After leaving a dicey marriage and losing a beloved job in a corporate crash, Pepper Reece has found a new zest for life running a busy spice and tea shop in Seattles Pike Place Market. Her aromatic creations are the talk of the town, and everyone stops by for a cup of her refreshing spice tea, even other shopkeepers and Market regulars. But when a panhandler named Doc shows up dead on the stores doorstep, a Seattle Spice Shop cup in his hand, the local gossip gets too hot for Pepper to handleespecially after the police arrest one of Peppers staffers, Tory Finch, for murder.

Tory seems to know why shes a suspect, but she refuses to do anything to curry favor with the cops. Convinced her reticent employee is innocent, Pepper takes it on herself to sniff out some clues. Only, if shes not careful, Peppers nosy ways might make her next on the killers list