Pepper Reece here, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market.
And no, I don’t mind one bit if you call me Spice Girl or the Mistress of Spices.
I started coming to the Market with my mother when I was little. (I just turned 44, so you do the math.) We lived in Grace House, a peace and justice community up the hill, and she did most of the cooking. That was the whole-wheat era, not long after the Market was saved from “urban removal.” Founded in 1907 with the mission of bringing producers and customers face to face, it’s the longest continuously operating farmers’ market in the country, open 363 days a year. Thanks to the voters, the Market became a city-within-a-city, with its own governing council and historical commission.
I admit, I have struggled with their rules a time or two. But every day, I’m grateful for the citizens of the Emerald City who saw that our past was the key to our future.
It was the perfect time for enterprising young people tempted by the Market’s low rents and the intriguing spaces to found businesses, many still thriving. Among them was Jane, who founded the Spice Shop and nurtured my mother’s interest in food and flavor. She also hooked me on the spiced black tea we still serve.
I never imagined that some day, I’d run the place. That I’d find my solace, and my life’s passion, in bay leaves. But when my life fell apart at 40, just as she was ready to sell, the Market took hold of me.
And knowing those nooks and crannies, those hidden hallways and secret spaces, has helped me evade a killer more than once—and catch a couple, too.
Let’s stroll into the Market at First and Pike. Careful on the cobblestones—they are original, but can easily catch a heel. Here on the left was the newsstand, where generations of Market-goers browsed newspapers and magazines from all across the country—even the world. Sadly, it fell victim to the changing times. I mourn it regularly.
The Italian deli and grocery is proof that the Market is not just the city’s heart and soul, but also its stomach. Cross the street for crumpets, go straight ahead for mini donuts. Stop when you get to Rachel, the bronze piggy bank, and plug in your spare change. Rachel collects donations for the Market Foundation, which provides social services to the 500 Market residents and to vendors who need help.
Need halibut for dinner, or crab to take home from vacation? Join the crowd around the fish market, where men and women in long rubber aprons and high rubber boots entertain with songs and toss fish like—well, like salmon could fly.
You’ll want veggies to go with that fish, or the meat you buy down the street. Several highstalls, in Market speak, offer gorgeous produce all year round. Daystallers in the Arcades carry specialty crops, and farm stands sell fruit and veg so fresh it’s practically still growing.
Bread? Cookies? Pastries? The Market bakeries will leave you drooling. Every single one is my favorite. I always say I rotate, like I do with the flower sellers, but I gravitate to some more often than others. Le Panier for baguettes, sablées, and macarons. (They’re doing lavender macarons for the Lavender Festival this summer!) Three Girls in the Corner Market—each building has its own name and history—is one of the oldest businesses here, and the first in the city licensed to a woman, in 1912. It serves terrific sandwiches and occasionally, just the right tasty tidbit of info I need for an investigation. And then there’s the bakery at the top of the stairs to the lower levels, where the silent barista writes messages on my coffee cup or paper bag.
As you wander, you’ll marvel at the architecture, from the Victorian columns in the arcades to the art deco styling of my building and more. If you look up at the windows in the Economy Market at just the right moment, you may catch the ghost of Arthur Godwin, an early Market Master, who loved to dance.
Don’t forget to go down the hidden staircase to Lower Post Alley and the Gum Wall, a perfectly disgusting bit of psycho grunge.
Then stop and enjoy the buskers—the piano man, the three men who harmonize like angels, or the balloon artist.
When you need a breather, head for one of the lookouts, or a restaurant with a view, and watch the barges and ferries cross Puget Sound. Later, stroll down to the amazing overlook and on to the waterfront, finally joined to the Market as it always should have been.
Be sure to come back in mid summer for our Lavender Festival, a feast for all the senses. At the Spice Shop, we’ll show you how to cook with lavender, and give you bites and sips to try. Other merchants are celebrating, too, with lavender truffles, soaps and lotions, craft booths, fresh bouquets, and more.
Bring your friends and be prepared for a day of food, flavor, and fun. Pure joy, thanks to the Market, where anything can happen—and often does.
Spice Shop Mystery #9
Success isn’t always so sweet in Leslie Budewitz’s ninth addition to the Spice Shop Mystery series . . .
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!
Mystery Cozy | Mystery Amateur Sleuth [Seventh Street Books, On Sale: July 15, 2025, Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9781645060864 / eISBN: 9781645060963]
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. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody suspense. A three-time Agatha Award winner and past president of Sisters in Crime, she lives in NW Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine.
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