April 1, 2022
Budewitz is a dab hand at cozies, portraying the Market and its denizens as a "community within a community" while weaving a murder mystery into this placid backdrop. It's Black Friday and Pepper Reece, owner of Seattle Spice, is gearing up for a busy holiday season. The shops of Pike Place Market are adorned with Victorian decorations while costumed merrymakers mingle with tourists. But then Pepper finds Beth, a young woman who works at her friend Vinny's wine shop. She has been brutally attacked and left for dead. What seems a random violent attack becomes more ominous as Pepper is confronted with multiple suspects. The case becomes more complex, with family tragedy, broken marriages, and the fiercely competitive world of real estate in this iconic Seattle landmark. Pepper's romance with Nate the fisherman is going strong and balancing sleuthing with meeting his brother will make this a chaotic and potentially dangerous holiday season. VERDICT Budewitz's sixth "Spice Shop" mystery (after The Solace of Bay Leaves) will please series fans with its cast of recurring characters and its recipes. Also hand it to readers who love the irresistible mixture of holiday and murder, and to enthusiasts of the gentler side of the genre.--Amy Nolan
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May 15, 2022
A brutal assault disrupts Christmas festivities at Seattle's famed Pike Place Market. Pepper Reece knows how lucky she is to have snagged a shop in her city's iconic farmers market. Some merchants wait years for such an opportunity. To show her gratitude for her good fortune, she makes sure that Seattle Spice looks, smells, and tastes season-appropriate, with cinnamon-laden garlands and mint tea samples for customers. But it becomes much harder for her to maintain her desired level of Christmas cheer when, on a trip to fellow merchant Vinny Delgado's wine shop, she finds his young assistant, Beth Yardley, lying in a pool of blood. Vinny's ex-wife, Marly, is on the scene. Together the two women summon the police and wait for Vinny while gravely injured Beth is taken to the hospital. As the young woman hovers between life and death in the ICU, Pepper's boyfriend, Nate Seward, and his brother, Bronson, clean up Vinny's shop. Until Beth's attacker is caught, though, the market's merchants remain on edge. To bring peace to her beloved Pike Place, Pepper decides that she has to investigate, even without knowing whether Beth was the target of a planned attack or the victim of a random act of violence. A standard merchant cozy with local color and holiday trimmings.
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June 30, 2022
Pepper Reece, owner of Seattle Spice, located in the storied Pike Place Market, is stunned when an employee of a local wine shop owned by her good friend Vinny is attacked and left for dead, the storeroom and Vinny's office ransacked. The young woman, Beth Yardley, while ambitious, seems to had no enemies, and Pepper gets involved when Vinny and an employee of hers, Matt, become suspects. Was the attacker the mysterious man Pepper saw arguing with Beth before the attack? Pepper tries to find this elusive man while interviewing others who may help in solving the crime. She is later attacked herself but doesn't let it derail her investigation. Complicating matters, it is the beginning of the holiday season, a busy time at her store, and she is nervous to meet her boyfriend's brother, who will be staying with them. A conscientious heroine, a satisfyingly twisty plot, a meticulously described setting with information about Pike Place Market's past and present, and details of running a small spice business add up to a satisfying cozy, which includes recipes.
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