C.S. O’Cinneide's Guide to Books & Booze

Time to grab a book and get tipsy!

Books & Booze challenges participating authors to make up their own drinks, name and all, or create a drink list for their characters and/or readers using drinks that already exist. 

Today, C.S. O’Cinneide is throwing all the booze at the her recently released new book Petra's Ghost.

Ready to get your booze on???

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C.S.O’Cinneide’s debut novel, Petra’s Ghost, is set on the Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile pilgrimage across northern Spain to the Cathedral of St. James. Daniel, an Irish ex-pat has come to walk the ancient path in order to leave his past behind. But the past follows him anyway. In the most sinister way.

Drink up the countryside and culture of Spain while enjoying this chilling ghost story. And while you’re at it, try this spooky Sangria recipe to get you in the mood. Perfect for Halloween.

Spooky Sangria

Ingredients

·         1 (750 ml) bottle red wine

·         1 orange

·         1 lemon

·         1/4 cup sugar

·         2 cups ginger ale

·         1-2 dashes of grenadine

·         I cup black grapes

·         Optional: Brandy

Pour the red wine into a large pitcher. Why not try a Rioja from the famous region in Spain where the rich red earth impregnates the grapes.

Cut the orange and lemon into wedges and squeeze the juice into the wine (don’t forget to remove the seeds).

Add the sugar and then the ginger ale with a good shot of grenadine to colour the drink an even deeper red. Throw in some brandy for an added kick on a cool fall night.

Drop in the black grapes or even some hard candy eyeballs to complete this spooky cocktail and enjoy.

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C.S. O’Cinneide (oh-ki-nay-da) is a writer and a blogger on her website, She Kills Lit, where she features women writers of thriller and noir. Her debut novel, Petra’s Ghost, is a dark thriller set on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. The book was inspired by real events that occurred when she walked the ancient five-hundred-mile pilgrimage in 2015. Petra’s Ghost was recently selected as one of the “summer’s best horror books” in a review by the Toronto Star, and was included in the Library Journal’s “Wicked Good Reads” list. 

The Starr Sting Scale, a tongue in cheek noir and her first book in the Candace Starr crime series will be published in February 2020. C.S. O’Cinneide lives in Guelph, Ontario.