Hi. I’m Robert Bidinotto, a.k.a. The Vigilante Author — and creator of Dylan Hunter, the thriller world’s “new face of justice.”
All my life — since I watched “The Lone Ranger” and read Batman comics as a little kid in the Fifties and Sixties — I have been passionate about the principle of justice. When I began to write nonfiction in my teens, that was the underlying principle in everything I wrote. It remained the theme of my work throughout my later career as an essayist, investigative journalist, reviewer, blogger, editor, and nonfiction book author.
Now it’s become the central theme of my fiction-writing, too.
Like me, the hero of my Dylan Hunter thrillers is motivated by his passion for justice. He cannot walk away when injustices are committed against those he cares about. That’s why Dylan Hunter became a vigilante — why I refer to him as “the new face of justice” — and why I refer to myself as “The Vigilante Author.”
I adopted the “vigilante author” label from the theme of my bestselling 2011 thriller, HUNTER, a devious tale that centers around a wave of vigilante killings. Bridging and blending the crime and spy-fiction genres, and with a powerful love story at its heart, HUNTER draws upon my experiences as an investigative journalist writing true-crime books and articles.
I’m delighted that HUNTER has struck a responsive chord with readers around the world. If you haven’t yet read it, I hope you check it out at the links over on the right margin. HUNTER is available in ebook, audiobook, and trade paperback editions. Its award-winning sequel, BAD DEEDS, is available in ebook, audiobook, and paperback as well.
If you want to find out more about my unusual personal path to success as a novelist, you may enjoy this article about “My Self-Publishing ‘Rocky’ Story.” I’m proud to say that I’ve now joined the list of the best-selling self-published novelists. Regarding the early influences in my life that set me on the path of writing about vigilante heroes, I reveal them in this little essay.
As for my previous work: I’m editor of and chief contributor to the widely acclaimed Criminal Justice? The Legal System vs. Individual Responsibility, with a Foreword by John Walsh of TV’s “America’s Most Wanted.” I also wrote Freed to Kill, a compendium of horror stories that exposed the terrible failings of our legal system. Many of those hair-raising stories, as well as ones that I investigated while I was a Staff Writer for Reader’s Digest, served as the basis for HUNTER.
Prior to writing fiction I was perhaps best known for my article “Getting Away with Murder” in the July 1988 issue of the Digest. It stirred a national controversy about crime and prison furlough programs during the 1988 presidential election campaign, and it’s widely credited with having affected the outcome of the election. That article was honored as a 1989 National Magazine Award finalist by the American Society of Magazine Editors.
I also wrote investigative pieces on environmental scares and later lectured and wrote extensively about environmentalism. This interest served as the basis for my thriller BAD DEEDS, the exciting, award-winning sequel to HUNTER.
From 2005-2008, I served as editor-in-chief of The New Individualist magazine, where in 2007 I received the prestigious Folio Gold “Eddie” Award for editorial excellence — the magazine industry’s highest honor. My previous work also earned the Free Press Association’s Mencken Award for “Best Feature Story,” as well as other awards and honors from the National Victim Center and victim rights organizations, for my outspoken public advocacy on behalf of crime victims.
My articles, essays, columns, book and film reviews have appeared in Success, Writer’s Digest, The Boston Herald, The American Spectator, and many other journals. I’ve appeared on scores of radio and television talk shows, and I’ve lectured before campus, civic, business, and public affairs organizations throughout North America and in Europe.
Today, I live on the Chesapeake Bay with my talented musician wife, Cynthia, and our stridently individualistic cat, Luna (who plays a supporting role in the Dylan Hunter thrillers). There, in a home suspiciously similar to one described in the novels, I am busily at work plotting the further exploits of Dylan Hunter.
I do enjoy communicating with my readers. So please feel free to contact me through the links on this blog.
Meanwhile, I hope you thoroughly enjoy this blog and the Dylan Hunter thriller series.
The author with his beloved Luna
Photos of the author (c) Debbie Scott
Photo (c) by Debbie Scott
