Carole Kennedy publishes under her Irish name, C.S. O’Cinneide (oh-ki-nay-da). Her writing has been described as “dark humour done well” by Publishers Weekly and “bloody frightening” by her mother. Her short stories have appeared in journals such as untethered and Minola Review, as well as in Mantid Magazine and on the podcast No Extra Words. Her first book, Petra’s Ghost, a dark literary thriller set on the Camino de Santiago in Spain was released by Dundurn Press in July 2019. It has been featured in the Toronto Star as one of the best horror books of the summer, as well as being selected by the Library Journal as a Wicked Good Read.

In Petra’s Ghost, a man’s pilgrimage becomes something from his darkest nightmares when secrets arise and ghosts haunt his path. A woman has vanished on the Camino de Santiago, the ancient five-hundred-mile pilgrimage that crosses northern Spain. Daniel, an Irish expat, walks the lonely trail carrying his wife, Petra’s, ashes, along with the damning secret of how she really died. When he teams up to walk with vibrant California girl Ginny, she seems like the perfect antidote for his grieving heart. But a nightmare figure begins to stalk them, and Daniel’s mind starts to unravel from the horror of things he cannot explain. Unexpected twists and turns echo the path of the ancient trail they walk upon. The lines begin to blur between reality and madness, between truth and the lies we tell ourselves.