Peppermint barked
(Book)

"Includes delicious recipes!"--Back cover.

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? As Pepper chases down a killer, someone is chasing her, and in the end, the storied market itself may hold the final, deadly clue.