A Book Review of Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson-Opoku
Thank you, Sandra Jackson-Opoku, Netgalley, and St. Martin’s Press, for the advance copy of Savvy Summer and the Sweet Potato Crimes.
Cozy Mystery, Mystery
Black male main character, Black female main character, and Black side characters.
Trigger Warning: murder, blackmail, attempted murder, poisoning attempt
Introduction:
Savvy Summers owns a soul food café on the south side of Chicago. Everything was going for her until a customer fatality occurred after consuming her sweet potato pie. Now she is accused of murdering the customer. Savvy’s reputation is ruined. Her customer base dwindled due to circulating rumors. Savvy investigates to save her café and other people’s lives.
Analysis
Savvy Summers is an excellent cook and baker. Summers uses her grandmother Essie’s recipes, which keep the people coming. Essie’s recipes are traditional soul food recipes, but Savvy puts her spin on them. Despite her success, a few terrible customers make her job harder.
Grady Jasper’s family is also included. She also has a competitor who wants her to lose her business. An investor also wants her to sell her name and café. Some of the book’s interesting characters contribute to making to book fun to read.
The story features Savvy. Savvy Summers is a shrewd businesswoman. This comes in handy when making dishes. She makes interesting and delicious recipes that appeal to the old and young. One way she does this is by combining her family’s soul food with her contemporary interpretations. Savvy is in her forties.
Savvy knows each of her customers' likes and dislikes, which helps her to create new dishes, but also in solving a crime.
For example, she noticed that Jasper and his wife's relationship was good. Even before the blowout at their anniversary party. Jasper had a lot of enemies in town because of his fraudulent business dealings and cheating. That is why, when he drops dead after eating her sweet potato pie, she has to solve the case. But she needs help.
Likely, Savvy has helped. Her ex-husband is a police sergeant. He wants Summers to stay out of snooping. He wants to keep her safe and out of trouble. But when Savvy gets enough evidence to prove foul play was involved. He decides to help her get evidence and talk to suspects. Summers also has a nosy assistant, Penny Lopes. Lopes have no problem finding out people's secrets and sharing them.
My thoughts
I value the character’s understanding of how specific meals started. A foodie who loves history will enjoy hearing about the history of the dishes. Her recipes and descriptions of others show her attention to detail.
It can be amusing, although some might see comedy in fat shaming. Her words of wisdom were wonderful. These words remind me of things my grandmother would say. The book offered a blend of suspense and humor. The ending made the slow pace worthwhile.
