The Red Ghost and a Chocolate Bunny: A Cryptozoology & Craft Beer Adventure

by Mark D. Trollinger

Spring brings nature to life, even in the shortened spring of the Sonoran Desert in the American Southwest. In Arizona, it is the season residents and visitors alike wait for in eager anticipation. The desert terrain bursts into a canvas of unimaginable beauty as delicate desert wildflowers and blooming cacti blanket the landscape. Animals such as javelina, scorpions, and rattlesnakes become more active, and baseball renews in the form of Cactus League spring training games. But increased eyewitness reports suggest spring has brought something else back to a cryptid from Arizona's past; long since forgotten and presumed dead. A call from Kareem's past brings him and the TIME team to Arizona to investigate claims that the Red Ghost has returned!

374 pages, Paperback

Published May 17, 2023

About the author

In 2016, I did something no one had done before: I combined cryptozoology and craft beer to create the first cryptid-meets-craft-beer fiction series. What started as one experimental book has grown into ten published novels, with an anticipated final total of 34 books exploring legendary creatures, roadside oddities, and America's best breweries.

I write realistic fiction for people who don't normally read fiction. My books feature everyday language, tongue-in-cheek humor, pop culture references, mysterious creatures, and (of course) craft beer. If you like beer, road trips, paranormal TV shows, and keeping an open mind, you'll probably like what I do.

By day, I work in university faculty training and teach marketing, business management, and criminal justice. By night (and weekends), I'm chasing cryptids across the country. I'm also part of the 50 State Half Marathon Club, because apparently I enjoy punishment in multiple forms.

Here's the thing: a 2016 Pew Research study found that 26% of Americans haven't read a single book since high school, and the average American adult reads at a 7th-8th grade level. Instead of writing with flowery language or big words, I write the way people actually talk. My books aren't trying to win literary awards. They're for bartenders, brewery regulars, road trippers, and anyone who's ever wondered "what if Bigfoot walked into a taproom?" But if you read with an open mind, you'll encounter something deeper than surface-level beer and cryptids. There are layers if you're looking for them.

All of the beers mentioned in my series are real. All of the breweries are real. The creatures... you decide. When I published The Lizard Man and the Sope Creek Cryptidweizen, that beer was initially fictional. But I worked with a local Phoenix brewery to bring the Sope Creek Cryptidweizen to life, and we released the book and beer together at the brewery. The book is still around, but alas, the Sope Creek Cryptidweizen, like an elusive cryptid, has disappeared into legend.

Cryptozoology and craft beer make an unusual pairing, but that's exactly why it works. And since non-readers don't hang out in libraries or bookstores, I'm taking the books to where they are: breweries. I'm on a nationwide tour, hosting book events at craft breweries across America.


Check out my tour dates at mythsandmalts.com (or visit my events page here on Goodreads). I might be coming to a city near you. Bring your curiosity, your sense of humor, and maybe a designated driver.

Let's crack open a cold one and talk about Mothman.