit is dropped but the damage to her business has already been done. When a second patron dies of a heart attack caused by an overdose, it is written off by the police as an accidental death. Savvy decides that the only way to prove murder is to investigate on her own.

Savvy has an uncanny ability to detect a person’s lies with her lie-dar. Her ex-husband is a police sargeant who warns her not to get involved. Somehow she still manages to drag him into her plans. While she denies feelings for him, there is still a connection. Penny, her assistant, is only too willing to get involved. She is a movie musical fanatic who always finds an appropriate lyric to quote. They are crazy, easy to love and will have you laughing, but also keep you wondering how Savvy will find a murderer before they find her. As a bonus, Jackson-Opoku ends with a list of Great-Aunt Essie’s Epithets along with their meanings and recipes that will have your mouth watering. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur for providing this book.

Mouth watering recipes are part of the soul food served at Essie's cafe. A nice homey place with options for catering too. But then a regular customer dies in the cafe. The cafe is closed while the food is reviewed. Savvy fears her business will be closed permanently. And she begins to look into what has caused the death and delays of allowing her to reopen. She is then offered a buyout, That makes her look more closely into what is causing the offers when the cafe is closed. There is much to look into. I enjoyed the story but had to stop a few times to find something tasty to eat!

I ready cozy mysteries every once in a while. Now this series, I can get behind, SIGN ME UP!!!

Ms. Sapphire Summers, has been through so much loss. She's an older lady, living out her restaurateur dreams, running SSS CCC's with her right hand, Penny. Now, my girl is doing her thing, catering and handling her business. Disaster strikes - HARD. Savvy is doing everything she can do to not only save her business and reputation but to keep her own behind out of jail.

Savvy and Penny put their Lie-dar and Lay-dar to the test to see what they what can find out and if they can figure it out in time to not just save Savvy, but to also save Essie's. I cannot wait to see what the next book in this series brings. I enjoyed it all the way through.

And Heyyyyy Fanon!!

I received a copy of this ARC from NetGalley.

Over the weekend, I read this entertaining cozy mystery. I had a grand time guessing whodunnit while my mouth watered with each dish that Savvy whipped up! Food-themed cozies are my favorite: they’re my go-to comfort reads. I also loved Great-Aunt Essie’s words of wisdom. My favorite were: “The best cure for the blues is a dose of good deeds” and “A pinch of bacon grease and a pound of love”. These quotable quotes reminded me of Molly the Maid series! (IYKYK😉) My only cons were —- some parts dragged so I kind of glossed over them. I also had slight difficulty understanding some Black speak. I should get myself Black English dictionary as what Savvy suggested in the book!😅🤭Nevertheless, this was a decent cozy mystery that I enjoyed reading. Thank you @Minotaur_Books for my digital copy. Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes is now available!

This was such a fun cozy mystery! It was very different than the ones I typically read and I loved Savvy's character. I appreciated that she was an older character and had lived her life prior to opening Essie's. I also really enjoyed how things were tied up in the end and there weren't many questions left to be answered. I felt like the mystery had enough twists and possible suspects that I definitely did not guess it right away. The only issue I had was there were times when the story felt like it was slow. I am used to cozy mysteries being super quick and easy reads and for the most part this book was that but there were definitely parts that took me a bit to get through. Other than that I really enjoyed this book!

This is a great book! I really loved Savvy. I’m a sucker for a cozy mystery, but she is a special character! I love that she is older than most main characters in mysteries, and she has had so much life experience. From losing family at a young age, to marriage and motherhood, divorce, a career change, and becoming a widow. I feel like Savvy is one of the more real, and multi-faceted, and relatable characters I’ve read. The whole cast is wonderful, I love a story set in a tight knit community. Just don’t read while hungry, because all of the descriptions of food sound delicious!

I received an advance copy via NetGalley.

<i>Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes</i> feels like the solid start for a new series (I hope it is!) steeped in Black Chicago, vividly painting the city and its citizens. Savvy runs a restaurant and catering business, specializing in Southern soul food. When one of her regular customers, a lecherous old man, keels over as he eats her pie, the death isn't treated as suspicious by police, even as her business suffers because of rumors. Savvy begins her own investigation with the help of her chatty assistant and her cop ex-husband.

This ticks the boxes of a cozy mystery, but it is more on the PG-13 side of things. I really enjoyed Savvy as a character, and I really wanted to eat her food (good news: the back of the book has many recipes). I think my biggest struggle was keeping track who was who, as there are a LOT of characters introduced right away.

This was such a cute book!

What I liked most were Aunt Essie’s sayings sprinkled throughout the book. Some of them I was familiar with, especially being raised in the south. Savvy was a smart woman. I enjoy reading books with mature characters and this book hit that on the head. After the anniversary party, I was hooked. But when Grandy died, I became invested.

There were some parts that felt disconnected. The story seemed to skip around a bit and the flow just wasn’t there. It could have been that I read an unedited edition. So hopefully that’ll be flushed out in the final copy.

Overall, this was an enjoyable cozy murder mystery that I’d recommend.

3.75 stars rounded to 4!

Thank you to NetGally and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

I DNF'd this book about 50% in. I just don't like cozy mysteries and this is very much a cozy mystery. I also got tired of seeing everyone's full name used every other sentence. What I read was well written. If you like the genre, I think you will love this book. It just isn't for me.

This book was so much fun! I really enjoyed Penny’s character. She didn’t hold anything back and she tells it like it is. There was so many laugh out loud moments and great one liners. I loved all the Aunt Essie phrases. I felt like I was getting life lessons as I was reading. Savvy and Penny make an awesome team. I cannot wait to see what is in store for them next. P.S. This book will make you hungry!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

I got a physical copy of this book and ended up reading that version. I really loved this cozy mystery and would continue reading the book series. The characters, setting, plot and everything was just perfect some lighter summer mystery reading!

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes is a fun, cozy mystery. Aunt Essie’s sayings were a mixed bag, some made me laugh, others started to get a little repetitive. Her sidekick, Penny, brought a lot of humor too, which helped balance things out.

Even though I enjoyed the book overall, some parts felt a bit far-fetched. Savvy asked a lot of questions, and it seemed like no one ever pushed back or questioned why she was so curious. At times, I found myself wondering, “Umm... why is no one calling her out on this?”

Thanks to Minotaur Books for the ARC

This was a great read! The story kept me entertained and I loved the writing style! I would definitely recommend reading this!

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Essie’s Soul Food Café on the south side of Chicago is owned by Sapphire (Savvy) Summers and is named in honor of her Great-Aunt Essie, who had many words of wisdom on many subjects. Customers love the sweet potato pies Sassy, Penny, and Parker serve up every day. She never imagined the beloved pie would be part of a murder investigation. But that is what happens when one of her regular customers, a philandering, “cantankerous old goat,” named Grandy Jaspers, keels over dead after inhaling 2 pieces.

The police classify the death as an accident, but that doesn’t stop the mass exodus of customers. Sassy needs to do something fast, especially with real estate investor Noble McPherson tormenting her on a daily basis to sell the building and business to him. With the police doing basically nothing, she and Penny decide to investigate Grandy’s death themselves. This brings Savvy’s ex-husband, police sergeant Fanon, to her door to try to keep her safe and out of trouble.

Can Savvy get the answers she needs? Will she be able to home in on the killer? Or will the killer turn the tables and add Savvy to the body count?

Oh! These characters are fun! Savvy Summers is pretty sassy and knows her stuff. Her assistant manager, Penny Lopés, has no filter; she says what she thinks and pulls no punches. Together or apart, they are forces to be reckoned with. Savvy’s ex-husband, Chicago Police Sergeant Fanon Franklin, has been on the force for nearly 40 years and should have made detective long ago, but he doesn’t play games and couldn’t navigate CPD politics or the diplomacy to attain the promotion he wanted more than anything. He has a huge heart and appears to still be sweet on Savvy. We also meet Detective Emerson Jacobs, Fanon’s first partner, who he thinks will get Savvy to stop investigating, but the exact opposite happens. All these characters develop well while leaving room for growth as the series continues.

Ms. Jackson-Opoku has penned a terrific whodunit with an unusual murder weapon. There are a large number of suspects, one less after another murder. Both had a variety of enemies or people with motives to want them dead. The pace slowed a bit as Savvy and Penny worked through the suspects, clues, and twists to come up with plausible theories. I enjoyed following along. As we moved closer to the end of the story, I was still unsure, as was Savvy. Then an innocent moment took a very dark and suspenseful turn. I may have felt way too good about the eventual takedown. It was pretty awesome.

The ending was very satisfying, but there are changes ahead. You can’t stop progress, and according to Great Aunt Essie, “you gotta give some to get some.” (Though generosity is its own reward, it is often rewarded in kind.) I loved Great Aunt Essie’s Epithets! My favorite and one Savvy used frequently was “Lord, have mercy on their naked souls.” I have said the first three words a lot over the years, but had never heard them with the last four words until it came out of Savvy’s mouth.

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes is an amusing and enjoyable read with Southern roots. Charming characters, an intriguing mystery, plenty of sass and humor, and meals made with “a pinch of bacon grease and a pound of love” have set this series off to a nice start. I am excited for the next installment.