First, my name. My grandparents’ first date was to see The Godfather in 1972, and they loved the actress Talia Shire, best known for playing Adrienne in the Rocky movies. When my mother was expecting me, my grandmother suggested Talia.

The perfect start to our relationship! As a little girl, I spent summers in Burien, on the south end of Seattle, with my grandparents, who ran a furniture repair and upholstery shop. You’d think it was she who did the upholstery, he the carpentry, but the other way around. She is a true craftswoman. She created a corner for me in the back of the shop, where I played with extra bits of wood and fabric, spending hours pretending to make old things new again, like they did.

I have missed her so much

Where was my mother during those summers? Not in Seattle, I know that for sure. Off finding herself or chasing her bliss or some other BS. As far away as possible.

Honestly, I don’t know what happened between them. One of those fights where both people are equally wrong and right and stubborn, I suppose, just from knowing them. And I’m sorry to say it changed things between me and Gran. I didn’t respond to her calls, and letters, and gifts. Except when she sent cash. That, I kept.

I know. Rotten little brat, I was.

But I always knew she loved me—more than anyone else has ever loved me.

So when I needed to leave Southern California in a hurry, I came here.

I know what you’re thinking, and no, I did not force my way into her life and house—and it is hers, just hers, since Granddad died. I did not expect anything from her, except a second chance. I got my own place, a tiny little sublet in Fremont, and a job cleaning houses.

What did my grandmother expect from me? I don’t know. Not an apology. Not me groveling on my knees. And not me taking care of her, now that her lungs are giving out.

That’s why I started taking her scones. Lemon cream scones from the very best bakery in the world, right here in funky little Fremont. Every weekend, I took the bus down to see her, carrying a pink cardboard box of scones.

But I’m not sure I can keep bringing them. I did a dumb thing, and it may have caught up with me. So I’m on the run, until I can figure out what to do without bringing danger to the doorstep of a woman who did nothing to deserve it.

Nothing, except to love me.

Find Pepper’s recipe for Lemon Cream Scones in To Err is Cumin, and at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen.

To Err is Cumin, A Spice Shop Mystery Book 8
Genre: Cozy mystery
Release: August 2024
Format: Print, Digital, Audio (July 2024)
Purchase Link

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, running her shop and working with customers eager to spice up their cooking. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner.

Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, new in town and nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper’s tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain.

On the hunt for Talia, Pepper discovers a web of connections threatening to ensnare her best customer. The more she probes, the harder it gets to tell who’s part of an unsavory scheme of corruption—and who might be the next victim.

Between her quest for an elusive herb, helping her parents remodel their new house, and setting up the Spice Shop’s first cooking class, Pepper’s got a full plate. Dogged by a sense of obligation to find the rightful owner of the hidden treasure, she keeps on showing up and asking questions.

One mistake, and she could find herself cashing out . . .

About the author
Leslie Budewitz writes the Spice Shop mysteries set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, along with the Food Lovers’ Village series and historical short mysteries set in Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes stand-alone suspense. A three-time Agatha-Award winner, past president of Sisters in Crime, and former board member of Mystery Writers of America, she lives in NW Montana. Read excerpts and find out more at LeslieBudewitz.com.