Since the release of Death Al Dente in 2013, I’ve been a fan of Leslie’s work, reading all of the books in her two cozy series, as well as her suspense titles. It is my honor to host the next book in her “Spice Shop” mystery series, coming July 2025 and now up for preorder.

Publication Date: July 15, 2025
Format: Print, Digital
Name of Series: A Spice Shop Mystery ~ Book 9
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Author Website: lesliebudewitz.com

Book Synopsis
At Seattle Spice Shop, owner Pepper Reece has whipped up the perfect blend of food, friends, and flavor. But the sweet smell of success can be hazardous . . .

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. When her friend Lavender Liz offers to share tips for promoting the much-loved—and occasionally maligned—herb, Pepper makes a trek to the charming town of Salmon Falls. But someone has badly damaged Liz’s greenhouse, throwing a wrench in the feisty grower’s plans for expansion. Suspicions quickly focus on an employee who’s taken to the hills, though Liz herself is not convinced.

Then Liz is found dead among her precious plants, stabbed by a pruning knife. In Salmon Falls, there’s one in every pocket.

Pepper digs in, untangling the tensions between Liz and a local restaurateur with eyes on a picturesque but neglected farm, a jealous ex-boyfriend determined to profit from Liz’s success, and a local growers’ cooperative. She’s also hot on the scent of a trail of her own, sniffing out the history of her sweet dog, Arf.

As Pepper’s questions threaten to unearth secrets others desperately want to keep buried, danger creeps closer to her and those she loves. Can Pepper root out the killer, before someone nips her in the bud?

Includes delicious recipes!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About the author
Leslie Budewitz tells stories about women’s lives, seasoned with friendship, food, a dash of history, and a spoonful of mystery. She writes the Spice Shop mysteries set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, as well as the Food Lovers’ Village mysteries and historical short fiction set in her native Montana. Her latest book is All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, featuring a remarkable real-life 19th century Montana woman. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody suspense set in the Northwest. A three-time Agatha Award winner, for Best Nonfiction, Best First Novel, and Best Short Story, she is a past president of Sisters in Crime. Leslie lives in Bigfork, Montana with her husband, Don Beans, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, the ghosts of half a dozen dogs and cats, and untold numbers of deer, bear, and chickadees, all of whom whisper their stories to her.