Confessions of a Professional Psychopath

A review of
by
Robert J. Sadler
of the novel
“Confessions of a Professional Psychopath”
Written by Harvey Stanbrough
Under the pen-name: Eric Stringer


Like breaking the fourth-wall in theater, this reviewer hates to use, even the root, of a word in the author’s title to describe his work. However, the prefix: ‘psych’ is the predominate fixture in his book and this review.

This novel is a highly evolved psychological tour de force. Mr. Stanbrough’s style and facility with language creates an unrelenting page-turner.
At first, one may read, in gripped awe, the telling of this tale and even wonder where in the reading of it one might find joy… joy in reading that is.
Parenthetically, consider for a moment Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s 1888 poetic baseball requiem titled: “Casey at the Bat”. The much ballyhooed poem describes the downfall and loss of Mudville’s hometown baseball team, and its hero, Casey, on a given day against an unnamed and victorious visiting team.
Truly, at the poem’s conclusion we empathetically acknowledge there is no joy in Mudville nor among the Mudville nine… but we forget, don’t we, the other side of the coin. We forget the inferred ‘joy’ of the visiting team when the mighty Casey struck out. All that’s needed to feel that joy is to imagine ourselves living in that unnamed town, fans of that town’s victorious team.
That is what you will experience when reading “Confessions of a Professional Psychopath” as Charlie, flips it into the air and when it lands, shows you the other side of the coin.
Mr. Stanbrough unflaggingly decorates the novel’s sets. His eye for, to some, the mundane detail of the day-to-day, which when briefly focused upon is no longer mundane, gives meaning to everyday life; illuminating and animating each scene.
This author allows for his character’s point of view, to draw for you, a moment in time as well as a world for you to enter and live along with Charlie; word after word after word.
Perhaps unexpectedly, at first, and when you least expect it, there is a subtlety and turn of phase that makes you smile and if you allow yourself, the irony, outright laughter.
I found this novel thoroughly compelling. There is no place to stop reading until ‘the end’. At which point the story does end, but your mind is still reeling with the possibilities of Charles Claymore Task.

“Confessions of a Professional Psychopath” is highly recommended reading.