"Lavender Lies Bleeding" By Leslie Budewitz: Review/Giveaway

Review by Sandra Murphy

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of the book and a link to purchase it. 

Pepper Reece has one of the best jobs you could imagine. She owns a spice shop in Pike Place Market. Her customers range from the ‘um, what is this?’ kind to those who know exactly how spices can change food from something just to eat into something to savor.

Pike Place Market encourages special events to bring in more customers for the many shops but they’re a little iffy about a mini event featuring lavender. Pepper hopes it will become an annual event of the full-scale size

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Image Source  ‎ Seventh Street Books

One of her not-so-secret weapons is a woman known as Lavender Liz. She’s got her own greenhouse in Salmon Falls. She’s agreed to share tips for the many uses of lavender. Unfortunately, someone doesn’t like the idea of expanding the lavender business. Major damage is done to the greenhouse and delicate plants but Liz is only delayed, not defeated.Not until someone takes violence from property damage to  murder. Pepper’s own life is changing, professionally and personally. Now there’s a killer to find before the killer finds her.

This is book nine in the series. Pepper is a level-headed businesswoman, a friend to the Market, in a promising relationship albeit long distance for parts of the year, a dog lover, and she manages to balance it all. She is thinking about changing the balance of work and personal so readers will be anxious to see how that works out. Her employees are enthusiastic and brimming with ideas, just what any employer would want.

Recipes are included and feature lavender of course. It’s not just for sachets! Look for lemon pepper spice blend, syrup for use in hot or cold drinks, limeade, buttermilk scones, a sugar scrub, goat cheese spread, green salad with feta, peaches, and blueberries, Indian butter chicken, asparagus with goat cheese vinaigrette, orange crème ‘brulee’, all with lavender as an ingredient. There are also tips for spice use throughout the book as employees interact with customers.

A good mystery, great characters, food talk and recipes—a great read and inspiration to add new ingredients to holiday menus.

To enter to win a copy of Lavender Lies Bleeding, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line "Lavender Lies,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen August 30, 2025. US residents only and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please include your mailing address in case you win. If entering via comment please include your email address so we can contact you. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section in Kings River Life and in our mystery category here on KRL News & Reviews. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. And check out our new mystery podcast which features mystery short stories and first chapters read by local actors! 

You can click here to purchase this book.

Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the Arch in St. Louis Missouri. She writes about eco-friendly topics, pets and wildlife for magazines and reviews mysteries and thrillers for KRL. A collection of her short stories, published by Untreed Reads, From Hay to Eternity: Ten Tales of Crime and Deception can be found at all the usual outlets. Each one is a little weird and all have a twist you won't see coming.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.