The solace of bay leaves

Agatha Award winner Budewitz's savory fifth Spice Shop Mystery (after 2019's Chai Another Day) opens with Pepper Reece, owner of Seattle Spice, a taste-tingling shop located in Seattle's Pike Place Market, having dinner with her best friend, Kristen Gardiner. Then Kristen receives a frantic text from their mutual friend Laurel Halloran, who has just learned that a handgun used in a recent shooting is a match for the gun used in her husband Pat's unsolved murder three years earlier. Pepper is shocked to hear that the shooting victim is real estate developer Mattie Petrosian, a childhood acquaintance. Mattie is unconscious, and since there were no witnesses, the police have little to go on. What could Mattie possibly have had in common with a murdered man she barely knew? But as Pepper tries to make a connection between the shootings, she learns that Mattie and her husband may have been unwitting victims of a grievance that has lasted through generations. Budewitz's affection for Seattle is apparent on every page. Foodie mystery aficionados will love the mouthwatering recipes at the end. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency. (Oct.)

Pepper Reece and her best friend, Kristen, are on a double date in Seattle's Jazz Alley when they each receive a text from widow Laurel Halloran asking them to come to her houseboat, where the police are waiting. Laurel's husband, Patrick, an assistant U.S. attorney, was murdered three years earlier, shot in their home, and the police and the FBI are still investigating. Now, there's been another shooting with the same gun in the same neighborhood. Maddie Petrosian, a developer who went to school with Pepper and Kristen, is in the hospital in a coma. Pepper, the owner of the Spice Shop in the Pike Place Market, has been accidentally involved in enough investigations in the last year that the police expect she'll look into this one. Even while Pepper runs her business and pries into neighborhood secrets that could have led to the murders, she examines her own feelings in this complex, well-developed mystery. VERDICT The character-driven mystery by the award-winning author of Death al Dente is darker than many cozies. Readers attracted to unusual settings and mature, introspective amateur sleuths will appreciate this intricately plotted story depicting the impact of murder on the family and community.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN