About C.S. O'Cinneide

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, a thriller set on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain, was nominated for a Goodreads Choice award in 2019, and selected as an American Library Association Book Club Central pick in August of that same year. The author walked the 500-mile Camino pilgrimage in 2015, at a time when a woman was abducted there. This, and the stunning landscapes of Northern Spain, provided much of the inspiration for the book. She also wrote the Candace Starr series, including The Starr Sting Scale and Starr Sign, a witty yet dark crime fiction series featuring hard-living, six-foot-three former hitwoman, Candace Starr. It was inspired by nothing more than a desire for a female avatar who could slam bad guys up against the side of a Slurpee machine if they got out of line.

C.S. O’Cinneide lives in Guelph, Ontario, Canada with her husband, an Irish ex-pat who remains her constant Celtic muse.

Her latest novel, Eve’s Rib, was by Dundurn Press in October 2022.

Visit C.S’ website.

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From the publisher:

The dark side of magic is where the Ragman dwells. Nobody knows that better than Eve. Desperate for a child, she called on that cunning conjurer eighteen years ago. Her daughter, Abbey, was the result.

After Abbey’s younger brother dies in a fall, Eve fears the worst about her daughter. Five years later, she still battles her guilt and grief over what happened the day she lost her son. Her husband, Richard, doesn’t understand. He doesn’t know the truth about Abbey; and besides, he has secrets of his own to keep.

But when terrible things begin to happen to those who get in Abbey’s way, Eve must overcome her own pain and loss and find the strength to deal with what she fears most — a teenage daughter she can no longer control and a past that could come back to haunt her in the most monstrous of ways.

Praise

“An unflinching portrayal of a family torn at the seams. Timely and tantalizing, C.S. O’Cinneide masterfully blends domestic suspense with a touch of black magic in this bewitching thriller about a mother and her bad-seed daughter. Rife with secrets and tension, you’ll be glued until the haunting last page.”

Erin Ruddy, author of Tell Me My Name