Keith Murphy: The Original Pitch from 2010

SERIES PITCH: FLOTSAM

The Gold Coast has always been a good place to lose yourself, a tourist city on the Australian coastline with a surplus of beaches, theme parks and nightclubs full of tourists. They say no-one is born on the Gold Coast; the permanent residents just end up there, washed up against the beach like flotsam after a storm.   

It’s easy to lose yourself on the Gold Coast. It’s even easier to be found by things that hide there, in the shifting shadows behind the neon. There are demons hiding out there, and worse things besides. Old things, ancient entities for whom the word demon is means little. Things allowed to flourish in the shifting tides of a city where no-one stays for longer than a holiday and no-one cares about the locals. 

Keith Murphy left the Gold Coast ten years ago, but now he’s coming home with orders to lie low. He’s got an occult hit man for a boss, the last magic bullet from the 9mm that killed an immortal down in Adelaide, and just enough knowledge of the world behind the world to realise how much trouble he’s in

1) Paradise City

Keith rolls back into the city with a head full of bad dreams and a nightmare on his heels, the spectre of the immortal Norse magician he helped Danny Roark kill down in Adelaide. Stopping the ghost will stretch Keith’s limited knowledge of magic to the limits, and may well attract some of the more dangerous entities that live in the Gold Coast shadows. His only hope lies in the home town advantage, but is that going to be enough to stop someone with centuries more experience in the occult arts? 

2) Skull-Monkey

Keith’s neighbour in the Jadran Hotel isn’t what he seems – he’s old, he’s well-versed in ancient lore, and he lives with a weird skull-monkey creature that hisses at Keith Murphy every time he walks past. Keith befriends the old man, trying to uncover his secret, but it’s possible that digging too deep will result in one of them killing the other.

3) Piledriver

Keith gets drawn back into the world of his childhood friends, trying to forget the things he did while working with Danny Roark, but the familiar ritual of going to the local wrestling shows draws Keith and his friends into the orbit of an unfamiliar entity. Saving the life of a friend will force Keith to play the role of the hit-man once more, but he isn’t sure he’s got what it takes to stand toe-to-toe with the darkness. He makes the final decision too late for anything but vengeance. 

4) Lock and Load

Keith runs into an ex-girlfriend at a funeral and learns she’s sold her soul to save the life of her son. Despite his best efforts, Keith gets drawn into a devil’s game to redeem her, but will saving her soul cost him his own? 

5) 9mm

A midnight phone-call from Danny Roark puts Keith on high alert – a coven of sorcerers from Adelaide is coming to take vengeance on Danny for killing one of their own and Keith is the only one who can help. Keith hits the city in search of someone who can use blood, magic, and one last bullet to stop the coven from taking Danny down, but some trade-offs come at too high a price. 

6) Murphy’s Law

The one indisputable rule Roark taught Keith Murphy is that white fellers never mess with the native magic. Unfortunately a demon from Keith’s childhood isn’t giving him any other choice, and in attempting to save his own life Keith’s going to learn exactly why Roark made the rule. There are things older and more dangerous than demons in the Gold Coast shadows, and Keith will never look at his city the same way after seeing them. 

7) Frost

Most tourists never see a Gold Coast winter, so when the off-season arrives Keith is looking forward to laying low. Unfortunately he starts seeing familiar patterns in the frost and hears warning cries on the morning wind, drawing him into the conflict between a local ghost and the possessed cop who killed her. 

8) Hard Rock

There are a dozen clubs on the Gold Coast strip and there are young men showing up dead in each of them, strange symbols carved on their foreheads and two incisors removed. When the investigation reveals nothing, one of the local cops contacts Keith and calls in a favour, forcing him to confront the demon responsible. 

9) Valkyrie

Danny Roark appears on Keith’s doorstep with a bullet in his stomach and a curse on his lips, warning him that the warding they pulled over their hit is gone. Danny needs a hospital, but there’s a host of the Valkyrie is riding on the Gold Coast, heralding the end of the world, and the first of their number is already here… 

10) Fortified

The end of the world is coming and the only men left who can stop it are Keith and Danny. Keith starts calling in favours, trying to tip the odds in their favour, but the price of the help they need is one last hit…and this time the job requires killing an innocent. 

11) Ragnarock and Roll

Keith always knew the end of the world would start on the Gold Coast, and when the hosts of the Valkyrie hit town it looks like his premonition is correct. With Danny out of commission, it’s up to Keith to lure his pursuers into a trap and keep the various secrets living in the Gold Coast’s shadows from spilling free across the world. 

12) Flotsam

He may have saved the world, but killing people remains the only skill Keith Murphy has. When his success against the Valkyrie leads to new contracts coming in, Keith must make a choice – remain a killer or find a new use for his talents.