Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson-Opoku Narrator: Karen Chilton
Series: Savvy Summers #1
Published by Macmillan Audio on July 29, 2025
Source: NetGalley
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Length: 9 hrs 20 mins
Pages: 336
Format: Audiobook
Purchase at Bookshop.org or Audible
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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 is a decent cozy murder mystery set on Chicago’s south side. I love Savvy, who owns a soul food restaurant and does some catering. Business is good, until Grandy Jaspers drops dead while eating her famous sweet potato pie. Even though it was ruled an accident, people are avoiding the restaurant. And to be honest, while Savvy knows it wasn’t her pie that killed Grandy, she does think he might have been murdered.
Savvy is a middle-aged widow who is smart, sassy, and determined, but maybe not the best detective. This is her first case though. And it’s a tough one. We have tons of characters, most of whom she knows from one place or another, and they all seem to have secrets, even her assistant/side-kick, Penny. I actually had a hard time keeping everyone straight, and since I listened to the audio, I couldn’t exactly flip back to see who was who. The narrator did a good job, especially bringing Savvy to life, but it was a bit confusing at times.
The author did a fabulous job bringing the south Chicago setting to life. I could picture the neighborhood, the people – and the food. I wonder if we have a decent soul food restaurant locally.
The mystery was entertaining enough. I didn’t guess who the killer was, but I’m not sure I really cared either. Hopefully, this is the first in a series and the next one’s mystery will be as strong as Savvy and her setting.
About Sandra Jackson-Opoku
Sandra Jackson-Opoku is the author of novels, The River Where Blood is Born and Hot Johnny (and the Women Whom Loved Him). Her fiction, nonfiction, poetry and dramatic works are widely published and produced, appearing in such outlets as Both Sides: Stories from the Border, the Anthology of Appalachian Heritage, storySouth, Another Chicago Magazine, New Daughters of Africa, Ms. Magazine, Ocotillo Review, Obsidian, the Literary Traveler and others. She coedited the anthology Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks.
Her awards and honors include a National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Fellowship, the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines Fiction Award for Younger Writers, an American Library Association Black Caucus Award for Fiction, Ragdale Foundation US/Africa Fellowship, a William Randolph Hearst Research Visiting Fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society, a Roots Fellowship at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, and Esteemed Literary Artist Award from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Sandra Jackson-Opoku has been an artist in resident in communities throughout the U.S. and around the world.
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