Exile

From Aurealis Award-Winner Peter M. Ball, Exile is the first book in the Gold Coast Ragnarök trilogy. If you love hard-boiled action, dark magic, and a beleaguered anti-hero fighting against overwhelming odds, you're going to love Keith Murphy.

When Keith Murphy left the Gold Coast, he swore he'd never return. Not an unexpected vow from a man running out on a leg-breaker job for a local demon gang, with far too many regrets about the things he'd done to earn a living and a girlfriend on the verge of getting sucked into the shadowy underworld where Keith plied his trade. Better to use his skills as a assassin targeting the worst of the supernatural world, earning redemption one kill at a time.

But sixteen years spent killing monsters, warlocks, and wizards is a hard way to atone for your past. Especially when you don't have any magic of your own.

A botched job in the Adelaide hills threatens to end Keith's long exile. He's on the run with a necromancer's soul trapped in the bullet, a death curse on his heels, and an apocalyptic cult baying for his blood. They've got dark magic, a lot of money, and fervid desire to resurrect their leader. Keith's got his guns, a missing partner-in-crime, and one place with a safe-house strong enough to ward his location from the cult's scrying.

Pity it's the last place in the world he wants to go.

Especially now the demonic ex-boss he abandoned is running the whole damn city.

File This Book Under: Hardboiled Urban Fantasy, Supernatural Criminals and Secret Worlds, Reckoning With the Past, Fighting Against the Odds, Alliances and Betrayals, Noir and Dark Magic, You Can't Go Home Again.

Read it if you loved Chuck Wendig's The Blue Blazes, thought Jim Butcher's Storm Front needed more guns, wondered if Lee Child's Jack Reacher would make a great monster hunter, or always wanted the action of John Wick blended with the occult world of John Constantine.

PRAISE FOR THE KEITH MURPHY SERIES

"All the grit and growl of the golden age detectives let loose upon the monsters and magics that keep us fascinated (and occasionally afraid) as we curl up on the couch at night. Ball is masterful in his use of tension, with a knack for keeping readers glued to the screen or page. His ability to showcase emotional connections and complications without devolving into self-pitying monologues or poetic meanderings give the stories an action movie vibe that adds tension and focus to the stories." Kylie Thompson, HushHushBiz