Leslie Budewitz

January Book Club: Mini Cozy Con

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For our January book club – meeting on Sunday, January 18 at 2 p.m. eastern – we’ll be hosting three outstanding cozy writers who between them have written 80 (yes, that’s 80) books.  We’ll be discussing the past, present and future of the cozy novel as well as talking to some really wonderful women.  This all takes place on zoom, and all are welcome to join.  Message me on facebook or instagram for a zoom link.  Check the website for reviews of many of their novels. read more

Leslie Budewitz: Lavender Lies Bleeding

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Spice Shop #9

I enjoy all my meetups with Pepper Reece at her charming Seattle Spice Shop.  The books are set in the iconic Pike Place Market, and Pepper is very much an active part of the market community.  Many of the books have taken place in and around the Market, but in this one, Pepper ventures out to a nearby lavender farm.  She’s planning a lavender festival at the market and thinking of ways to get as many vendors as possible involved in her venture.

To this end, she’s gone out to the farm of a friend, Liz, who has a lavender farm in Salmon Falls. While the real Salmon Falls is now an historical (and abandoned) landmark, the Salmon Falls in the book is a lively place.  When Pepper arrives, though, Liz’s greenhouse has been trashed and the police are on the hunt for the boyfriend of Abby, Liz’s assistant, as the possible culprit for the vandalism.  Abby is sure he’s innocent. read more

Author Interview: Leslie Budewitz

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Leslie Budewitz

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village series, set in Montana, and the Spice Shop Mysteries, set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market.  Both are “foodie” cozies. As Alicia Beckman, she has written two suspense novels, and she has an historical short story collection coming out later this year.  Her most recent book, To Err is Cumin, the eighth book in her Spice Shop series, was published in July.  She is a triple Agatha Award winner and a Macavity nominee.  Welcome, Leslie! read more

Leslie Budewitz: To Err is Cumin

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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. read more

Leslie Budewitz: Between a Wok and a Dead Place

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Spice Shop #7

As I hadn’t read this series before, it took me a minute to navigate both characters and setting, but once I did, I was all in.  Set in Pepper Reece’s spice shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, the setting in this book was a character all on its own.  This book focuses on the “CID” (I had to look that up), or Chinatown International District during Lunar New Year celebrations, and Pepper is enjoying them with her buddy Seetha.  She runs into an acquaintance (connected to her present boyfriend in a labyrinthine manner), Roxanne, who is coming out of a building looking completely freaked out.  She’s found a dead body. read more