A number of my stories are available out there (many of them for free!); I’ve listed them below. My Amazon author page is here.
Red Noise
(Debut novel, June 2020 from Angry Robot)
When an asteroid miner comes to Station 35 looking to sell her cargo and get back to the solitude she craves, she gets swept up in a three-way standoff with gangs and crooked cops. Faced with either taking sides or cleaning out the Augean Stables, she breaks out the flamethrower.
Murphy skillfully transports spaghetti western tropes to a lawless space station in this action-packed debut.
Publisher’s Weekly
Direct from Angry Robot 🔪 Amazon 🔪 Apple Books 🔪 Barnes and Noble 💣Audible
Limited-edition signed hardcover available from Goldsboro Books.
Paperback will be released July 14th
The Liar
(novella, in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2016)
Greg Kellogg doesn’t come across much in the way of malevolent forces in Versailles, NH. He’s a nice guy, but he’s not terribly brave and kind of out of shape and just sort of bemused. He has good friends, though, and he is a very good liar.
Available in paperback, and ebook and soon in audio.
Nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novella, 2016.
Claudius Rex
(novella, available in multiple forms)
Fresh out of jail with his PI license revoked, Andy Baldwin’s cranial implant computer is occupied by a rogue artificial intelligence with the manners of a longshoreman, the vocabulary of a Latin teacher, and an obsession with owning physical objects. My homage to the work of Rex Stout (as well as Robert B. Parker and Isaac Asimov); set in Boston shortly after the completion of the Green Line extension.
Available in the Alembical 3 anthology in trade paperback, hardcover, and ebook from Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Powell’s, or Amazon.
Claudius Rex has been reprinted several times:
- The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas 2015 from Prime Books (Amazon; Barnes and Noble; Powell’s)
- The Year’s Top Short SF Novels 5 (Audible) in audio form, read by Tom Dheere
- Forever Magazine Issue 15, including a short interview with me
- (Watch this space for an upcoming Chinese language translation)
Death in a Tin Can
(novelette, an Amazon Kindle exclusive)
Detective Inspector Jonas Crandall had hoped to sleep off his space sickness during an uneventful voyage. But when one of the passenger ship’s crew is killed mid-flight, he has to contend with murder, smuggling, and the worst vertigo he’s ever had.
No Body
(short story, Penumbra, Oct 2014)
An old family wound reopens when the reservoir waters fall.
(Currently out of print, read online here)
Crowd Control
(collaborative short story at Perihelion magazine)
with Gareth D. Jones, Aliette De Bodard, Nancy Fulda, Deborah Walker, and Sylvia Spruck Wrigley
An experimental blind collaboration: each of us wrote a short section with minimal cueing, which were stitched together by Gareth Jones into a whole.
Ransomware
(short story, Daily Science Fiction)
A troubling situation where bioengineering, medicine, and greed meet.
Still Life, With Orange
(short story, Lakeside Circus)
Even after dozens of ever-shortening lifetimes, the perfect moment still seemed to last forever.
At the Old Folks Home at the End of the World
(short story Intergalactic Medicine Show(+audio); Curious Fictions)
There is an old folks home at the end of the world, a modest-sized white clapboard building perched at the top of a hill overlooking the sea. A single scraggly rose bush still grows by the front porch. The rose bush is an item of discord: every month or so, Percimandias the Timeless and Enyo the Undying get to arguing over whether the bush ought to be fed with aspirin water or the blood of unicorns.
Mr. Yuk
(short story, On the Premises Issue #19, Honorable Mention)
While we walk, I want to tell you a story from when I was a kid. No, there aren’t dinosaurs in it. I was exactly your age come to think of it, back when we lived in California. In fact, this is why we had to move.
Tumbleweeds and Indelicate Questions
(flash, Nature; audio to appear at Drabblecast)
These two bar flies have made their bets on whether the bartender killed that big hairy old alien whose head is sitting in with the good whiskeys, but they’re not going to like her answer.
Whalefall
(short story at After Ever After)
The beginning and end of the world in an alien sea.
The Body and the Bomb
(short story, at Crossed Genres)
A dirty bomb explodes in the woods near Sapphire City, leaving a wrecked cabin, a corpse, and a lot of questions. Chief Constable Fatima Nouri investigates.
(Currently out of print)
Expired (audio flash fiction at Drabblecast)
Archie’s first day at the big warehouse on the hill clears up one of life’s little questions.
Unintended Consequences (audio short story at Drabblecast; original flash fiction; published version)
James Kennedy has a little problem. Of course, one man’s little problem is another man’s little opportunity.
John P. Murphy 
ransomware is movie material!!
Just finished Claudius Rex in The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas 2015. Loved the story and the setting. It is a fantastic homage to Rex Stout that stands well on its own.
Any chance we’ll see more future-noir sleuthing by Andy Baldwin and his eccentric boss, Claudius Rex?
Thank you, i’m glad you enjoyed it! There’s a very good chance of seeing more of them, clocking in at about 80,000 words as of last night 🙂
I too just put down “Years Best” after reading Claudius. Had I not gotten it from the library your novella would have been worth the price of the book. I loved the TV series and think you really captured Nero in a unique fashion. Looking forward to chasing down some more of your fiction. I suppose it’s not too strange then that I share your professional background.
Thanks for stopping by, I’m glad you enjoyed the story! (I’m a big supporter of libraries, too, so I’m glad to hear you found it there)