Book Title: TO ERR IS CUMIN
Character Name: Pepper Reece
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
Everyone laughs when I say “normal,” but we all think what’s familiar is the norm, right? My parents, Chuck and Lena, met at an anti-war rally when he, a tall Army vet in a fatigue jacket, swept a pretty little hippie chick out of the way of an oncoming truck. Opposites attract. They paired up with another couple, my BFF Kristen’s parents, to form Grace House, a Catholic peace and justice community on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. They protested, advocated, and established community service programs, many still running. All that, and the steady stream of volunteers in and out of the house, meant I got to meet people of all stripes at a young age, while learning to follow my passions and pursue justice - and to pay no attention to what the neighbors think!
When I was 12, the community broke up and my family bought our first house on our own. In KILLING THYME (3rd in the series), I learned what really happened - and that both Kristen, two weeks older than me, and the house had been keeping secrets. And boy, was I astonished in PEPPERMINT BAKED (6th in the series) when my parents moved back to Seattle from Costa Rica and made a surprising choice while house-hunting.
What was your greatest talent?
As a kid? I can’t tell you for sure, but I do remember Sister 5th Grade’s comment on my report card that “Pepper enjoys helping her teachers and classmates, perhaps a little too much.” No such thing, I say! But no doubt those traits are what led me to a long career in HR, and now, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market and amateur sleuth. (And no, I do not remember Sister 5th Grade’s name. I’ve repressed it.)
Significant other?
It’s been a road, I’ll tell you. After 13 years of marriage, I literally tripped over my then-husband Tag, a Seattle police officer on the bike patrol, and a meter maid (I can’t bring myself to say “parking enforcement officer”) practically plugging each other in the back of a restaurant. Where I’d gone for drinks with friends after work because he was supposedly working a late shift. Honestly, I should have seen it coming. After our divorce, I dated a few guys and was not looking, absolutely NOT looking, when my dog, Arf, and I met Nate Seward, aka the Fisherman. It’s been just over a year, and I tell you, I am all in - hook, line, and sinker - with no plans to ever go fishing again.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
I never expected to be divorced. Not after growing up with my parents, still as goofy for each other as ever, after more than 40 years. And then when both Tag and the guy after that cheated, well, I had trouble believing I deserved a solid, mature relationship. Nate, happily, showed me otherwise.
Where do you live?
I live in the coolest place! You have to come visit. It’s a loft in a brick warehouse built more than a century ago for the canneries between the Seattle waterfront and Pike Place Market, where my shop is. It was blank space facing an elevated highway when I bought it, and now? Truly home. Though why an old warehouse has twelve-foot-high windows that open to a narrow veranda - or any windows at all - is a mystery I still haven’t solved.
Do you have any enemies?
No-o-o, I don’t think so. Tag and I have worked our way to friendship. Detective Michael Tracy irks me from time to time, and I know my persistence annoys him, but he’s easily appeased by cookies or other tasty treats. There is a chef who’s pretty unhappy with me, and he’s been calling and stopping by the shop, but nothing bad will come of it - I hope.
Do you have any pets?
Arf, a five-year-old Airedale Terrier who’s lived in the Market his whole life and probably has more friends here than I do! He’s a great help in my investigations---I call him Mr. Ambassador!
What do you do for a living?
When the law firm where I managed staff HR imploded in scandal, taking my job with it, I bought the Spice Shop in Pike Place Market. I’d been coming to the shop since tagging along with my mother as a little girl, and never imagined owning it. It is truly my happy place. (And no, I’m not named for it - my grandfather nicknamed me Pepper when I was 5, but it feels like fate, doesn’t it?)
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
I love to cook and eat, listen to baseball games, and get together with friends for Flick Chicks, our movie club, to eat and gab. Sometimes we even watch the movie! I love long walks along the waterfront with Arf and Nate and reading historical mysteries - I consider Brother Cadfael, the 12th century monk and herbalist so evocatively penned by the late Ellis Peters, my spirit guide.
What keeps you awake at night?
Injustice. The fear that I’m not doing enough to help the people who count on me. And occasionally, Nate.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
My friend Laurel and I had just finished Sunday brunch in the Fremont district, one of Seattle’s funkiest neighborhoods, when we found a ratty old wingback chair on the sidewalk, left for the taking. I love rescuing furniture and other cast-offs and had to have it. But then we found a wad of cash - we’re talking serious green here - inside the cushion. So I’ve got to find the young woman I think it belonged to - I’m concerned about her safety. And I’m worried about what Boz the pesky chef has to do with her disappearance. Some of the people he knows aren’t so sweet or savory.
Spice Shop Mysteries #8
Leslie Budewitz is back with another savory mystery waiting to be solved. . .
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 where she’s not wanted, asking probing questions.
One mistake, and she could find herself cashing out. . .
Mystery Amateur Sleuth | Mystery Culinary | Mystery Cozy [Seventh Street Books, On Sale: August 6, 2024, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781645060857 / eISBN: 9781645060956]
TO ERR IS CUMIN is a great installment to the series.
Leslie Budewitz is a three-time Agatha Award winner and the best-selling author of the Spice Shop mysteries, set in Seattle, and Food Lovers’ Village mysteries, inspired by Bigfork, Montana, where she lives. Next up: To Err is Cumin (August 2024) and her first historical mystery, All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection. (Sept 2024). As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense. Leslie is a former board member of Mystery Writers of America and a past president of Sisters in Crime.
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