Leslie Budewitz

Pepper Reece, owner of the Seattle Spice Shop, thinks she can handle any kind of salty customer - until a murderer ends up in the mix. After 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...

Spring is in full bloom in Pike Place Market, where Pepper is celebrating lavender's culinary uses and planning a festival she hopes will become an annual event.

Springtime in Seattle's Pike Place Market means tasty foods and wide-eyed tourists, and Pepper's Spice Shop is ready for the crowds. With flavorful combinations and a fresh approach, she's sure to win over the public. Even better, she's working with several local restaurants as their chief herb...

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market, loves a good festival, especially one serving up tasty treats. So what could be more fun than a food walk in the city's Chinatown-International District? But when her friend Roxanne stumbles across a man's body in the Gold...

In Seattle's Pike Place Market, Spice Shop owner Pepper Reece is savoring her business success, but soon finds her plans disrupted by a killer. Pepper Reece's to-do list is longer than the shopping list for a five-course dinner, as she conjures up spice blends bursting with seasonal flavor...

Gourmet food market owner Erin Murphy is determined to get Jewel Bay, Montana's, scrumptious local fare some national attention. But her scheme for culinary celebrity goes up in flames when the town's big break is interrupted by murder.... Food Preneurs, one of the hottest cooking shows on TV...

One person's treasure is another's trash . . . Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life for a change. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down...

A Dickens of a Christmas turns deadly . . . As the holiday season lights up Seattle's famed Pike Place Market, Pepper Reece's beloved Spice Shop is brimming with cinnamon, nutmeg, and shoppers eager to stuff their stockings. Add to the mix a tasty staff competition—a peppermint...

Seattle Spice Shop owner Pepper Reece probes murder while juggling a troubled employee, her mother's house hunt, and a fisherman who's set his hook for her. As owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's famed Pike Place Market, Pepper Reece is always on the go. Between conjuring up new spice blends...

In Jewel Bay, all is merry and bright. At Murphy's Mercantile, AKA the Merc, manager Erin Murphy is ringing in the holiday season with food, drink, and a new friend: Merrily Thornton. A local girl gone wrong, Merrily's turned her life around. But her parents have publicly shunned her, and they...

Erin Murphy, manager of Glacier Mercantile (a.k.a. the Merc), is tuning up for Jewel Bay's annual Jazz Festival. Between keeping the Merc's shelves stocked with Montana's tastiest local fare and hosting the festival's kick-off concert, Erin has her hands full. Discord erupts when jazz guitarist...

The town of Jewel Bay, Montana - known as a Food Lovers' Village - is obsessed with homegrown and homemade Montana fare. So when Erin Murphy takes over her family's century-old general store, she turns it into a boutique market filled with local delicacies. But Erin's freshly booming business...

In an attempt to woo tourists to Jewel Bay and cheer up the townies, Erin Murphy, manager of the specialty local foods market known as the Merc, is organizing the First Annual Food Lovers' Film Festival, filled with classic foodie flicks and local twists on favorite movie treats. But when her...

The Solace of Bay Leaves is the fifth Spice Shop mystery, featuring Pepper Reece, a 40-something single city girl. When her life fell apart at 40, after she stumbled over her husband, a Seattle police officer on the downtown bike beat, and a parking enforcement officer practically plugging...

In her Food Lovers' Village Mysteries, Agatha Award-winning author Leslie Budewitz introduces us to Jewel Bay, a tight-knit Montana community that thrives on tourism and farm-to-table fare. Featuring Erin Murphy, beloved proprietor of the Merc-a century-old general store converted into a local...