Actually, critic Oline Cogdill discusses Sandra Jackson-Opoku’s latest mystery, Savvy Summers and the Po-boy Perils in her latest review, originally published in the South Florida Sun Sentinel, but the headline stresses hot sauce. You can pre-order a copy of the book through The Poisoned Pen’s Webstore, https://shorturl.at/9waZl.
Thank you, Oline, for sharing the review.
Book reviews: Death by hot sauce – plus recipes! – in new Savvy Summers mystery
‘Savvy Summers and the Po’boy Perils’ by Sandra Jackson-Opoku. Minotaur, 304 pages, $28
The subgenre of culinary mysteries has undergone a sea change in the past 16 years. These mysteries don’t just feature an amateur sleuth who is an expert cook, but they also use food as a way to explore culture, heritage and background, as in Sandra Jackson-Opoku’s new series, the second of which “Savvy Summers and the Po’boy Perils.”
Jackson-Opoku centers her delightful series around Savvy Summers, the owner of a soul food restaurant on Chicago’s South Side.
Savvy’s restaurant connects her to the community and to her late great-aunt, after whom she named her restaurant, Essie’s Place, and whose recipes fill her menu. Those recipes are one reason for Savvy’s success. The recipes also are part of the restaurateur’s legacy; Aunt Essie brought those recipes with her decades before when she migrated from Mississippi to Chicago. Aunt Essie came to Chicago during The Great Migration, when roughly 6 million Black Americans located from the rural South to urban areas. The Great Migration is considered to be between 1910 and 1970.
Savvy’s expertise in the kitchen is well known in her community, but she can’t seem to master some staples of Creole cooking that she recently added to her menu.
Still, Savvy is able to pull together a Creole menu to cater a friend’s luncheon for business colleagues in “Savvy Summers and the Po’boy Perils.” Her food receives high praise, but a couple days later, one of her friend’s employees dies, possibly from an overdose of an extremely spicy hot sauce.
Jackson-Opoku keeps the light plot realistic with believable action and characters who could be your neighbors. Savvy’s involvement in the investigation stems from her desire to save her business. To show Savvy’s connection to the community, the novel ends on a major Chicago event that recently happened. And naturally, the author includes recipes that may drive you to the kitchen.
Jackson-Opoku’s series is off to an excellent start. The first novel in this series, “Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes,” was nominated for the 2025 Mary Higgins Clark Award.