SAVVY SUMMERS AND THE PO'BOY PERILS, second dangerously fattening entry in a delightful, atmospheric series

SAVVY SUMMERS AND THE PO'BOY PERILS (Savvy Summers #2)
SANDRA JACKSON-OPOKU
Minotaur Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: 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?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I gained fifteen pounds off the bread-pudding description alone. I would *kill* for some right now! I'd kill for some buttermilk biscuits, honestly, but these, and the perfect bread pudding...*drool*

As I said of Author Jackson-Opoku's work before, this series is going to fatten me right up into blimp-sized, belching satiety. Savvy's knack for landing in hot water is still credible to me, seasoned old reader that I am, because it doesn't come from some out-of-character contrivance but from accepting a job her business needs.

It seems clear that the series is going to do a lot of wandering around. It's not my first preference for the way a murder mystery unfolds, but it very much is my preference for a character-driven polyphonic novel of a community that feels real in its tight-knit gossipy love. Even though ugliness is inherent in murder mysteries, death is always a blow to a group, the deep interconnections are strong enough to heal the wound. With time, and as an aftermath to justice being served.

Savvy herself is a fun character to follow around as she talks to people, caring about them, listening to them. Penny is a scene-stealin' sass-dealin' delight as always. It's a hallmark of Author Jackson-Opoku's chops that I felt welcomed back into a charmed circle of lovely friends most of the time during this read. It takes skill to make that a reader's experience of a series story.

Savvy and Fanon (love that name, so resonant for someone born when and where he most likely was) have the kind of chemistry I myownself prefer: hot, but at a simmer that can turn into a boil quickly if there's just a *little* nudge of the thermostat. It's believable these two connected as hard as they did; it's believable they couldn't make it work full-time, but also are so finely attuned to each other that they have an unbreakable connection.

I really enjoyed being invited back into the community, welcomed with a so-enticing spread of delights, and told all the tea while everyone tried to be the one to spill it hardest. Not the greatest shakes on the mystery front...another deeply unlikeable crudbucket dead that not one soul should mourn the loss of...but as a novel, and a way to spend time rewardingly, it's up there for 2026.