Leslie Budewitz

Leslie Budewitz is the three-time Agatha Award winner and bestselling author of the Food Lovers’ Village and Spice Shop mysteries, continuing with the 7th installment, BETWEEN A WOK AND A DEAD PLACE (July 18, 2023). She also writes standalone moody suspense as Alicia Beckman. – What a delight to return to the Spice Shop, a fictional shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, a place I fell in love ages ago as a college freshman. I made it my mission to eat my way through the place, and since it’s constantly changing, I’ll never be done! BETWEEN A WOK AND A DEAD PLACE takes readers to one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, the Chinatown-International District, during the Lunar New Year festivities. A few years ago, my husband and I visited the Wing Luke Museum, dedicated to the history of the Asian community in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, and toured a community center and residential hotel dating back to the 1880s. What if, I wondered, a body was found in the basement of an old hotel? What other secrets might linger in a building with such a rich history? So I created the Gold Rush Hotel, and dug into the history of Seattle's Chinese community and its residential hotels, which were enormously important to the region's economic and cultural development. And secrets? Oh, my! It’s the story of how one man’s determination to protect his legacy created conflicts with consequences long after his death. And it’s the story of one woman, Pepper Reece, equally determined to protect her friends and see justice done. I’m also the author of the Food Lovers' Village Mysteries, set in fictional Jewel Bay, Montana. DEATH A DENTE, first in the series, won the 2013 Agatha Award for Best First novel. “All God’s Sparrows,” set in Montana Territory in 1885, won the 2018 Agatha for Best Short Story, and BOOKS, CROOKS & COUNSELORS: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law & Courtroom Procedure, drawing on my thirty-plus years as a lawyer, won the 2011 Agatha for Best Nonfiction. I’m a past president of Sisters in Crime and regional and national board member of Mystery Writers of America. I love to cook, eat, hike, travel, garden, and paint—not necessarily in that order. My husband and I live in northwest Montana with our gray tuxedo cat. For regular updates, please visit my website, http://www.LeslieBudewitz.com, and click on the newsletter tab to sign up for emails about new releases, launch parties and other fun goings-on, and book giveaways. Subscribers get a free download of "The End of the Line,” a short story inspired by an odd sight on a trip to Greece. Readers are my favorite people. Drop me a line at Leslie at LeslieBudewitz.com. Join me at my website, LeslieBudewitz.com, or on Facebook at Leslie Budewitz & Alicia Beckman.