Piper vs Pepper - Dueling Spice Shop Mysteries

Two mystery series use the spice shop as their locales. Leslie Budewitz's Pepper Reece books take place in Seattle and Gail Oust's Piper Prescott books take place in Brandywine Creek, Georgia.

First Pepper Reece in Guilty as Cinnamon. These books take place in Seattle's famous Pike Place Market where the Spice Shop is located. If you have been to Seattle and have visited the Pike Place Market, these books will enable you to mentally revisit the area. Budewitz gives much emphasis to Place. You can almost see the fish sellers entertaining customers by tossing fish around and smell the air redolent with a mix of spices and flowers. The Pike Place Market is all that and more. That may be why I enjoyed this series better than the other one.

Pepper is newly divorced but not rid of her ex-husband, Tag Buhner, a bicycle cop whose beat is the Pike Place Market. When one of Pepper's clients, young chef Tamara Langston is found dead in her soon-to-open restaurant Tamarack, the death looks accidental at first. When the cause of death is determined to be from ingesting too much of the fiery hot ghost chili carried in Pepper's shop, the death becomes a murder investigation.

Pepper wonders why an up-and-coming chef would open her restaurant in a space that is supposed to

be "haunted" and adjacent to an Indian restaurant called Tamarind. Who wanted to keep Tamara's new cafe from opening? Is it her current boss and mercurial chef Alex? Or is there something in Tamara's past that led to her death.

Guilty as Cinnamon effectively weaves tidbits of spice facts into the mystery surrounding the death. One thing you will learn is not to eat or handle too much of the ghost pepper!

The first book in the series is called Assault and Pepper.

Second series features Piper Prescott in Cinnamon Toasted.

The books take place in Brandywine Creek, Georgia, where Piper returns after being dumped by her husband in New York. Piper's ex-mother-in-law Melly may be a Southern Belle, but she also seems to be a computer whiz. She modifies a software program used in inventory control at Piper's shop and soon the original software company is interested in the modification.

The two owners of the company, "Trusty" Rusty Tulley and Chip Balboa arrive to discuss a deal. Everyone is excited, especially Melly as she dreams of software millions and maybe a potential romantic suitor. Chip comes to call on Melly, but the next day he is found dead in the basement of Melly's home. Why did Melly wait so long to call the police?

I enjoyed this series as well, and as in the other Spice Shop mysteries, you will learn interesting factors about spices and will want to incorporate them into your cooking. There's a little too much ex-husband in these books for my liking.

The first book in the series is Rosemary and Crime.