The author, podcaster, and publishing maverick putting story first and ego last.
There is a moment in eighth grade that Jonathan Murnane has never forgotten. A few weeks before the school year began, he learned that his seventh-grade teacher had been murdered just a few blocks from his home. That discovery did not fade with time. It lodged itself somewhere deep, quietly shaping the way Murnane would come to think about stories, about the people left behind by tragedy, and about the questions that never fully get answered. Decades later, that same instinct drives everything he creates.
A Publisher Built For The Overlooked
Murnane is the founder of Excellent Awkward, an independent publishing banner built with a clear and deliberate purpose: to launch authors who have been shut out of the traditional publishing pipeline. The industry has long favored those with the right connections, the right agents, and the right aesthetic. Excellent Awkward exists as a direct response to that reality.
Its debut release is Murnane’s own novel, Last Ride at Elysian Park, a mystery set in Omaha, Nebraska in the early 1990s. Three additional novels from different authors are planned for 2026, signaling that Excellent Awkward is not a vanity project. It is a platform with genuine ambition and a growing roster.
A Mystery That Puts People Before The Crime
Most mystery novels center the investigation. The detective. The reporter. The procedural unfolding of clues. Murnane took a different approach entirely.
“I love mystery stories, but too many focus on the investigation from police detectives or reporters,” he explains. “I wanted to tell a story about grief, about those left behind and processing a tragedy without necessarily having access to the full picture of the crime. I wanted to focus on the characters and not the crime.”
That distinction matters. Last Ride at Elysian Park is not a whodunit in the conventional sense. It is a human story set against the backdrop of a crime, one that asks how ordinary people make sense of loss when the full truth remains out of reach. For readers who have grown tired of procedural formulas, it offers something richer and more emotionally resonant.
Two Podcasts, One Consistent Vision
Murnane’s creative output extends well beyond the printed page. He is the co-host of two podcasts, each reflecting the same core philosophy: stories are worth examining carefully, and the conversations they generate matter.
Legacy Cinema Club grew out of a real ritual. Murnane and his friends began gathering weekly to see films in theaters and talk about them afterward. “I love seeing movies in the theater on the big screen, which is sadly a dying art,” he says. “The industry has also shifted focus from talking about the product to talking about the talent. We do not have Siskel and Ebert anymore arguing about movies. We have Entertainment Tonight talking about the stars’ personal lives.”
The podcast channels that frustration productively. Each week, the Legacy Cinema Club revisits a film or television series, sometimes a childhood favorite, and examines it through a contemporary lens. The goal is honest reassessment, not nostalgia for its own sake.
Friday Afternoon Crime, co-hosted with his longtime friend Kecia, takes its energy from that eighth-grade revelation. Each episode, the two grab a thematically paired drink and dig into a true crime case, whether it is a decades-old unsolved murder on a college campus, a local case that never made national headlines, or a story that captured the country’s attention, such as the JonBenét Ramsey case or the Love Has Won cult. The format is conversational, curious, and unafraid to sit with the uncomfortable.
Twenty Years Of Marketing, Now Pointed Inward
What makes Murnane’s creative pivot particularly compelling is the professional foundation beneath it. For more than two decades, he worked in marketing for some of the most recognized brands in gaming and entertainment, including Call of Duty, Guardians of the Galaxy, Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero, Halloween, Disney, Marvel, Universal, Activision, and Roblox, among others.
He understands how narratives are built and how audiences are moved. For the first time, he is applying that expertise to his own work rather than someone else’s. That shift is not lost on him, and it informs the discipline and intentionality behind everything Excellent Awkward produces.
Story First, Always
Perhaps the most striking thing about Murnane is what he does not want. In an era when personal branding often overshadows the work itself, he has made a conscious choice to step back.
“I do not want to become my own brand,” he says plainly. “I have no desire to have my face out there or be a well-known name. I want to tell stories that generate interest and foster conversations that are interesting and worth having.”
That commitment to substance over spectacle runs through every project he touches. Whether it is a mystery novel rooted in grief, a podcast that takes cinema seriously, or a true crime show that honors the weight of real human tragedy, Murnane keeps the focus where he believes it belongs: on the story and the people it serves.
A Platform Worth Following
Excellent Awkward is just getting started, and the stories it has to tell are only beginning to find their audience. Last Ride at Elysian Park is available now, and with three more novels on the horizon, the imprint is building something with real staying power. For readers hungry for mystery fiction that prioritizes character over convention, and for listeners who want podcasts that treat their subjects with genuine curiosity and depth, Jonathan Murnane’s work is exactly where to start.
Explore More About Jonathan Murnane
Connect with Jonathan Murnane, Legacy Cinema Club, Friday Afternoon Crime, @jonnymurnane on Instagram, @fridayafternooncrime on instagram and @legacycinemaclub on Instagram.
