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JB Richards
Feb 13, 20193 min read

“The Vigilant Principle” by Mark Karsten - IHIBRP 4-Star Book Review


A New Superhero Is Born!

Day to day... Week to week... Year to year... Since his wife died, his mild-mannered, innocuous routine has been the same each and every day; he works, he sleeps, he eats. He is happy to go about his business quietly and unnoticeably, until one day, he initiates a retaliatory act on a rude and bitter old hag that not only makes him feel alive again but triggers in him a thirst for street-justice and vengeance. Author Mark Karsten delves into the mind of a man taken to the brink of sanity in his crime-noir fiction thriller, “The Vigilant Principle”.

Karsten’s protagonist reaches the point in his life where he no longer wishes himself to be an onlooker—the kind of individual who can stand by and do nothing as others mercilessly bully, dominate, and prey on innocent people when things don’t go their way. The plotline of this crime-thriller quickly builds on itself as Karsten takes his main characters from dull days of merely keeping pace and grinding the mill to a heightening sense of suspicion that something about the individuals in their immediate circle of acquaintances is desperately wrong. Using common instances of discourtesy, bullying, domestic abuse, and finally, sexual deviation, Karsten constructs a convincing framework for his emerging superhero to evolve. His use of inner dialogue and moving from first-person to third-person accounts in the telling of this story bolsters the interpretation of this tale, and his use of dark humor enhances the campiness of this comic-book-styled read.

The author effectively takes his readers on a brief but eventful journey that demonstrates what could likely happen inside the mind of a newly-minted avenger, along with the subsequent actions and results, as the driving need for justice and self-satisfaction takes control. In this Crime-Noir story, which defines the rebirth of a “nobody” and makes him into a comic-book-styled superhero, Karsten aptly communicates the psychological effects and devastating impact on the life of an individual who chooses to go outside the law and take justice into their own hands.

“The Vigilant Principle” is an intriguing quick read and lends itself well to being a great weekend take-along. The story does contain violence and adult situations, and so I recommend this book for ages 17 and up.

Find “The Vigilant Principle” by Mark Karsten on Amazon & Kindle here.

IHIBRP, IHI Book Review Project, IHIBRP Round 15, Book Review, Indie Author, Amazon, Kindle, Goodreads, Ebooks, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Vigilante Justice, Crime, Crime Noir, Serial Killer, Superhero, Dark Humor, Macabre, The Vigilant Principle, Mark Karsten,

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