Death On West End Road-Book Review-Author Interview with Giveaway

Giveaway Below

About the book (provided by Great Escapes Tours)

Like a basket of warm cinnamon buns, an unsolved crime is something that Hamptons innkeeper and sleuth Antonia Bingham just can’t resist. Despite a busy high-season schedule and an inn booked to capacity, Antonia has agreed to investigate a cold case in her beloved adopted hometown, East Hampton, NY: the killing of Susie Whitaker, whose brutal 1990 slaying on a tennis court in the poshest part of town was never solved. And the person who has hired Antonia? Prime suspect Pauline Framingham, a manipulative pharmaceutical heiress from a powerful family. The crime scene is compromised, the circumstances are complicated, and former witnesses are cagey, haunted and very reluctant to revisit what happened on that sun-splashed afternoon decades earlier. As Antonia attempts to unravel the mysteries of the past she unearths even darker secrets and ultimately wonders if it would have been best to let sleeping dogs lie. To make matters worse, past acquaintances and love interests reappear in the Hamptons, disrupting Antonia’s world and causing her to scurry to the fridge for comfort.

Death on West End Road is the third book in the Hamptons Murder Mystery Series. Along with a colorful cast of supporting characters, the beating heart of the book is Antonia Bingham, restaurateur, gourmand, and nosy carb-lover.

And I thought
Well the first line in the description got me ...'like a basket of 
warm cinnamon buns'.
It does appear that murder and mystery seems to follow Antonia
Bingham!  
In this case a fellow resident of East Hampton asks Antonia to investigate an age old cold case.   The reader along with Antonio and her friends in sleuthing are left wondering why would 
a suspect be requesting Antonio to dig into the old case?

It doesn't take long for Antonio to begin to wonder just who did it.  
Along with the crime sleuthing Antonio has a penchant for 
match making.  When Giorgio Leguzzi of Milano registers at the hotel in hopes of finding a vanishing love interest (a women he met briefly in the Hamptons the previous year)  Antonio can't help but get involved and call in a few favors from friends to find the elusive woman.  

If your a lover of mysteries and maybe a little romance you'll enjoy reading Death on West End Road.  

I received a complimentary copy from Great Escape Tours
This review will appear on retail sites where available.
This review will appear on Good Reads.

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Author interview

Hello Carrie I am delighted to chat with you today!  

Thank you I am so excited to chat with you as well.

I visited your website today.  What a delight it was!  

You are one talented and busy girl!

Thank you so much. I am a much happier person when I am busy!

When I visited your blog I noticed you write in a variety of different genre’s.

Do you have a favorite/ 

I'm enjoying writing mysteries. I am a big jigsaw and crossword puzzle fan and I think of mysteries as creating my own puzzle that I have to solve. The tricky part is to lay down some clues, but not too many that your reader guesses early on who did it. So you have to challenge yourself to conceal, disguise, misguide and yet ultimately discover.

This might be a hard question (it would be for me) but where is your favorite place to eat?  

Well, I love to eat. I am a giant foodie! As you can see from my books, I also like to write about food. My number one favorite restaurant in the world is Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica, California, where I lived for five years. I haven't been there in over two years, but I love it. I have always gotten the same main course over the fifteen years I have been there on and off, and weirdly it is always a 'special.' That is homemade fettucini with white shitakie mushroom sauce. It's divine. And the people watching is insane! I always tell my friends who go to California that if they want to see a celebrity they should go there.

There is a restaurant in the Hamptons called Beacon that is in Sag Harbor and that is definitely the best food out there. They have wonderful fresh fish dishes and delicious eats like lobster mac and cheese and bouillabaisse and great appetizers like roasted mushrooms with smoked mozzarella and caper sauce. There is a beautiful view of the water. The only problem is that it is small so they bum-rush you out. The second you put down your credit card they clear your water glasses (practically grabbing it out of your hand) and push you out the door. I would never go there if not that the food is so darn good.

In addition, I also really like cooking and eating at my house in East Hampton. I designed the kitchen with my friend who is an architect and so it is totally customized for me. I love it.

As an author do you find yourself randomly thinking about stories and plots when you’re at a great restaurant?

Definitely. In fact, there are three cozy restaurants situated in inns in East Hampton that helped inspire the Windmill Inn and Restaurant in my series, The Hamptons Murder Mystery Series. I think there is something intriguing about everyone dining together then sleeping under the same roof yet no one talking to each other. It's very mysterious. One time my husband and I went to Bath, England and stayed in a strange Bed and Breakfast and there were some odd people there so that really got me thinking about murder! I locked my door that night.

What/where is the most random place that intrigued you to a storyline and what  was the story? 

There is a small graveyard in East Hampton that many people don't know about. It is tucked between two multi-million dollar houses in the estate section, and protected by a small white split-level fence. It is the graves of many of the founding family members. Actually a lot of the streets in East Hampton are named after the deceased who are buried there. I know this cemetery will appear in my series somehow, I'm still working out the details. Actually I filmed it for a teaser on DEATH ON WEST END ROAD, and you can see it on my Instagram page @carriedoylek

There’s a question I always like to ask. (I already know the answer)…I bet you have a dog that keeps you company while you write. Can you tell us about him/her?

Is ___________ the inspiration for a pet character?

I actually have two dogs! Scruff and Boo (you can tell my sons named them.) They are white and fluffy Coton de Tulears. Scruff is Boo's uncle and he is six and Boo is three. Scruff was always a very mellow dog, and friendly. I was so proud about how if my friends came over with their dog he didn't bark and was not territorial. He was almost human that way. Then I was talking with our breeder and she said she had a dog that she had planned on showing as he was a perfect specimen of the breed, but unfortunately he was very nervous and she couldn't keep him. So we got Boo when he was six months old. He is very beautiful and sweet but very nervous and now he and Scruff bark at everyone! It's embarrassing. Whenever my sons or husband go out and walk them, we always return and say, "Boo embarrassed the family again." One interesting fact is that three years ago The Westminster Dog Show decided to allow Coton de Tulears to compete and every year Boo's sister has won! I imagine if Boo were better behaved he would win. I think I would like to add a dog to my series, but it's tricky as Antonia owns an inn. But perhaps Joseph will need to get a therapy dog!

And now The Hampton’s what a lovely place!  Can you tell us why you chose this location for the series?  

East Hampton is my favorite place in the world and I know it well. I think a location that is robust with a variety of people from polarizing socio-economic backgrounds makes it ripe for drama. You have billionaires, millionaires, upper class, middle class, working class and very poor in a tiny village so there is bound to be intrigue. But the backdrop is this beautiful and historic town, with breathtaking beaches, spectacular farm lands, glorious oceans and woods and bays... It's like that line from the film American Beauty: "Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it, like my heart is just going to cave in." I think that can sum up what happens to the killers in my book!

I’m looking forward to reading book 3 Death On West End Road. 

 I’m curious; will I be missing a lot by jumping in at book 3?

I've tried to make every book stand alone so that readers don't have to read the previous books in order to enjoy the latest. Sue Grafton who writes the Alphabet series does that as well--we both provide a brief introduction to who is who in the first few chapters so you feel right at home.

Other than Antonio do you have a favorite character in the series?

Larry Lipper is the most fun to write because he says anything he wants, is totally offensive and is also mischievous. You always want to roll your eyes at Larry and yet you know that no matter how obnoxious he is, at the end of the day he will have your back. Even if he can barely reach it.

I know once I read Death On West End Road (closer to tour) I’ll think of many more

Questions.  I hope you’ll come back for another chat!

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me!  I hope you enjoy the book!

Thanks for visiting! Best wishes for the tour. 

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