Character Guest Post

I’m All About Books Character Guest Post
By Tina Kashian
For the February 26, 2019 Release of ONE FETA IN THE GRAVE

First, I’d like to thank I’m All About Books for inviting me as a guest today to celebrate the release of One Feta in the Grave. I’m happy to be here!

Character guest post of amateur sleuth, Lucy Berberian:

Question: Tell us a bit about your profession.
My name is Lucy Berberian. I’m a thirty-something refugee of a Philadelphia law firm. I returned home only to find myself sucked back into my family’s Mediterranean restaurant. But after realizing the business isn’t so bad and my true friends are in Ocean Crest, I stepped up and decided to manage the restaurant so my parents could ease into retirement. It’s been challenging work, but I love it.

Question: Tell us about your Jersey Shore town.
Kebab Kitchen, my family’s Mediterranean restaurant, is located in Ocean Crest at the Jersey Shore. It’s a small town that triples in population during the summer season. It’s quaint and has a mile-long boardwalk that brags a pier with an old-fashioned wooden roller coaster and Ferris wheel. It’s a perfect place to vacation with your family—as long as the murderer is found and arrested.

Question: Tell us about your dating life. Do you have a significant other?
I’ve recently started dating my head chef, Azad. We have a long history, and he broke my heart after college, but since I’ve returned home, he’s convinced me to give him a second chance. Azad has shown he has changed and he even quit his fancy Atlantic City job as a sous chef to help me and work as a head chef for Kebab Kitchen. At first, things were as sticky as baklava syrup between us, and I wasn’t sure mixing business with pleasure was a good idea. But so far, things have been heating up between us in and out of the kitchen…

Question: What about your other fellow characters?
Katie Watson has been my best friend since grade school. She is also married to an Ocean Crest beat cop and I’ve been living in their guest bedroom in their cozy rancher since returning home. I know it is time to look for my own place, but Katie gets upset whenever I mention it. Katie is also a great crime fighting partner. She is obsessed with crime TV shows like the reruns of Matlock, Columbo, and CSI, and her knowledge has come in quite handy.

My parents, Angela and Raffi Berberian, play an important role in my life. We are a tight-knit Armenian, Lebanese and Greek family. That also means that everyone is in everyone else’s business. My matchmaking mama has been on my case to marry and add another twig to the family tree. Her preference is Azad, and that alone should make me run for the hills, but I’m older and wiser now and think I can handle the family expectations. We’ll see…

Sally is our long-time waitress and Emma is my older sister. Emma hasn’t been known for her faithfulness in the past and she dubbed the town’s sole Investigator Clinging Calvin in high school. Unfortunately, Detective Calvin Clemmons, hasn’t forgotten the slight and he holds a grudge against the family. This has definitely come back to haunt me during my sleuthing.

Michael Citteroni runs the bicycle rental shop next door, and he is one of my close confidants. Even though he could grace the cover of a men’s fashion magazine, I feel a kinship with him. Just like me, he has an overbearing ethnic father. Michael owns a Harley-Davidson, and against better judgment, I rode with him for the first time a month ago. Turns out, I loved it and we have gone on more than one ride to the boardwalk. Michael and Azad don’t see eye-to eye, but they have managed to co-exist as business neighbors.

Question: Do you have any pets?
We’ve adopted an outdoor restaurant cat named Gadoo, which means cat in Armenian. Not very original, I know. Gadoo is orange and black and feisty, and I always stock his favorite treats from the local grocery store. When I move out of Katie’s house one day, I want to take Gadoo with me, but I know I’ll have to battle my mother for him.

Question: How do you feel about your life right now?
Well, things haven’t gone exactly as planned. To celebrate a successful summer season, the town plans a beach festival. I feel indebted to Ocean Crest and I volunteered to run the wine and food portion of the festival on the boardwalk. But things take a turn for the worse when an arrogant businessman, Archie, gets in a screaming match with my best friend, Katie, over judging a sand castle contest. And when Archie is found shot dead under the boardwalk, things don’t look good for Katie. I know Katie’s innocent and I won’t let my friend take the fall for murder. It’s up to us to investigate before another person gets skewered.

Thank you for letting me chat with you today!