Welcome to the Food Lovers' Village -- #giveaway #Spotlight Sunday

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Most of you know me for my Spice Shop Mysteries, set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, where Pepper Reece runs a spice shop and solves crime. It’s a delicious series to write, inspired by the tastes, smells, and scents of a place I first encountered as an 18-year-old college girl, and still love. (Here’s my first Spotlight, back when we started the feature, on what inspired the Spice Shop mysteries.)

I also write the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, where Erin Murphy runs a local foods market in her family’s hundred-year plus Mercantile in the heart of the village of Jewel Bay, Montana, and solves crime. 

It takes a village . . . to catch a killer.

And I'll be giving one lucky reader winner's choice of a Village mystery. Read on, friends! 

 

Death al Dente won the 2013 Agatha Award for Best First Novel!

No surprise that Jewel Bay is based on the town where we live. I had to change the name so I could kill people. It really is the perfect cozy village, filled with great food, art galleries, live theater, and live music, on a bay formed where two rivers meet to create the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. Behind both real and fictional towns are several mountain ranges formed, as Erin likes to say, by the glacial hand of God. (With help from a series of earthquakes and floods, back in geologic time.) Wilderness abounds – along with a 36-hole golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus. And there’s a real-live dude ranch literally 5 minutes from the village – just drive across the one-lane bridge and turn left. . 

You can’t make this stuff up.

I’ll admit, that’s not what most people think of when they imagine a small town in Montana. And that’s what makes it the perfect cozy setting. 

A patient of Mr. Right sent his bookmark through the wash!

So where did Erin come from? She’s half Italian, as you can tell by her name. Like me, she left Montana and worked in Seattle. I wanted her to have experience in retail and in groceries, so I made her a grocery buyer for SavCo, the international warehouse chain. (At the time, our niece was a buyer for Costco, though not in groceries.) That gave her the skills to come home and take over the struggling Merc and give her widowed mother, Francesca, a chance to focus on her own line of pastas and sauces – and a new romance. 

And her name? Like the husband of a friend of my mother, Tom Murphy decided that because his wife had named the first two, it was his turn. And when she showed up on St. Patrick’s Day, her name was obvious.

Sadly, Tom Murphy was killed during Erin’s senior year of high school, in a hit-and-run that’s never been solved. Not until Erin returns home. I’ve lost count of how many readers finished the first book, Death al Dente – or murder not quite well done – and asked if we would ever find out what happened to him. Yes, yes, yes! Erin uncovers clues in each of the first three books, in addition to solving the crime in that book, and solves the mystery of her father’s death in Butter Off Dead, the third in the series.

The Food Lovers’ Village series includes five novels and a short story collection, with five short stories featuring Erin and the Villagers, and a prequel novella set in 1910, the year Erin’s great-grandparents, Paddy and Kate Murphy, married and started the Merc. Turns out Erin’s sleuthing skills may be inherited! 

The one lane bridge dressed up for the holidays -- and on the cover of my Christmas short story, The Christmas Stranger! (Available in the collection Carried to the Grave and as an e-book standalone.) 

I hope you’ll take a visit to the Food Lovers’ Village with me. Find out more about the books and read excerpts and praise on my website.  And as a gift to my readers, newsletter subscribers get two free short stories, including “The Picture of Guilt,” in which Erin and her beau make a surprising discovery while huckleberry picking. If you’re new to the series, it’s the perfect taste of the Village! 

Here's a link to one of my favorite Village recipes, Grilled Caprese Kabobs from Treble at the Jam Fest, the 4th Village mystery. I'll be back Tuesday with a yummy recipe for Shrimp with Pearl Couscous and Fried Capers. 

I love visiting new-to-me places on the page! Talk to me about some of your favorite armchair travel. If you've been to the Food Lovers' Village, on the page or IRL, tell us what you love about the place and the books! One lucky reader will win their choice of a Food Lovers' Village mystery -- and if you've read them all already, we'll come up with something else! (Leave your email address to enter. US and Canada only. Winner to be announced Wednesday, July 1.)  

At Seattle Spice Shop, owner Pepper Reece has whipped up the perfect blend of food, friends, and flavor. But the sweet smell of success can be hazardous . . .  

Spring is in full bloom in Pike Place Market, where Pepper is celebrating lavender’s culinary uses and planning a festival she hopes will become an annual event. When her friend Lavender Liz offers to share tips for promoting the much-loved—and occasionally maligned—herb, Pepper makes a trek to the charming town of Salmon Falls. But someone has badly damaged Liz’s greenhouse, throwing a wrench in the feisty grower’s plans for expansion. Suspicions quickly focus on an employee who’s taken to the hills. 

Then Liz is found dead among her precious plants, stabbed by a pruning knife. In Salmon Falls, there’s one in every pocket. 

Pepper digs in, untangling the tensions between Liz and a local restaurateur with eyes on a picturesque but neglected farm, a jealous ex-boyfriend determined to profit from Liz’s success, and a local growers’ cooperative. She’s also hot on the scent of a trail of her own, sniffing out the history of her sweet dog, Arf. 

As Pepper’s questions threaten to unearth secrets others desperately want to keep buried, danger creeps closer to her and those she loves. Can Pepper root out the killer, before someone nips her in the bud?

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

ALL GOD'S SPARROWS AND OTHER STORIES: A STAGECOACH MARY FIELDS COLLECTION, now available in in paperback and ebook 

Take a step back in time with All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection of historical short mysteries, featuring the Agatha-Award winning "All God's Sparrows" and other stories imagining the life of real-life historical figure Mary Fields, born into slavery in 1832, during the last thirty years of her life, in Montana. Out September 17, 2024 from Beyond the Page Publishing.  

“Finely researched and richly detailed, All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories is a wonderful collection. I loved learning about this fascinating woman . . . and what a character she is! Kudos to Leslie Budewitz for bringing her to life so vividly.” —Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of Crow Mary

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest books are To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop Mystery and All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, in September 2024. Watch for Lavender Lies Bleeding, the 9th Spice Shop Mystery, on July 15, 2025.

A past president of Sisters in Crime and former national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine. 

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.

Salted Apricot Blondies -- a treat from Leslie Budewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Last year at Left Coast Crime in Denver, the mystery fan convention, a group of readers and I made a delightful visit to Savory Spice, the Denver-based spice company with locations across the country. We had a wonderful time and each of us took home spices, blends, and recipes to enjoy. I shared one, for Scallops and Snow Pea Salad earlier this year. 

If you were lucky enough to buy their Saffron Salt, available only in February, then I’ve got another wonderful treat for you from the Savory Spice recipe box. If not, never fear! Any large-crystal salt will do nicely. You can use ground cardamom or grind up a few seeds. 

As a friend said when she saw the shop’s historic building, you half expect my Pepper Reece to greet you!

I’ve rewritten the directions to make this a one-pan, no-bowl recipe. Not what the pictures show, but it's not the first recipe I've made several times but only photographed once! 

The chopped apricots are a treat for the tongue, just like the shop itself is a treat for the senses! 

PS: I finally figured out how to embed a PDF of the recipe for easy printing. 

Scroll down to the 💕 for the link. 

Salted Apricot Blondies, adapted from Savory Spice

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon Saffron Salt, plus more to sprinkle, or any good crystal salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 cup (packed) light brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup dried apricots, finely chopped 

1/2 cup pecans, chopped 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8" square pan with parchment paper. 

In a small saucepan on medium-low heat, melt butter with salt and cardamom. 

Stir in the brown sugar. Remove from heat. 

Add the egg and stir until well-blended, cooling mixture briefly first if necessary to avoid scrambling the egg! 

Stir in flour, apricots, and pecans. The batter will be very thick.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Spread mixture evenly and sprinkle generously with  Saffron Salt or crystal salt. 

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the blondies comes out clean. Let cool completely in the pan before cutting and serving.

Enjoy!

💕 Click here for a free printable PDF! 

At Seattle Spice Shop, owner Pepper Reece has whipped up the perfect blend of food, friends, and flavor. But the sweet smell of success can be hazardous . . .  

Spring is in full bloom in Pike Place Market, where Pepper is celebrating lavender’s culinary uses and planning a festival she hopes will become an annual event. When her friend Lavender Liz offers to share tips for promoting the much-loved—and occasionally maligned—herb, Pepper makes a trek to the charming town of Salmon Falls. But someone has badly damaged Liz’s greenhouse, throwing a wrench in the feisty grower’s plans for expansion. Suspicions quickly focus on an employee who’s taken to the hills. 

Then Liz is found dead among her precious plants, stabbed by a pruning knife. In Salmon Falls, there’s one in every pocket. 

Pepper digs in, untangling the tensions between Liz and a local restaurateur with eyes on a picturesque but neglected farm, a jealous ex-boyfriend determined to profit from Liz’s success, and a local growers’ cooperative. She’s also hot on the scent of a trail of her own, sniffing out the history of her sweet dog, Arf. 

As Pepper’s questions threaten to unearth secrets others desperately want to keep buried, danger creeps closer to her and those she loves. Can Pepper root out the killer, before someone nips her in the bud?

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

ALL GOD'S SPARROWS AND OTHER STORIES: A STAGECOACH MARY FIELDS COLLECTION, now available in in paperback and ebook 

Take a step back in time with All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection of historical short mysteries, featuring the Agatha-Award winning "All God's Sparrows" and other stories imagining the life of real-life historical figure Mary Fields, born into slavery in 1832, during the last thirty years of her life, in Montana. Out September 17, 2024 from Beyond the Page Publishing.  

“Finely researched and richly detailed, All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories is a wonderful collection. I loved learning about this fascinating woman . . . and what a character she is! Kudos to Leslie Budewitz for bringing her to life so vividly.” —Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of Crow Mary

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest books are To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop Mystery and All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, in September 2024. Watch for Lavender Lies Bleeding, the 9th Spice Shop Mystery, on July 15, 2025.

A past president of Sisters in Crime and former national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine. 

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.

Skillet Lasagna -- a one-pan dinner from Leslie Budewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Who doesn’t love lasagna? I admit, though, to not loving all the steps, putting together this and that, and layering it all together. No-boil noodles have made the dish a lot easier – no more cooking the pasta, then handling the hot, cooked noodles. This skillet version solves all those problems, with only one dish to clean! 

I found the inspiration recipe in Country Living – I’ve had a subscription for decades. We did make a few changes, mostly to clarify the ingredients. The lack of mention of no-boil noodles, or of boiling them in advance, made me wonder if the boil-first version had disappeared from grocery shelves. Turns out they are still available, but I guessed right and chose the no-boil version. The noodles aren’t as easy to break as I expected; put them in a plastic bag so pieces don’t fly around your kitchen when you snap them! The original also called for sausage in casings, then removing the casings; just buy bulk sausage! And chicken stock? Some cooks and recipes treat it as a neutral flavor, but I don’t see the point in using it with sausage; vegetable stock worked beautifully. 

You’ll notice that the recipe doesn’t call for salt and pepper, or the traditional Italian herbs. You’ll get some of that in your sausage, and possibly in your marinara. My advice: taste and add herbs or seasoning if your tongue tells you to!

I was worried about moving a hot, heavy cast-iron pan into a hot oven, but a 12" skillet has high sides, and won’t be so full that spills become a risk. I tucked a rimmed baking sheet on a lower rack, just in case, but there was no spillage. 

Serve with a green salad, crusty bread, and a glass of red wine. Buon appetivo! 

PS: I finally figured out how to embed a PDF of the recipe for easy printing. 

Scroll down to the 💕 for the link. 

Skillet Lasagna 

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound sweet Italian sausage 

2 cloves garlic, minced 

2 cups vegetable stock

2 cups marinara sauce

1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes 

8 ounces no-boil lasagna noodles, broken into large pieces (see note above) 

Italian herbs, kosher salt, freshly ground pepper (optional) 

2/3 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped, plus more for garnish

1/3 cup ricotta

4 ounces mozzarella, grated (about 1 cup)

2 tablespoon grated Parmesan

Place an oven rack in the top position and heat oven to 450 degrees. 

Using a 12-inch cast-iron skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add sausage and cook, breaking it up with your spatula, until the pieces begin to brown, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add stock, marinara, and tomatoes. 

Tuck the lasagna noodles into the mixture. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat, and simmer about 4 minutes. Remove the cover and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until pasta is tender, about 6 to 8 minutes. Taste and add herbs or salt and pepper, if needed. 

Turn off the heat and stir in the basil. Top with the ricotta, spreading it lightly with the back of your spoon, then sprinkle on the mozzarella and Parmesan. Place the skillet in the oven and bake until golden brown, again about 6 to 8 minutes. 

Remove from oven and allow to sit on the stove top a few minutes. 

Serve with a large spoon or spatula and top, if you’d like, with additional fresh basil. 

Serves 6-8. Refrigerate leftovers covered; they reheat nicely. 

💕 Click here for a free printable PDF! 

At Seattle Spice Shop, owner Pepper Reece has whipped up the perfect blend of food, friends, and flavor. But the sweet smell of success can be hazardous . . .  

Spring is in full bloom in Pike Place Market, where Pepper is celebrating lavender’s culinary uses and planning a festival she hopes will become an annual event. When her friend Lavender Liz offers to share tips for promoting the much-loved—and occasionally maligned—herb, Pepper makes a trek to the charming town of Salmon Falls. But someone has badly damaged Liz’s greenhouse, throwing a wrench in the feisty grower’s plans for expansion. Suspicions quickly focus on an employee who’s taken to the hills. 

Then Liz is found dead among her precious plants, stabbed by a pruning knife. In Salmon Falls, there’s one in every pocket. 

Pepper digs in, untangling the tensions between Liz and a local restaurateur with eyes on a picturesque but neglected farm, a jealous ex-boyfriend determined to profit from Liz’s success, and a local growers’ cooperative. She’s also hot on the scent of a trail of her own, sniffing out the history of her sweet dog, Arf. 

As Pepper’s questions threaten to unearth secrets others desperately want to keep buried, danger creeps closer to her and those she loves. Can Pepper root out the killer, before someone nips her in the bud?

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

ALL GOD'S SPARROWS AND OTHER STORIES: A STAGECOACH MARY FIELDS COLLECTION, now available in in paperback and ebook 

Take a step back in time with All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection of historical short mysteries, featuring the Agatha-Award winning "All God's Sparrows" and other stories imagining the life of real-life historical figure Mary Fields, born into slavery in 1832, during the last thirty years of her life, in Montana. Out September 17, 2024 from Beyond the Page Publishing.  

“Finely researched and richly detailed, All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories is a wonderful collection. I loved learning about this fascinating woman . . . and what a character she is! Kudos to Leslie Budewitz for bringing her to life so vividly.” —Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of Crow Mary

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest books are To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop Mystery and All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, in September 2024. Watch for Lavender Lies Bleeding, the 9th Spice Shop Mystery, on July 15, 2025.

A past president of Sisters in Crime and former national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine. 

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.

A St. Patrick's Day Birthday -- #recipes and a #giveaway from Leslie Budewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Even experienced cooks and bakers have the occasional fail, and I had one this weekend. A few years back, a quirky little cafe on the other side of the valley offered green tea cookies. Tasty and well, quirky. Alas, it closed before I'd had my fill. So when I saw a recipe, and knew we had a bag of matcha (green tea) powder, I decided to try making them. It was a slice-and-bake recipe -- easy-peasy -- and the green sounded fun for St. Patrick's Day. Alas, the dough was crumbly and wouldn't hold its shape, no matter how I rolled and chilled. I HATE throwing away food, but I also hate struggling with something that obviously does not want to behave, so out it went.

Which left me with nothing to share with you today. I like celebrating St. Patrick's Day here on the blog, because it's fun -- and it's the birthday of Erin Murphy, the main character in my Food Lovers' Village Mysteries. Erin runs the Merc, a local foods market in her family's 100+ year old grocery building in the heart of the village of Jewel Bay, Montana, a lakeside town on the road to Glacier National Park, and solves crime. She's a younger version of me in some ways -- a Montana girl who left and came home at 32, only to discover that both she and town had changed -- and it was great fun to explore that story through the eyes of a much younger woman. 

Erin is half Italian, as you can tell from her name, and comes from a close family. She comes home at her mother's request to take over the struggling Merc. A family business, mother-daughter tensions -- what could go wrong? Find out in her first venture, Death al Dente, winner of the 2013 Agatha Award for Best First Novel.

Erin's father was killed in a hit-and-run accident her senior year of high school, a case unsolved until Butter Off Dead, third in the series, when Erin finally puts together enough clues to solve the case. There are five novels in the series, plus a short story collection, Carried to the Grave and Other Stories. The collection includes a novella, "An Unholy Death," set in 1910, the year Erin's great-grandparents got married, settled in Jewel Bay, and opened the Merc. Turns out Erin's sleuthing skills may well be inherited.  (You can read the novella in the collection, in pb, ebook, and audio, or as a standalone, in pb and ebook.)  

Butter, by the way, is the title that always got the most laughs -- until To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop book, named by a reader! 

My first thought was to reprise a pair of St. Patrick's Day recipes -- Guinness Stew and Irish Soda Bread. And they are yummy, but Edith shared her version of the stew last week, so I'll just give you the link and move on! So to celebrate my girl's birthday, I'm reprising my favorite birthday cakes -- Erin and I are both March babies, after all!

Any March babies in your circle will love this Glazed Chocolate Bundt Cake. So will anyone born in January, February, April -- you get the idea.

A classic carrot cake is always cause for celebration, birthday or no. This Carrot Graham Layer Cake is a fun variation on the theme. Vintage cake plate optional.

I've been celebrating with that cake plate a LONG time!

You might prefer an angel food cake. This Angel Food Cake with Fresh Strawberries was my mother's favorite, and I hope you'll click on the link to read the sweet story of the angel who helped me recreate that treat for her last birthday. 

And to return to our theme, I offer these Guinness Brownies -- a bit of a misnomer, as it's really more of a cake than brownies. The beer cooks off, leaving a rich, deep flavor, much as adding a bit of coffee to chocolate does. 

Got a kitchen fail story to share? Two lucky readers will win a signed paperback of Death al Dente, Erin's first adventure in crime! Leave your email address to enter. US mailing addresses only, please. Winners will be chosen Friday, March 20. 

At Seattle Spice Shop, owner Pepper Reece has whipped up the perfect blend of food, friends, and flavor. But the sweet smell of success can be hazardous . . .  

Spring is in full bloom in Pike Place Market, where Pepper is celebrating lavender’s culinary uses and planning a festival she hopes will become an annual event. When her friend Lavender Liz offers to share tips for promoting the much-loved—and occasionally maligned—herb, Pepper makes a trek to the charming town of Salmon Falls. But someone has badly damaged Liz’s greenhouse, throwing a wrench in the feisty grower’s plans for expansion. Suspicions quickly focus on an employee who’s taken to the hills. 

Then Liz is found dead among her precious plants, stabbed by a pruning knife. In Salmon Falls, there’s one in every pocket. 

Pepper digs in, untangling the tensions between Liz and a local restaurateur with eyes on a picturesque but neglected farm, a jealous ex-boyfriend determined to profit from Liz’s success, and a local growers’ cooperative. She’s also hot on the scent of a trail of her own, sniffing out the history of her sweet dog, Arf. 

As Pepper’s questions threaten to unearth secrets others desperately want to keep buried, danger creeps closer to her and those she loves. Can Pepper root out the killer, before someone nips her in the bud?

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

ALL GOD'S SPARROWS AND OTHER STORIES: A STAGECOACH MARY FIELDS COLLECTION, now available in in paperback and ebook 

Take a step back in time with All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection of historical short mysteries, featuring the Agatha-Award winning "All God's Sparrows" and other stories imagining the life of real-life historical figure Mary Fields, born into slavery in 1832, during the last thirty years of her life, in Montana. Out September 17, 2024 from Beyond the Page Publishing.  

“Finely researched and richly detailed, All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories is a wonderful collection. I loved learning about this fascinating woman . . . and what a character she is! Kudos to Leslie Budewitz for bringing her to life so vividly.” —Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of Crow Mary

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest books are To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop Mystery and All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, in September 2024. Watch for Lavender Lies Bleeding, the 9th Spice Shop Mystery, on July 15, 2025.

A past president of Sisters in Crime and former national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine. 

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.