Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes: A Mystery (Savvy Summers Mysteries, 1)
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.
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Community Reviews
Full review to come. I enjoyed this audiobook. I would recommend it to other cozy mystery readers and I would listen to it again and read more from this author.
Update 7.24.2025:
earc review:
Update 7.24.2025:
earc review:
Savvy Summers & The Sweet Potato Crimes introduces a seasoned widow and southern food proprietor, Savvy to the cozy mystery world. Savvy is not new to changes or challenges. Her 50+ years have seen her through two marriages, two kids, a divorce, career changes and the death of a husband. Quick wit, intuition and strong will have helped her a lot over the years.
But the sudden death of a local cheater has her fully perplexed and concerned when allegations of his death are linked back to her and her cafe. Determined to track down the truth and clear her reputation and save her business, Savvy buddies up with her detective ex-husband and shopaholic employee.
When diving into this book I was surprised by the emotional loss our main character carried around on her shoulders. But it had a great impact on Savvy's character as we get to know her through the weeks following the death(s). The case provides an unexpected catharticsism for Savvy to find a way to process her own losses and accept when it's time to let go and move on.
And I love, love, love cozy mysteries that deliver on world building and character depth. I laughed at some characters and felt sorry for others. And pitied the murder victim(s) Savvy was hunting down answers for. Oh and did I mention that certain people are deliberately trying to force Savvy out of business on top of the suspicion of her pies being linked to the incident(s)?
I wish there was a better way to explain the cultural context behind the resistance that Savvy faces within her community over the death(s) that non-black readers may not pick up on. Like the beliefs and opinions or expectations of older generations, even though our main character is closer to them in age, there's still a barrier Savvy attempts to respectfully challenge.
This book was so much fun to read. I found Savvy reminded me of my grandma in so many ways and I loved her. She is fiery but has boundaries. She's observant but not terribly nosy or too obvious. She's an amateur sleuth that stands on business but not too caught up not to think about informing law enforcement--this may be because her ex is a detective though.
Steeped in African American colloquialisms, slang, references and lore, I can see Savvy becoming a favorite among other black cozy mystery readers.
I can't wait to see what Savvy's next chapter will be. And I'm excited to read more by this author.
I highly recommend readers to check out this book.
I highly recommend readers to check out this book.
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