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Pepper Reece has a lot on her plate: she's a small business owner, she's negotiating a fairly new romance, she's got employee issues to work out, and then there's the dead body in her friend's vintage home decor shop. Pepper heard an argument, not sure who was involved, so she went to get her massage. Now Pepper thinks that her failure to check out the scene resulted in the death of Joelle Chapman. Joelle has connections throughout Pepper's world, although she and Pepper were not by any stretch of anyone's imagination close. Pepper feels, rightly or wrongly, that her little corner of Seattle won't be right until the killer is found.
Her world will also be different when Nate, the new boyfriend, heads back to Alaska for fishing season. Nate is Pepper's first real romance since her divorce from Officer Tag, the philandering bicycle cop. Can they survive his being gone for months at a time? Pepper knows that Nate is a fisherman; she's not even going to think about asking him to give that up, even if it means not seeing him as often as she'd like.
Then there are the mundane functions of running a small business. Staff? There are some issues, none of them earth-shattering and still demanding Pepper's attention and time. Coming up with ideas to bring customers into the shop - a never-ending job for anyone who owns a shop of any kind, especially in an area that functions a great deal on non-returning clientele, as Pike Place Market does. It's a never-ending process, and one always is working at least one or two seasons ahead of the actual date. It's summer, and Pepper is working on Fall themes and Christmas bundles.
No matter what else Pepper has on her mind, the murder of Joelle Chapman and the disruption it has brought to her friends is paramount. There are many leads to follow, not all of them productive. It wouldn't be a good book if it was a straight line from the death to the death-dealer. Budewitz is well aware of the need for red herrings, unreliable responses, diversionary clues. She blends all of these factors into a mystery that is entertaining, educational, thought-provoking, and eminently readable. If setting is a character, Pike Place Market is a star. One could visit there every day for a week or two and still not see or hear or taste everything available. The characters are very human, very accessible to the reader. This is a major plus, as there is plenty of material to mine for future books in the Spice Shop mystery series. The recipes included are also well worth a look - and a try.
§ I have been reading and reviewing mystery fiction for over a quarter of a century and read broadly within just about all genres and sub-genres. I have been a preliminary judge for the Malice Domestic/St. Martin’s Press Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Contest for at least 25 years. I live in Northern lower Michigan with my spousal unit, one large cat, and 2 fairly small dogs.
Reviewed by PJ Coldren, June 2019
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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