Peppermint Barked - Paperback

by Leslie Budewitz (Author)

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 bark-off--along with Victorian costumes for this year's Dickensian Christmas theme, and Pepper almost forgets to be nervous about meeting her fisherman boyfriend's brother for the first time. But when a young woman working in her friend Vinny's wine shop is brutally assaulted, costumed revelers and holiday cheer are the last things on Pepper's mind. Who would want to hurt Beth? Or were they looking for Vinny instead? The vicious attack upsets everyone at Pike Place, but none more than Pepper's own employee, Matt Kemp. At first, Pepper is baffled by his reaction, but his clandestine connection to Beth could hold the key to the assailant's motive. Or perhaps it's Vinny's ex-wife who knows more than she's letting on . . . and what about the mysterious top-hatted man with whom Pepper saw Beth arguing that morning? As the secrets of the market come to light, long-held grudges, family ties, and hidden plans only further obscure the truth. Is it a ghost of the past rattling its chains, or a contemporary Scrooge with more earthly motives? As Pepper chases down a killer, someone is chasing her, and in the end, the storied market itself may hold the final, deadly clue. A cozy holiday mystery full of culinary delights and a rich cast of characters, the sixth installment in the Spice Shop Mystery series will keep you turning the page . . . and reaching for another piece of peppermint bark.

Author Biography

Leslie Budewitz tells stories about women's lives, seasoned with friendship, food, a dash of history, and a heaping 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. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody suspense. A three-time Agatha Award winner--2013 Best First Novel for DEATH AL DENTE, the first Food Lovers' Village mystery; 2011 Best Nonfiction, and 2018 Best Short Story, for "All God's Sparrows," her first historical fiction--she is a past president of Sisters in Crime and a former board member of Mystery Writers of America. Leslie lives and cooks in NW Montana.