Reviewed: 14 June 2026

Savvy Summers and The Po’Boy Perils

by: Sandra Jackson-Opoku

Savvy Summers Mystery, Book 2

Rating: (3/5)

Is Savvy savvy enough to find who used her food to kill?

When I read book 1, this was not yet a series. I enjoyed having a 50-year-old Black woman in South Side Chicago as the amateur sleuth. Add to it, her running a restaurant, I thought, YES, this is for me. The first book was good, and when I saw this one being released, I prepared myself for more Chicagoland history, food history, and information about the restaurant's ups and downs.

Picking up from where things left off in Savvy Summers and The Sweet Potato Crimes, with Savvy preparing to temporarily close her restaurant in preparation to move to the future new location. This is huge, as she is always going to lose her upstairs apartment. This is an extremely stressful time for Savvy. Her coping mechanism is to solve a murder. Especially when her food is implicated.

Throw in relationship overtones, interesting tidbits on communicating with dogs, and a lot is going on. Oh, did I mention that Savvy is working on new menu items/cuisines? I felt at times it was too many distractions. I feel like some of it could have been held back for a third book. I also think some of Savvy's sassiness was toned down, which was a disappointment.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #MinotaurBooks for the opportunity to do an early read and share my thoughts on the story.

Happy Reading!

Release Date: 21-July-2026

Cozy Mystery, Food Mystery, Female Sleuth, NetGalley

Plot Summary

The next delectable mystery featuring quick-witted, unforgettable Savvy Summers, owner of a soul food café in Chicago.

Savvy has her work cut out when an old friend hires her to cater a company luncheon at a nearby office building on Chicago's South Side. Stepping out of her traditional soul food comfort zone, Savvy whips together a menu of Creole classics, with her own spin, of course—mini po’boys with assorted fillings, sunburst salad, and bread pudding using Great Aunt Essie’s famous buttermilk biscuits.

But when someone is found dead in the company’s conference room, Savvy’s culinary creations are suddenly in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. While the focus should be on their delicious flavors and inventive techniques, Savvy’s beloved café instead becomes the center of a murder investigation once again.

Caught within a messy web of gossip, miscommunication, and fraught coworker relationships, Savvy will have to settle the confusion to clear her name. Somebody’s hiding something, and with the help of her trusty assistant manager, Penny Lopés, Savvy sets out uncover exactly who is to blame. With familiar faces turning up the heat on her investigation and her café still in hot water, will Savvy be able to save her reputation before it’s too late?