Leslie Ann Budewitz Books in Order

This reference for fiction writers explains how to portray criminal law, investigations, and courtroom procedure convincingly. Budewitz uses cases and courtroom dialogue to discuss jurisdiction, legal terminology, inheritance, and the professional conduct of lawyers and judges.

Erin Murphy transforms her family's Montana general store into a gourmet market and organizes a pasta festival. When the former manager is found dead behind the shop, suspicions surrounding her mother's recipes force Erin to investigate.

A television cooking show brings national attention to Jewel Bay, where Erin Murphy organizes a steak-cooking competition. The death of a competing chef threatens the town's celebration, leaving Erin to sort through backstage rivalries and possible motives.

Pepper Reece rebuilds her life by running a spice shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market. When a man dies on her doorstep holding the shop's tea cup, an employee's arrest prompts Pepper to search for the real killer.

Erin Murphy plans a food-themed film festival to enliven Jewel Bay's winter season. Her organizing partner's murder puts Erin's brother Nick under suspicion, forcing her to investigate while struggling to keep the festival from falling apart.

Pepper Reece hopes to expand her spice shop's restaurant business, but prospective client Tamara Langston is found dead. With a spice sold in Pepper's shop implicated, she investigates who wanted to stop the chef's new café opening.

Pepper's mother recognizes a market potter as a friend who vanished years earlier, revealing unexpected connections to their family. When the potter is murdered, Pepper investigates the secrets linking the woman's past to her sudden reappearance.

Erin Murphy prepares to host the opening concert of Jewel Bay's jazz festival when guitarist Gerry Martin falls to his death. His disputes with performers, students, and organizers leave Erin questioning whether the apparent accident conceals murder.

As Erin Murphy prepares for her Christmas Eve wedding, returning resident Merrily Thornton hopes to rebuild her life in Jewel Bay. Fresh accusations against Merrily are followed by her murder, drawing Erin into an investigation during the holiday rush.

An argument overheard during Pepper Reece's massage ends in murder at her friend Aimee's vintage décor shop. Troubled by not intervening, Pepper investigates connections that threaten her friend while juggling family concerns and her own business.

Pepper Reece's childhood friend is gravely wounded in a shooting linked to another friend's husband's unsolved murder. Investigating a building's history, Pepper uncovers connections between the crimes and questions about the past she thought she knew.

Recently widowed Sarah McCaskill Carter returns to her family's lodge on Bitterroot Lake, where an old tragedy fractured important relationships. News of a connected murder and returning nightmares draw Sarah and her friends into the lodge's buried history.

Five short stories and a novella revisit Jewel Bay and the people around Erin Murphy's food market. Family secrets, community festivals, theater, and the Mercantile's early history provide settings for crimes, unexpected kindness, and difficult discoveries.

Lindsay Keller discovers a photograph in the wallet of a priest whose murder has remained unsolved for decades. With detective Brian Donovan, she investigates the girl's identity and the secrets surrounding the priest's life in Billings, Montana.

Holiday celebrations at Pike Place Market are disrupted when a wine-shop assistant is seriously assaulted. Pepper Reece investigates whether Beth or her employer was the intended target, while her own employee's hidden connection complicates the case.

A Lunar New Year food walk draws Pepper Reece into a murder at a long-abandoned Seattle hotel. Questions about its sealed herbal pharmacy and her friend Roxanne expose old secrets, while a determined killer threatens her search for answers.

Three stories and a novella imagine the Montana life of formerly enslaved mail carrier Mary Fields. Her independence, relationships with the Ursuline Sisters, and encounters with troubled neighbors place questions of justice within the hardships of a changing frontier.

Pepper Reece finds cash hidden in a discarded chair and tries to locate its owner. A missing young woman and the murder of an unemployed chef draw her into a corruption scheme threatening someone close to her spice shop.

Planning a lavender festival brings Pepper Reece to a grower whose greenhouse has been vandalized. When her friend is stabbed among the plants, Pepper investigates business rivalries and private grudges while the killer threatens everyone nearing the truth.