Hers is to restore internal order within the community. The professionals’ job is to restore the external order by making an arrest and prosecuting. She may think law enforcement officers are on the wrong track, or her role in village life may give her insight and information they lack. The amateur sleuth investigates because she has a personal stake in the crime and in making sure the right people are brought to justice. But when her life fell apart, she found unexpected solace-and employment-in bay leaves. Despite her name, Pepper Reece never intended to run a spice shop. So naturally, when I thought about setting a mystery series in Seattle, the Market beckoned. I’d start at the front entrance with a slice of pizza from DeLaurenti’s walk-up window, browsing the covers of the magazines at the First & Pike Newsstand- eyes only until my hands were clean! I’d sip a sample cup of tea at Market Spice while watching the fishmongers throw salmon and amuse the crowd with their comedy routine, pick my produce and cheese for the week, and end with dessert-a hazelnut sablé from Le Panier, the French bakery, or a Nanaimo bar from a now-departed shop in the warren off Post Alley. Later, as a young lawyer working downtown, I tried to eat my way through the Market once or twice a week. Leslie: I fell in love with the Market as a student at Seattle University. Why did you choose Seattle and its famous Pike Place Market for this series? With its Seattle setting, it is part of what is almost becoming a mystery sub-genre, the Urban Cozy. Her aromatic creations are the talk of the town, and everyone stops by for a cup of her refreshing spice tea, even other shopkeepers and Market regulars.īut when a panhandler named Doc shows up dead on her doorstep, a Seattle Spice Shop cup in his hand, the local gossip gets too hot for Pepper to handle-especially after the police arrest Tory Finch, one of Pepper’s staffers, for murder.īarb: We’re so excited about Assault and Pepper. Since this is her publication month, we invited Leslie around for a chat.Īfter leaving a dicey marriage and losing a beloved job in a corporate crash, Pepper Reece has found a new zest for life running a busy spice and tea shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Anyway, I was thrilled when Leslie asked me to blurb the first book in her new Spice Shop Mystery series, and happily gave it my hearty endorsement. Or it could have been because she and Liz were both nominated for Best First Agatha’s last year. Or it could have been because she, Sheila, Jessie and Julie are all Berkley authors. It could have been through Sisters in Crime National, or through the Guppies (Great UnPublished, the online chapter of Sisters in Crime). Barb: I’m not sure how the Wickeds got to know Montana-based author, Leslie Budewitz.

Assault and Pepper by Leslie Budewitz