SMFS Member Publishing News: All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection by Leslie Budewitz

SMFS list member Leslie Budewitz reported that her latest book, All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, was now out. Published by Beyond the Page Publishing, the book is available at Amazon and other vendors.

 

Amazon Description:

Born into slavery in Tennessee, the remarkable “Stagecoach Mary” Fields was a larger-than-life figure who cherished her independence, yet formed a deep bond with the Ursuline Sisters, traveling to their Montana mission in 1885 and spending the last thirty years of her life living there or in nearby Cascade. Mary is believed to have been the first Black woman in the country to drive a U.S. Postal Star Route, the source of her nickname.

In All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories, Agatha Award-winning author Leslie Budewitz brings together three short stories, each originally published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, imagining the life of Stagecoach Mary in her first year in Montana, and a novella exploring her later life, including:

All God’s Sparrows, winner of the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Short Story; Miss Starr’s Goodbye, a nominee for the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s Derringer Award; Coming Clean, a finalist for the Western Writers of America’s 2021 Spur Award for Best Short Story; and A Bitter Wind, a brand-new novella in which Mary helps a young woman newly arrived in the valley solve the mystery of her fiancé's death and his homesteading neighbors’ bitterness toward him.

Includes an abbreviated bibliography and historical notes from the author.

SMFS Member Publishing News: To Err is Cumin: A Spice Shop Mystery by Leslie Budewitz

Today is publication day for SMFS list member Leslie Budewitz’s new book, To Err is Cumin: A Spice Shop Mystery. This is the eighth book in the series that originally started with Assault and Pepper. Published by Seventh Street Books, the book is out today in multiple formats at Amazon and other vendors.

 

Amazon Description:

One person’s treasure is another’s trash. . .

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life for a change, running her shop and working with customers eager to spice up their cooking. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner.

Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, new in town and nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper’s tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain.

On the hunt for Talia, Pepper discovers a web of connections threatening to ensnare her best customer. The more she probes, the harder it gets to tell who’s part of an unsavory scheme of corruption—and who might be the next victim.

Between her quest for an elusive herb, helping her parents remodel their new house, and setting up the Spice Shop’s first cooking class, Pepper’s got a full plate. Dogged by a sense of obligation to find the rightful owner of the hidden treasure, she keeps on showing up where she’s not wanted, asking probing questions.

One mistake, and she could find herself cashing out. . .

SMFS Member Publishing News: Between a Wok and a Dead Place: A Spice Shop Mystery by Leslie Budewitz

 

Today is publication day for SMFS list member Leslie Budewitz’s new book, Between a Wok and a Dead Place: A Spice Shop Mystery. This is the seventh book in the series that originally started with Assault and Pepper. Published by Seventh Street Books, the book is out today in digital and print formats at Amazon and other vendors.

 

Publisher Description:

It’s the Lunar New Year, and fortunes are about to change.

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market, loves a good festival, especially one serving up tasty treats. So what could be more fun than a food walk in the city's Chinatown–International District, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit?

But when her friend Roxanne stumbles across a man's body in the Gold Rush, a long-closed residential hotel, questions leap out. Who was he? What was he doing in the dust-encrusted herbal pharmacy in the hotel's basement? Why was the pharmacy closed up—and why are the owners so reluctant to talk?

With each new discovery, Pepper finds herself asking new questions and facing more brick walls.

Then questions arise about Roxanne and her relationship to Pepper's boyfriend Nate, away fishing in Alaska. Between her worries and her struggle to hire staff at the Spice Shop, Pepper has her hands and her heart full. Still, she can't resist the lure of the Gold Rush and its tangled history of secrets and lies stretching back nearly a century.

But the killer is on her tail, driven by hidden demons and desires. As Pepper begins to expose the long-concealed truth, a bigger question emerges: Can she uncover the secrets of the Gold Rush Hotel without being pushed from the wok into the fire?

SMFS Member Publishing News: Peppermint Barked: A Spice Shop Mystery by Leslie Budewitz

Today is publication day for Peppermint Barked: A Spice Shop Mystery by Leslie Budewitz. This is the sixth book in the series that began with Assault and Pepper. Published by Seventh Street Books in print and digital formats, the book is available at Amazon and other vendors.

 

Synopsis:

As the holiday season lights up Seattle’s famed Pike Place Market, Pepper Reece’s beloved Spice Shop is brimming with cinnamon, nutmeg, and shoppers eager to stuff their stockings. Add to the mix a tasty staff competition—a peppermint bark-off—along with Victorian costumes for this year’s Dickensian Christmas theme, and Pepper almost forgets to be nervous about meeting her fisherman boyfriend’s brother for the first time.

But when a young woman working in her friend Vinny’s wine shop is brutally assaulted, costumed revelers and holiday cheer are the last things on Pepper’s mind. Who would want to hurt Beth? Or were they looking for Vinny instead?

The vicious attack upsets everyone at Pike Place, but none more than Pepper’s own employee, Matt Kemp. At first, Pepper is baffled by his reaction, but his clandestine connection to Beth could hold the key to the assailant’s motive. Or perhaps it’s Vinny’s ex-wife who knows more than she’s letting on . . . and what about the mysterious top-hatted man with whom Pepper saw Beth arguing that morning?

As the secrets of the market come to light, long-held grudges, family ties, and hidden plans only further obscure the truth. Is it a ghost of the past rattling its chains, or a contemporary Scrooge with more earthly motives? As Pepper chases down a killer, someone is chasing her, and in the end, the storied market itself may hold the final, deadly clue.

A cozy holiday mystery full of culinary delights and a rich cast of characters, the sixth installment in the Spice Shop Mystery series will keep you turning the page . . . and reaching for another piece of peppermint bark.

Award Announcement: Spur Award

 

The Western Writers of America have announced the Spur Awards for 2022. David Heska Wanbli Weiden won the Short Fiction Award for "Skin," published in Midnight Hour: A Chilling Anthology of Crime Fiction from 20 Authors of Color."  Leslie Budewitz was a runner-up for "Coming Clean," which appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, January/February 2021.

Publication News: Murder in the Mountains

 Murder in the Mountains: A Destination Murders Short Story Collection was published on February 1.  Among the Society members included are:

Leslie Budewitz. "The Picture of Guilt."

Barb Goffman. "Five Days to Fitness."

Eleanor Cawood Jones. "The Lyin' Witch in the Wardrobe."

Cathy Wiley. "One Flew Over the Cocoa's Nest."

Member Publication News: Leslie Budewitz

 Leslie Budewitz's article "What Happens Next: 9 Tried and True Brainstorming Strategies for Fiction Writers," is on the cover of the new issue of The Writer.

Publication News: Mystery Readers Journal

 The Winter issue of the Mystery Readers Journal is out and the theme is Cold Cases.  It features many articles by Society members:

• Heating Up a Cozy Series With a Cold Case by Leslie Budewitz
• Blowing the Dust Off by Kate Fellowes
  
• The Coldest Cases Are Solved (Incorrectly) by Ron Katz 
• A Snitch in Time by James L’Etoile
• Cylinder Seals, the Bronze Age Rubber Stamp by M.A. Monnin
• Just What Is a Cold Case? by Sandra Murphy
• The Marketville Mysteries: Cold Case Cozies by Judy Penz Sheluk

Member Publication News: Leslie Budewitz

 Leslie Budewitz's thirteenth book is now out.  Carried to the Grave and Other Stories: A Food Lovers’ Village Mystery is a collection of short stories, most published for the first time.  More information about it here.