Introducing The Australian Kurdaitcha Assassin

Kurdaitcha has existed since the dawn of the Dreamtime. The only evidence it leaves behind is bodies. Kurdaitcha is Australia’s mystical and ancient ritual executioner. This tale of an Outback serial killer will come alive again in a new, contemporary narrative.

Sixty thousand years ago, Australia’s indigenous population was tiny, but the land they occupied was vast. Assassinations by Kurdaitcha could happen anywhere, any time. No one would know where or when Kurdaitcha would strike.

Australia’s first peoples named their serial killer Kurdaitcha Man. They retell this ancient story of an Outback assassin who is said to wear feathers on their feet while stalking victims. Apart from foot feathers (and those bodies), few other details describe Kurdaitcha’s appearance. 

While the villain exists in indigenous oral storytelling and some European literature, the story is slowly fading.

I’ve written about the vastness of the Outback before. It’s possible to drive for days without seeing another soul. There’s a lot of nothing for a long time — out there!

During the period Dreamtime (without motor vehicles), several seasons would pass by before tribes crossed paths on foot. If you were a serial killer on the hunt, your killing ground was perfect. There were no witnesses to the crime and plenty of places to hide a body (in fact, there’s no point hiding one). This is why writing historical crime fiction for this period should come easily.

Or should it?

There are some inconvenient truths about writing a story about a vast, open, flat territory with so few people in it, and a killer picking off innocent victims.

Creeping up on them is difficult. Forget being seen, a villain would be smelled and heard long before they ever got close to another. (The Outback has it way of telling people where others are.)

And then there’s the issue of the crime itself.

A third party is required to come across the body to report it as dead and determine the death as a murder by a serial killer. It’s a grey area of doubt and questioning.

First, the odds of coming upon a corpse are minimal. Second, finding it before the scorching heat turned it into Beef Jerky is even less likely. Who would know if the person then died by snake bite, dingo, hunger, thirst or by the hand of a ritual executioner?

I’m not saying that a murder mystery can’t be written. I’m suggesting it would be challenging to write. Fortunately, I’ve been working on bringing my contemporary story of Kurdaitcha into the present for readers to enjoy.

Modern Australia has grown its population since the Dreamtime. It’s still a vast continent, but in two hundred years, we’ve populated some regions of the country enough to make concrete cities for its citizens.

People now live closer to each other, which means crime increases, and crime discoveries increase too. If you pair that with the superstitious nature of ancient stories, murder narratives like these can evolve and flourish in the contemporary spaces.

When writing SEETHINGS, I resurrected the ancient assassin Kurdaitcha. I brought him into the city and let the indigenous community speak his name again. The task force assigned to investigate serial killings adopted it, too: Operation Kurdaitcha.

The name directly opposes the one the media outlets use in the news: The Stormfront Killer. The media’s words were more popular, resonating better with the community, as each body is discovered after a night of thunderstorms.

The police officially deny that a weather link exists. By the discovery of the fourth body, there’s a certain organic connection between the storms, the murders and the unknown serial killer. For the reader, they’ll discover that it’s not just any storm. Only one storm matters, and only one part of each storm draws out the Kurdaitcha assassin.

There’s another summer thunderstorm forecast, and it’s coming your way now. Download and read SEETHINGS for free (limited time) and prepare for the downpour you’ll never forget. Look for Kurdaitcha between the marble-sized raindrops and flashes of light. Come face to face with the ancient executioner. See the creature for what it truly is.

-Michael Forman (Author – Dark Fiction)