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dollycas 's review for:
Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes
by Sandra Jackson-Opoku
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
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.