Petra's Ghost is about a woman who 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.

The story is engaging and captivating. A very well written story that is a must read.

I was not able to download this book. I have given it four stars to align with the Goodreads average.

You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com

El Camino. The Way. Camino De Santiago. It has many names, the 500 mile journey across Northern Spain that is a spiritual as well as physical journey to the many who take on the pilgrimage each year. Our story centers around Daniel, an Irishman who is seemingly lost in the abyss after his wife passed away, he carries her ashes in his backpack aiming to scatter them at some point on his journey, though it appears letting go is not as easy for him as he thinks. Especially considering he knows how his wife, Petra, really died.
When he meets Virginia, a bouncy, California native who is also undertaking the pilgrimage, they strike up a friendship and spend more time traversing the trail together than not. Though something strange is happening. A nightmare presence appears to be following them, making Daniel question his sanity at every turn. Who is this person who appears in the night, stalking the pair along the road to Santiago? Will they make it to the end? Or will steal that luxury from them?


I enjoyed this book WAY more than I thought I would. I originally requested it because that synopsis is super intriguing. I'd never heard about El Camino before, and I have to say, even though this story had unsettling horror elements weaved into it, I feel inspired to the point that I would love to take the 500 mile pilgrimage to Santiago, though if I'm honest, I'll probably die before I pass the 15 mile mark as I'm so unfit it's ridiculous, one can dream though, right?

So! Daniel is taking the pilgrimage, after which, he is meant to head home to Ireland to tend to the family farm, first he has to finish his journey, sell his and his deceased wife's home in New Jersey and sell the company that he built up from the ground, but first, he must finish his journey, which he has taken in order to scatter his late wife's ashes, but first, he has to find the right spot to do so. Do you see a running theme here? It's easy to tell, straight off the bat, that Daniel is having a hard time letting go of the life that once was, letting go of his wife who passed away just over a year ago, and attempting to have some semblance of a life. The thing is, he is wracked with guilt, because he knows how Petra really died, and he struggles with the knowledge daily. I actually liked Daniel's character, he was incredibly real to me. I couldn't imagine having to try and move on with life after your partner, whom you loved, had left the land of the living way before they should have. So I could sympathise with Daniel's stubbornness in letting go, it didn't stop me from wanting to throttle the man a few times however.

When he meet Virginia, or Ginny, as her friends call her, he is thankful for the distraction she brings. The conversation, the companionship, two make the road shorter, after all. Ginny was an interesting character, who also annoyed the tripe out of me at times, but I still enjoyed her. There's also this Dutch guy that they run into on their travels and who keeps popping up every now and again, who, to be honest, I think he was my favourite character. Something about Rob the Dutchman just made me smile. We meet other characters on Daniel's journey but I felt that they were mainly supporting roles and I don't have much to say about them. I felt that all the characters written in this story were done exceptionally well, and there's not one that I would have cut out. They all had a role to play, and they played it to perfection.

I loved the historical and travellog feel that this book had. We are treated to scenery descriptions that made me feel like I was actually there, seeing what Daniel was seeing, hearing what he was hearing. We follow Daniel every step of the way, and it actually felt like he was a real person. The historical information, I felt, was well researched and explained, and I really feel like I went away from this book having learnt a lot (as well as gaining that pesky want to walk the trail that I know I never could without vigorous life changes).

The horror aspect that was weaved through the story was done SO well. So many instances left me with major creep vibe, to the point that it felt like I had spiders crawling up my spine, and I felt like the horror really hit in another aspect as well, it made me question Daniel's sanity. Was he just delirious from the distance he was travelling? Was the exhaustion taking a toll on not only his body, but his mind as well? Wondering if you are going slowly crazy is a horror unto itself I believe.

I had an inkling on what a couple of the twists were going to be, and I was right, but I didn't know the how of said twists. So it was great finally getting the reveal and the answers as to how the things I thought might have been happening actually happened. I don't want to go into too much detail here because I feel like it would totally ruin the story.

One thing that I did find annoying was grammar mistakes in the narrative and dialogue. I noticed that there a lot of sentences in the dialogue started with "Sure...." even though it didn't grammatically make sense, also there were a lot of "after being" inserted randomly into dialogue sentences, as well as the word "so" which was commonly used at the end of sentences when it wasn't needed. I'm not sure if it's a language thing that I'm missing or if it was just a formatting error somehow, it did jolt me out of the narrative quite a bit and annoyed my little gramma nazi soul. It didn't detract from the book greatly, it just made the narrative lose flow and seem a bit messy to me. An example of it is below:

"I fell," Daniel says. "Sure, am I right to go now?"
"I thought I was after being the strong one."
"Are you after doubting my male hormones?"
"Are we going to talk about this, so?"

Just a few examples I highlighted to explain what I mean.

This book wasn't just a travelogue with horror elements mixed in, it really makes you think about the weight of guilt; of the need to let go of the past, even though it might tear us apart to do so. I feel like a lot of us hold on to things (not counting lost loved ones, as I believe that you never quite get over the loss of the love one, you have to re-learn how to live again without them) that no longer serve them and it drains the life out of them. It makes their lives seem like dull shades of grey instead of the technicolour richness that surrounds us daily. They say that hiking the Camino De Santiago is a spiritual journey, and I really feel that this story shows that (yes in an extraordinary, maybe partially unrealistic way - see the horror aspect of it) we got to watch a man work through things that were troubling him and got to an ending that left me with a smile, and some serious need to research El Camino more because I'm honestly considering making the pilgrimage myself one day (this want will probably disappear over a couple of weeks, but we'll see ;) )

A ghost story set in the spiritual setting of the famous paths on the Camino di Santiago, this is a gripping novel that will have you guessing and questioning.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Irish ex-pat Daniel carries his wife Petra’s ashes on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. He finds a walking partner in Californian Ginny, who runs hot and cold, is stalked by a macabre creature, and loses the ability to differentiate between reality and hallucination, yet remains determined to release Petra’s ashes at the end. O’Cinneide brilliantly portrays an unreliable narrator—with Daniel more interesting than endearing, elusive supporting characters, and an ending that remains intriguing though unsurprising. I was fortunate to receive this well-written, well-researched supernatural historical fiction from the publisher Dundurn through NetGalley.

This book should really be called Daniel’s Journey on the Camino. I felt like the plot was not so much a horror but rather a literary fiction about the Camino trail. Were the cultural and historical stories fascinating? Yes. Were the details about the Camino trail itself interesting? Yes. But it wasn’t scary or creepy or really anything to do with horror.. I found myself waiting and waiting and still waiting for the ghost aspect to arrive. It was too little too late. I received an ARC on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Some authors get stuck on the same genre, the same series, the same kinds of books. At least you always know what you’re going to get. Not this one. Nope. If you were introduced to O’Cinnaide by reading the Starr Sting Scale, you’ll feel like Dorothy whisked away by a twister 🌪 when you start Petra’s Ghost 👻. Congratulations. You just picked a book from the other side of the library.

Petra’s Ghost is a mysterious travelogue both through the north of Spain and through one’s soul. It is a quieter, more contemplative, mystical journey along the edge of a continent as Daniel embarks on a journey across the Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James, Walking five hundred miles with the other pilgrims, carrying his wife’s ashes, both physically and metaphorically. Consumed with grief and guilt, Daniel is a lost soul seeking something he doesn’t really know. There are no answers here other than perhaps finding communion with other lost souls such as Ginny of California, as lost, troubled, and daft as Daniel.

Petra's Ghost is obviously a ghost story but it is also an exploration of human nature; specifically, how we face our own demons from our past. The novel takes place on the very real Camino de Santiago trail, an ancient five-hundred-mile pilgrimage that crosses northern Spain. Daniel is traveling the trail carrying not only his late wife's ashes (Petra) but also harboring a dark secret. Along the way he meets Ginny who is also on the pilgrimage for her own private reasons. When a mysterious apparition begins to follow them, Daniel is forced to face the unspeakable truth about the way Petra died and other horrors that happened on the trail itself.
I enjoyed the beginning of the book especially learning about the Camino de Santiago trail but as time went on I found the events to be a bit repetitive and it was hard to stay interested though I did manage to finish the book. The strength of the book (to me) was the vivid description that really brought the trail and the people traveling it to life.

Walking the Camino de Santiago (The Way) in Spain, Daniel has many reasons for committing to this journey. His grief over his wife's death and the dark twisting secrets about the death all make this an intimate portrait of a grieving man. Well written.

Petra’s Ghost is perhaps the biggest surprise of my reading so far this year. While the description of the book with a man walking the Camino, the “Way” in Spain, encountering physical and spiritual and possible extra-physical/spiritual challenges during the months long walk appealed to me, it did not prepare me for how compelling this story actually is. It is a tale of personal beliefs, fears and failures, the quest for personal truth and possible redemption in life. As one man he meets tells Daniel,

”Each of the three stages is challenging in its own way.”
....
“Well the first part of the Camino is for the body,” the hippie says...
“You either get strong or end up in the hospital in the first part.”
....
“The second part is for the mind... The same meseta landscape
for days...” “Nothing to feed the brain but an endless pancake
of open ground. A pilgrim’s thoughts turn inward. You can start
to lose your grip with the monotony in the second part.”
....
“What’s the last part for?” he asks... “The soul.” “Aye, Santiago,”
Daniel says. “The cathedral.” “Not just the cathedral, my friend.
Everything that leads up to the cathedral. Everything that you
were hoping to find there... it all comes down to faith, my friend.
Faith that there is something you are walking toward. Something
That will alter you as a person... I’m saying you’ll either find or
lose your soul...on the last part.” (loc 2603)

Daniel has decided to pursue this walk after the death of his much-loved wife, Petra. She died a difficult, lingering death due to cancer and Daniel has not reconciled himself with that loss. There are also questions in his life he has been evading, continuing to be caught in Petra’s death. The others Daniel meets on this walk have their own purpose or reasons for being there. Some talk of their purpose while others don’t.

There is much to contemplate within these covers whether one undertakes such a momentous journey on The Way or not. One point of this really interesting novel seems to me to be that each of our lives comprises such a journey.

I do highly recommend this book. While some may not be inclined to read books with philosophical or religious content, I must say this is not in any way a preachy book. It’s a story of an event with some magical realism included, where people do think, often aloud, about life and death, history, the art to be found in the churches along the Camino.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

This was a wonderful book about walking the 500 mile Camino De Santiago . Daniel is a widow who had planned on walking the Camino with his wife but she passed away. He decides to take on the long journey to spread her ashes and honor her spirit. Along the way he befriends another pilgrim who he shares his life story with as is the way of the Camino. As they talk and continue on their journey they are visited by spirits and revelations about their lives.
The author has done a outstanding job of describing the Camino walk and the historical significance of the walk to those that honor the spirit of the Camino. I love books about walking the Camino and the descriptions here are bringing the Camino to life for the reader. Very well done to the author. I highly recommend this book for your reading enjoyment. Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity. My opinion is my own. I will be giving this wonderful book as gifts.

Daniel and his wife Petra had planned to walk the a 500 mile trail in Spain, known as the Camino de Santiago, together; instead Petra is given a fatal diagnosis and Daniel decides to walk the trail himself and spread her ashes along it. Daniel learns of a woman who vanished mysteriously from the Camino de Santiago, so when he runs into Ginny, a woman walking the trail on her own, he decides to walk the trail with her.

Their pilgrimage takes a sinister turn when a horrifying figure begins following them. The scene where Daniel and Ginny first encounter this presence gave me chills: "The only noise here is the crunch of their footfalls on the hard gravel. He is casting his flashlight in its limited range up the road when he sees the crouched human figure in the corn. It runs across the path in front of them and behind a crumbling rock fence." And it just gets creepier from there.

Petra's Ghost is a fantastic ghost story about redemption. The setting is fascinating, and a pleasant departure from the usual horror stories I read, which typically center around houses. I loved all the historical detail that was provided as Daniel makes his way along the trail, and O'Cinneide did a great job weaving these details - which often contributed to the overall tension of the story - into the book.

I started this book hoping to get some more insight in the people who walk the trail to Santiago de Compostella. Someone who was very important to my husband walked the trail, and was certain he would walk it again, it was so marvellous. Unfortunately, he died half a year later. So I started reading this book bent on liking it.

While this book had some interesting characters, it felt a bit ... scrambled to me. While it was easy to read it and keep reading, I had more difficulty really keeping my mind with the story.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Daniel is carrying his wife's ashes on a pilgrimage hike to try and find an acceptable place to scatter the ashes and find a way to move forward with his life. There are supernatural twists in the plot along his journey.

"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 sporty California girl Ginny, she seems like the perfect antidote for his grieving heart. But a nightmare figure begins to stalk them, and his 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 start to blur between reality and madness, between truth and the lies we tell ourselves."

YAS! Just so much yas! It's a book that you read the description and instantly want to drop all other books to read.

This book was very different from what I normally read.
It was a mix of a travel blog (the main character Daniel is hiking a Spanish pilgrimage trail) and a horror story. There is some very gory and ghostly scenes in the book.
It do appreciate that the story had a bigger theme--it is really about forgiveness and unloading your burdens, which so many people do by walking this trail. That experience teaches you a lot and it reminds me a little of WILD in the way nature and physical exhaustion can help you find some self reflection. But the haunting piece and walking the trail with ghost was a very unexpected surprise.
The writing was solid, but this story just wasn't one I love because of the random creepiness thrown in.

4/5 stars

“We all have our ghosts, Daniel” Rob says (…) “The question is not if they exist, it is what message do they bring.”

This beautifully haunting debut by author C.S. O’Cinneide had me immediately intrigued with its premise, yet still surprised me with how deeply I ended up enjoying it as a whole. I was lucky enough to receive an early copy via the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Let me tell you: it’s one of the best ARCs I’ve read this year.

We follow Daniel as he walks the Camino, the famous pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella, carrying the ashes of his recently deceased wife Petra, in order to scatter them at his final destination. Along the way, he meets Ginny, a bubbly Californian girl making the same solo journey, and the two of them decide to continue together. Both find themselves haunted by the (perhaps literal) ghosts of their pasts along the way, and we slowly find out that both of them carry more than just the weight of their backpacks on their shoulders on this journey…
Petra’s Ghost reads like a travel journal, it reads like a psychological mystery thriller and like a gothic novel all at once. At times it reminded me of The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (which I loved), mixed with Melmoth by Sarah Perry and something else, that I can’t quite place.
It was the Pilgrimage to a loved ones final resting place that originally drew me in, as I feel like I can relate to it, albeit on a smaller scale than the 800 km Camino. I believe the author herself has walked the Camino before, and she does a great job of conveying the atmosphere and “personality” of the trail. The same can be said for the effect that the protagonists mood has on his experience of the trial. Grief can put a weird, almost surrealist and dark filter over things, which was portrayed wonderfully with the hint of horror/thriller elements along the way.
Speaking of which: it was the mystery that kept drawing me back to the book as soon as I put it down. Often with stories like this, I feel like either the mystery or the protagonists emotional background is tucked in as an afterthought. In Petra’s Ghost, the two entwine perfectly with each other, as well as with the previously established atmosphere.
Lastly, it was the ending that delivered the final emotional punch to make this book memorable to me. It was brave without being sensational, and emotional without being dramatic. Very fitting ending to this story in my opinion.

I do have one piece of criticism, probably aimed at the publisher, more so than the author. There is a line in the synopsis of the final copy of the book (that wasn’t in the description of the ARC), which gives a major clue to one of the final reveals. To me, this actually made it very predictable, and spoiled the potential of surprise in the end. If that line hadn’t been in the synopsis, it would have taken me longer to figure it out.

If you have the chance to read this book without reading the full synopsis in detail, that might be something I’d recommend doing.
All in all, there were a few things that kept this from being a full five star to me: mainly a few inconsistencies in pacing, and some of the mystery elements being a little predictable. That being said, this is one of the stronger 2019 debuts I’ve read so far, and I feel it’s both a book and an author to keep an eye on.

Growing up as a Lutheran, my religious education was very no frills. No saints. No transubstantiation. No relics. No pilgrimages to see said relics. But C.S. Cinneide’s novel Petra’s Ghost, gives me a glimpse into what motivates a person to undergo physical hardship to travel miles, to visit a holy site. This novel shows us a variety of those motivations: a grieving husband who is looking for the perfect place to put his wife’s ashes, a woman running away from her past, a Dutchman who really wants to make it all the way this time, and dilettantes who are not in the most pious mood and really just want to visit the wineries and clubs along the way.

The pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela has been in use for centuries. (I learned from Petra’s Ghost that the Christian route is superimposed on a pagan route that used to go all the way to Finisterre, on the Spanish coast.) The sign of St. James, a seashell, appears in hundreds of places along the route to guide pilgrims who walk kilometers a day. Daniel Kennedy is there because he and his wife (before she died of uterine cancer) planned to walk the route one day. Now that she has passed away, Daniel is carrying her ashes along the route, trying to find the right place to disperse them. While this sounds like a worthy errand, this mission is a delaying tactic. Once accomplished, Daniel has promised to return to the family farm in Ireland. He has to resume his life and he really doesn’t want to.

Daniel runs into several more possible procrastinations. One of them, Ginny, turns into a huge delay—through no fault of her own. Ginny brings out Daniel’s protectiveness. No matter how much she protests that she can take care of herself, Ginny just can’t seem to shake Daniel along the trail. Not only does Daniel cross paths with Ginny, he keeps bumping into a sweet Dutchman, a lecherous Englishman…Oh, and a woman who is missing her eyes and appears to be actively rotting. Petra’s Ghost begins normally enough. The longer it goes, however, the more Daniel starts to lose his grip on what’s real and what’s not. By the end of the book, Daniel’s holy errand/procrastination turns into a full blown horror.

Even though the book ends up being a horror story, Petra’s Ghost never loses touch with people’s motivations to do big things, like pilgrimages. Perhaps, above all, the reason why people do big things like this is that physical hardship keeps our bodies occupied so that our brains can really work on whatever emotional, spiritual, or intellectual issues we’ve been wrestling with. There must be something about blisters and slight dehydration that sets our brains drift, just enough, to make real progress.

I ended up liking Petra’s Ghost a lot. I would recommend this book to readers who like meaningful literary fiction that breaks the rules. I would also recommend it to readers who like horror stories that have more to offer than jump scares and crazed killers.

This was a title I thought would be mildly entertaining, but turned out to be much more than that. The depictions of life on the Camino de Santiago are detailed and accurate (I haven't done the Camino, but my wife and several friends have). The suspense grows as one reads, and I found myself staying up late to finish the book, once I'd made it to the halfway point. The existential questions of this book are worth pondering, but don't get in the way of the gothic thrills. Highly recommended.