Chai Another Day

Seattle Spice Shop owner Pepper Reece probes murder while juggling a troubled employee, her mother’s house hunt, and a fisherman who’s set his hook for her. As owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's famed Pike Place Market, Pepper Reece is always on the go. Between conjuring up new spice blends and serving iced spice tea to customers looking to beat the summer heat, she finally takes a break for a massage. But the Zen moment is shattered when she overhears an argument in her friend Aimee's vintage home decor shop that ends in murder. Wracked by guilt over her failure to intervene, Pepper investigates, only to discover a web of deadly connections that could ensnare a friend - and Pepper herself.

Visualize a scenario where you are vacationing in a tropical island, away from the hustle and bustle of the cities, stresses of daily life, watching the waves reaching out to caress the shore, and you sipping the coconut water with a straw and next to you curled up is your sweetheart, humming a love song in your ear. Sounds fascinating and romantic? of course, it is. Have you ever thought of the lives and the miseries of the inhabitants of this "tropical paradise"? Have you looked into the weary eyes of the street urchins, as you walked past them to the sandy beach? or care to know the women toiling in the rice and sugar cane fields for pennies a day and the endless abuse they are subjected to by their drunken husbands and the harassment by the rich men driving around in their Mercedes-Benz and BMW cars? If you claim you care, then read Rethee Devi's story penned in these pages. You may develop a new insight of the torture she suffered along with half-starved women whom she defended as their attorney in Kerala State, India, also known as "God's Own Country."

The Agatha Award-winning author of Crime Rib is proud to introduce Pepper Reece, the owner of the Seattle Spice Shop who thinks she can handle any kind of salty customer—until a murderer ends up in the mix… 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 Seattle’s 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 store’s doorstep, a Seattle Spice Shop cup in his hand, the local gossip gets too hot for Pepper to handle—especially after the police arrest one of Pepper’s staffers, Tory Finch, for murder. Tory seems to know why she’s 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 she’s not careful, Pepper’s nosy ways might make her next on the killer’s list…

'The Bangkok Connection' chronicles the story of Leslie 'Ike' Atkinson, charismatic former U.S. army master sergeant, career smuggler, card shark and doting family man whom law-enforcement agencies code-named Sergeant Smack. His criminal activities sparked the creation of a special DEA unit code-named Centac 9.

A Dickens of a Christmas turns deadly… 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? The vicious attack upsets everyone at Pike Place, but none more than Pepper’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’s motive. Or perhaps it’s Vinny’s ex-wife who knows more than she’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. A cozy holiday mystery full of culinary delights and a rich cast of characters, the sixth installment in the Spice Shop Mystery series will keep you turning the page . . . and reaching for another piece of peppermint bark.

A reclusive Hong Kong PI and hacker investigates a teenager’s mysterious death in this technological thriller by the author of The Borrowed. A schoolgirl—Siu-Man—has committed suicide, leaping from her twenty-second floor window to the pavement below. Siu-Man is an orphan and the librarian older sister who’s been raising her refuses to believe there was no foul play—nothing seemed amiss. She contacts a man known only as N.—a hacker, and an expert in cybersecurity and manipulating human behavior. But can Nga-Yee interest him sufficiently to take her case, and can she afford it if he says yes? What follows is a cat and mouse game through the city of Hong Kong and its digital underground, especially an online gossip platform, where someone has been slandering Siu-Man. The novel is also populated by a man harassing girls on mass transit; high school kids, with their competing agendas and social dramas; a Hong Kong digital company courting an American venture capitalist; and the Triads, market women and noodle shop proprietors who frequent N.’s neighborhood of Sai Wan. In the end it all comes together to tell us who caused Siu-Man’s death and why, and to ask, in a world where online and offline dialogue has increasingly forgotten about the real people on the other end, what the proper punishment is. “Readers will savor every twist and turn of Chan Ho-Kei’s tour de force. . . . Second Sister is a masterclass on the vagaries of our digital age.” —Criminal Element “[A] clever, twisty novel. . . . Fans of hacker thrillers such as Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander books will be amply rewarded.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review, PW Pick “Virtually irresistible, with twisty-turny, didn't-see-that-coming manipulations guaranteed to keep readers wide awake into the wee hours. . . . For readers, the provocative mix of urgent contemporary issues and page-turning action won't disappoint.” —Shelf Awareness

The relationship between politics and law in the early People’s Republic of China was highly contentious. Periods of intentionally excessive campaign justice intersected with attempts to carve out professional standards of adjudication and to offer retroactive justice for those deemed to have been unjustly persecuted. How were victims and perpetrators defined and dealt with during different stages of the Maoist era and beyond? How was law practiced, understood, and contested in local contexts? This volume adopts a case study approach to shed light on these complex questions. By way of a close reading of original case files from the grassroots level, the contributors detail procedures and question long-held assumptions, not least about the Cultural Revolution as a period of “lawlessness.”

Practice of Satsang is an invitation for Conscious Living. Written as Letters to my Grandchildren, the book shares personal short stories, quotes from the real-life protagonists of the stories, provocative questions and practices for your experimentation and play. The purpose is to deepen relationships with oneself and with ones family, friends, fellow - travellers, colleagues, clients and the communities one belongs to. 'Sat' means truth and 'Sanga' means company. Satsang is an old Sanskit word meaning 'being with the truth', and 'gathering together to find the truth'. Usually, in my culture, it is interpreted to gather in the presence of a guru (Teacher), who would help to be with the truth. As I grew up, I realised that there are many gurus (teachers) in our lives who help us to be with the truth, with our truth. They come in unexpected relationships and situations as our own higher consciousness. The key is in my openness, perception and choice. Am I willing to recognise the teacher, the truth and times of sanga in my inner and outer worlds? Journey as you read this book, inwards to your own genius, wisdom, consciousness, bliss and truth. Come, let us exchange stories and practices and reflect together on fundamental questions, across generations and cultures.