Guilty as Cinnamon

PRAISE FOR

Assault and Pepper

“A potpourri of spices, a mélange of murder—Pepper and her crew serve up a tantalizing mystery and a fragrant treat for the senses.”

—Connie Archer, national bestselling author of the Soup Lover's Mysteries

“There's a savvy new amateur sleuth in town . . . Pepper Reece.
Assault and Pepper
is a smart blend of zesty characters, piquant spices, and scrumptious food. Set against the intriguing Seattle backdrop, this well-plotted whodunit is the perfect recipe for a great read.”

—Daryl Wood Gerber, national bestselling author of the Cookbook Nook Mysteries

“Leslie Budewitz writes . . . with a dash of humor and a half-turn of charm that will leave readers smiling.”

—J.J. Cook, national bestselling author of the Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mysteries

“An iconic Seattle setting, a smart and capable heroine, and a
spicy
investigation . . . What mystery reader could want more? Budewitz combines it all with effortless finesse.”

—Victoria Hamilton, national bestselling author of the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries

“Set in Seattle, this is the perfect read for a few hours of pure enjoyment.”

—
Suspense Magazine

“Parsley, sage, rosemary and . . . murder . . . will add zing to your reading.”

—Barbara Ross, author of the Maine Clambake
Mysteries

Berkley Prime Crime titles by Leslie Budewitz

Food Lovers' Village Mysteries

DEATH AL DENTE

CRIME RIB

BUTTER
OFF DEAD

Spice Shop Mysteries

ASSAULT AN
D PEPPER

GUILTY AS
C
INNAMON

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

GUILTY AS CINNAMON

A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with the author

Copyright © 2015 by Leslie Ann Budewitz.

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

BERKLEY® PRIME CRIME and the PRIME CRIME design are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

For more information, visit
penguin.com
.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-698-14054-7

PUBLISHING HISTORY

Berkley Prime Crime mass-market edition / December 2015

Cover art by Ben Perini.

Cover design by Lesley Worrell.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.

For the real-life Sandra, who lent me her name, with thanks for decades of friendship and
inspiration

In my student days at Seattle University, and later as a young lawyer working downtown, I spent many happy hours in the Pike Place Market. I also drank many cups of tea in the tiny Market Spice Shop in the LaSalle/Creamery Building, where it's been since 1911. My Seattle Spice Shop is not that shop, nor any other actual business. But if I have captured some of the flavor of the Market, then the magic of the tea is still working.

I have done my best to be faithful to the city of Seattle, but a city is not a stagnant thing. Shops and restaurants open and close. Buildings come down and go up. Public works projects run into obstacles—sometimes literally, as in the case of Big Bertha, the machine tunneling near the waterfront so the Alaskan Way Viaduct can be relocated underground. If the city on the page does not quite match the one you know or remember, please forgive me.

I've taken a few liberties with the Garden Center Building in the Market and the Pittman Automotive building on Western to create Pepper's shop and loft. I've also moved the King County Archives to the King County Courthouse to make sleuthing more convenient, and rearranged the Festival schedule at Seattle Center. The building on Lower Queen Anne that houses Ashwani's restaurant and the future Tamarack is fictional. Ripe, the First Avenue Café, and Magenta, Danielle's flagship, also exist only in my mind, although Ripe draws loosely on my memories of a café that anchored the old Seafirst
Building, now Safeco Plaza, twenty-some years ago. The Seattle Mystery Bookshop, where Jen works, is real—and if you're in Seattle, you must go explore its treasure shelves.

The tales of ghosts in the Economy Market and the Butterworth Mortuary, and of young Jacob, who haunted the bead shop, are drawn from
Market Ghost Stories
by Mercedes Yaeger.

In writing this series and my Food Lovers' Village Mysteries, set in northwest Montana, I discovered “kitchen lit.” A few favorites:
Blood, Bones & Butter
by Gabrielle Hamilton. Gritty, moody, and mouthwatering. Plus Chef Hamilton introduced me to the Negroni, and to a scam I've adapted on these pages.
Sous Chef
by Michael Gibney and
Back of the House: The Secret Life of a Restaurant
by Scott Haas take the reader behind the scenes in high-test kitchens. On a trip to Seattle, my husband found
The Joy of Mixology
by Gary Regan, which inspired Pepper's cocktail recipes; it also provides fun facts about the origins and proper serving techniques for zillions of drinks. Cheers!

For spice history and trivia, I've drawn on
The Spice and Herb Bible
by Ian Hemphill,
The Scents of Eden: A History of the Spice Trade
by Charles Corn, and
Spice: The History of a Temptation
by Jack Turner, as well as cookbooks and food lit in my own collection.

Thanks to my husband, Don Beans, for sharing his knowledge of Indian music, and to our friend Ashwani Bindal for lending me his first name. My Facebook fans Katrina Elkinton Powers, Karen Wakeland, and Jill Jofko named the fictional Ashwani's restaurants.

Penny Orwick and Mike Lancaster lent me their ski condo for several key days early in this book's gestation, and again as I neared “The End.” Thanks to you—and to the mountain songbirds and pika who kept me company.

Hugs of thanks to Katherine Nyborg for the insider's tour of Seattle Center. Once again, Lita Artis and Ken Gollersrud provided ground truthing, moral support, and a home base during research trips. (By research, of course, I mean eating.) Marlys
Anderson-Hisaw and Derek Vandeberg fill me in on retail doings, and sell my books in a village bereft of a bookstore. Naturally, I made the mistakes all by myself.

Thanks to my agent Paige Wheeler at Creative Media Agency, Inc., my editor Robin Barletta and all the crew at Berkley Prime Crime, and the booksellers, librarians, reviewers, and bloggers who have championed the Spice Shop Mysteries. Most especially, thanks to my readers, who have fallen in love with my characters and traveled to the Northwest with us on the page.

And always, thanks to Don, aka Mr. Right, for unstinting encouragement, enthusiasm, and all-around good
taste.

Everyone you need to cook up a mystery!

THE SEATTLE SPICE SHOP STAFF

Pepper Reece—
owner, ex–law firm HR manager

Sandra Piniella—
assistant manager and mix master

Zak Davis—
salesclerk by day, musician by night

Lynette Cobb—
salesclerk who calls herself an actress

Reed Locke—
part-time salesclerk, full-time college student

Kristen Gardiner—
part-time salesclerk, Pepper's oldest friend

the job applicants—
oh, for the right one!

Arf the Dog

THE FLICK CHICKS

Pepper—
she'll never tell you her real name

Kristen—
she knows, but she knows enough to keep her mouth shut

Laurel Halloran—
deli owner, caterer, houseboat dweller

Seetha Sharma—
still a bit of a mystery

MARKET MERCHANTS, RESIDENTS, AND FRIENDS

Ben Bradley—
ace reporter

Jim and Hot Dog—
men about town

Fabiola the Fabulous—
graphic designer

Jen the Bookseller and Callie the Librarian—
Pepper's former law firm employees

Vinny—
the Wine Merchant

Hal—
ghost scholar

IN THE BIZ

Tamara Langston—
aspiring chef-owner of Tamarack

Ashwani Patel—
owner of the Indian restaurant next to Tamarack

Alex Howard—
chef, businessman, rule breaker, heartbreaker

Danielle Bordeaux—
successful restaurateur, Tamara's business partner

Tariq Rose—
a line cook in Howard's employ

Scott “Scotty” or “Glassy” Glass—
Howard's longtime bar manager

SEATTLE'S FINEST

Officer Tag Buhner—
aka Bike Boy, aka Officer Hot Wheels, Pepper's former husband

Detective Cheryl Spencer—
homicide

Detective Michael Tracy—
homicide