Seattle Pike Place Market

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

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