When Leslie Budewitz created the Spice Shop Mysteries, and set it in Seattle’s Pike Place, she captured lighting in a bottle. Pike Place, a vibrant waterfront market, is alive with exotic fruits and vegetables, fresh seafood, artisan crafts, massive flower bouquets, and the original Starbucks. There are over 500 shops, restaurants and vendor stalls. It’s fascinating, overwhelming and unforgettable, a Technicolor dream of a market.
Leslie explains her fascination with the setting.
I fell in love with Pike Place Market when I was a freshman at Seattle University, ages ago. Totally eye-popping to this Montana kid! It was just a few years after Seattle voters had agreed to tax themselves to save the Market, founded in 1907, from urban removal. The vote created a historical preservation district and led to a much-needed upgrade of the infrastructure, while preserving the founders’ mission to create a place where locals could “meet the producers.” The Market was pretty funky back then, but I loved every inch of it – the sights, smells, sounds, and of course, the taste. I shopped and ate there regularly, both in my student days and later as a young lawyer working close by.
I asked Leslie how Pike Place fits in with the demands of an urban cozy.
So when I wanted to write a second cozy series, alongside my Food Lovers’ Village mysteries set in a small Montana town, the Market was the perfect choice. It’s truly a community within the community, essential to an urban cozy. I had particularly loved the spice shop – there are two now – and the memory of its signature spice tea remains an inspiration. It’s such a joy to take readers to the Market on the page – no shoes required!
What elements make it the ideal spot for a mystery?
So many! That “community within a community” is not just lip service – it’s how the Market is organized and how it functions. Several merchants have talked to me about how it works, and that’s been hugely helpful. It’s a year-round farmers’ market with bakeries, meat and fish markets, produce stands, and specialty food stores. Two-hundred plus craftspeople rent day stalls, operating alongside more than 200 owner-operated shops and services, and nearly one hundred restaurants. The Market is also home to nearly 500 residents and 10 million visitors a year - all on nine acres. Naturally, stuff happens.
The physical place is magical! Each building has its own history and architecture - and its own secrets and stories. Nooks and crannies abound. So do the legends, including the ghost stories!
And there’s nothing like a chase scene through farm stalls, secret staircases, and hilly cobbled streets!
How did you create the character of Pepper Reece, who owns the spice shop? She's a complex character, a shrewd businesswomen, a talented amateur sleuth and above all, resilient. You make it clear that she's found her footing after a double whammy, the end of a disastrous marriage and a bitter ending to her corporate career.
Oh, gosh, thanks for the kind words! I wanted a contrast with Erin Murphy, the main character in my Food Lovers’ Village mysteries, who is the classic cozy heroine - young, single but looking, coming home to take over a struggling family business and face a mystery that haunts her family. Pepper is a little older at 42, divorced, a native of Seattle who knows and loves her city but sees its faults. Her childhood in a peace and justice community - modeled on one I knew – instilled a commitment to community and a drive for justice. After losing her career as a law firm HR manager when the firm collapsed in scandal, she reinvented herself – leading to one of the recurrent themes in the series, the search for identity.
Pepper has known and loved the Market since she was a little girl, though she never expected to own a shop there. Her HR skills help her investigate – as do a few tricks she learned from her ex-husband, Tag, a Seattle police department bike patrol officer whose beat includes the Market. I loved giving an old dynamic a new twist.
You called her resilient and she truly is. I never want to forget that crime impacts an entire community, especially murder. She feels the losses, the physical and emotional scars, the impact on her friends and neighbors. But her loyalty and those deeply-seated values are what keep her fighting.
I hear you’re a talented cook.
I don’t know how talented a cook I am, but I am a talented eater! I didn’t grow up in a foodie family, but a dear friend – the model for Sandra, the shop’s assistant manager – and the Market itself showed me what food could be. When I started learning to cook, the food I found there – in the stalls, specialty shops, and restaurants – was my teacher. One of my first experiments in creating a dish without a recipe was the tortellini salad from the pasta takeout joint. (Readers can find it in TREBLE AT THE JAM FEST, the 4th Food Lovers’ Village mystery.) I still love recreating at home a dish I had out. In fact, the asparagus with goat cheese in LAVENDER LIVES BLEEDING, the 9th Spice Shop mystery, comes from a French restaurant in the Market! I wish I had regular access to the produce and takeout that Pepper does.
Where can we find out more about your books and maybe try a few recipes?
It’s also a treat to share recipes with readers, in the books and at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, where I’m one of 12 authors cooking up crime – and recipes! www.MysteryLoversKitchen.com.
Thanks so much for joining us. Looking forward to more of your culinary mysteries!
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.
Mary Kennedy is a licensed psychologist and the author of the Talk Radio Mysteries and the Dream Club Mysteries. She’s written nearly fifty novels and has four million copies in print. Her first thirty-five books were young adult novels published by Scholastic nationwide and in several countries. She lives in the northeast with an eccentric cat. She’s tried unsuccessfully to psychoanalyze him but she remains optimistic.
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