Spice Shop #8
I’m a real fan of this series, two of the biggest reasons being the setting and the complexity of the characters. Set in Seattle’s vivid Pike Place Market area, heroine Pepper Reece owns a spice shop. Pepper is in her 40’s, divorced, and dating a fisherman who is away much of the time (fishing). At the moment she’s helping to redecorate the house her parents have bought in the area and she spies the perfect wingback chair on the curb. Being a big city dweller she claims this piece of street treasure and gets an SUV owning buddy to come pick her, and the chair, up. When she takes a closer look at the lumpy seat she finds it’s stuffed with cash.
Pepper calls her ex, a bike cop, who of course tells her to turn it into the police, which she does. She’s no fool, though – she keeps the chair, and she and her mother’s decorator make plans. Being Pepper – a bit nosy, and very determined to do the right thing – she then tries to find the owner of the chair who seems to have vanished. When a death follows, seemingly related to the missing chair owner, Pepper’s investigation amps up.
Much of Pepper’s sleuthing is done in the market area, questioning people she knows. This of course is the hallmark of the amateur sleuth, and very neatly, Budewitz manages not to stretch credulity too far. You can believe Pepper might ask around – the death, after all, is the talk of the market.
What makes this book special is the portrayal not just of Pepper’s Spice Shop but of her staff, her fellow merchants and restaurant owners, and simply the folks she meets along the way. The antiques shop she includes is especially vivid. It’s also the character development that make the books a standout. Not only the portrayal of Pepper herself, but the portrayal of the missing woman, Talia, is fully fleshed out and interesting. You’re hoping she’s OK and rooting for Pepper to find her.
The answer, when it comes, it suitably tricky and well set up. These are gentle books with an attitude of appreciation of what’s good in life (for Pepper, what’s good often includes delicious sounding baked goods), and the food is to die for. Much like her literary ancestress Carolyn Hart, Budewitz also shouts out to various cozy authors throughout the novel, including V. M. Burns and Krista Davis. If you’re looking for another foodie mystery, she’s given you a place to start, after you’re finished gobbling up this one. I very much look forward to another outing with Pepper. — Robin Agnew