WHAT’S THE STORY?
WINSLOW GAINES, a rich 71-year-old property magnate, is on his deathbed. His son Jason (41) and daughter Olivia (37) are by his side as the light dims. This is when he decides to reveal his deepest darkest secret: the state of Florida was his hunting ground for nearly 40 years, and he murdered upwards of 100 men and women. In fact, he believes he is the worst serial killer in US history because the police never knew he was active. He stayed completely off the radar by burying victims’ remains in the foundations of buildings his company built.
He also explains that their mother CHERYL didn’t abandon them when Jason was 6 and Olivia was 2, like he told them. Instead, she was his first kill and getting away with it emboldened him to kill more. He gives Jason and Olivia keys to a storage locker filled with trophies, evidence and countless journals detailing all his crimes. Then he dies, leaving them reeling at his final cruel revelations.
To stop himself coming apart at the seams, Jason believes he and Olivia should go on a road trip across Florida, finding and helping the families of their father’s victims, financially and emotionally. Olivia agrees to this (ill-advised) road trip idea, even though his plan will involve them ingratiating themselves into people’s lives under false pretences.
All in all, she is quiet and rarely talks about their father’s crimes. But it’s not because of guilt, like Jason. Rather, Olivia is also a secret serial killer and she sees the trip as a method of getting closer to her father; a way of discovering what really made him tick. She gets off on absorbing the families’ grief first hand and has a sick desire to better her dad’s considerable body count.
WHO IS THE WRITER?
MICHAEL GORDON is a freelance writer from Northern Ireland, where he lives with his wife Sam, five-year-old daughter Robyn and their three cats.
This is the first time he has put any of his prose writing out there for people to read, but he has built himself a burgeoning career in comic book writing over the last few years.
He is the writer of RED WINTER, a four-issue crime noir miniseries that will be published by Scout Comics in summer 2019.
He has also written TRANSDIMENSIONAL, a four-issue sci-fi/horror miniseries, and is co-writer of the licensed comic STAN LEE’S LUCKY MAN: THE BRACELET CHRONICLES, based on the successful Sky One TV show starring James Nesbitt. Both of these titles were published through TPub Comics in the UK.
Finally, he wrote GRIMM TALES OF TERROR #4, another sci-fi/horror tale, for Zenescope Entertainment in July 2018.