Peppermint barked
(Book)

"Includes delicious recipes!"--Back cover

As the holiday season lights up Seattle{u2019}s famed Pike Place Market, Pepper Reece{u2019}s beloved Spice Shop is brimming with cinnamon, nutmeg, and shoppers eager to stuff their stockings. Add to the mix a tasty staff competition{u2014}a peppermint bark-off{u2014}along with Victorian costumes for this year{u2019}s Dickensian Christmas theme, and Pepper almost forgets to be nervous about meeting her fisherman boyfriend{u2019}s brother for the first time. But when a young woman working in her friend Vinny{u2019}s wine shop is brutally assaulted, costumed revelers and holiday cheer are the last things on Pepper{u2019}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{u2019}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{u2019}s motive. Or perhaps it{u2019}s Vinny{u2019}s ex-wife who knows more than she{u2019}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.