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The Psychology Behind Revenge
Why the most dangerous protagonists are the calm ones — and what grief does to the logic of justice. Notes from the writing of The Protocol of Vengeance.
12 August 2026 • 6 min read
Author's Notes
Fiction vs. Reality: How Much of the Book Is Drawn From My Own Life
This is the question I'm least comfortable answering honestly, and probably the one I owe readers the most honest answer to.
Writing
Why the Novel Shifts Narrators Partway Through, and What It Does to the Reader
The book opens in first person and stays there for the first several chapters. Then, without much warning, it doesn't. Kurt gets a chapter told from outside him, in third person.
Author's Notes
The Moral Gray Zone: Is Revenge Ever Justice?
I get asked this question more than any other about the book, usually by readers who already have an answer and want to know if I agree with it.
Research
Building a European Thriller Across Copenhagen, Prague, and Hamburg
I didn't choose these three cities for variety. I chose them because each one does something specific to the story, and none of them could do another's job.
History
Inside the Noir Tradition, and Why It Still Resonates Today
Noir was never really about crime. It's about what a person does when the systems meant to protect them stop working, and I think that's why it hasn't aged the way people expect an…
Author's Notes
Writing Grief: What It Took to Portray a Father Who Loses Everything
Of everything in The Protocol of Vengeance, the hardest chapters to write weren't the ones involving violence. They were the ones involving happiness.
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