Will Daniels has fought hard to keep his demons at bay; he’s exchanged a shady past for the love of a woman he doesn’t deserve and the dream of becoming an author, all while trying to save his wayward son, Alex, from the same destructive impulses that nearly doomed him.
But the demons come cackling back in the form of a detective on Will’s doorstep, bearing the news that Alex has been killed in a botched bank robbery. Worse, Alex wasn’t an innocent bystander but part of the gang that raided the vault and left behind numerous bodies.
Simmering with rage over his loss, Will tries to let the police handle the matter. But as Alex’s killers remain at large, Will decides that it’s up to him—and a few old friends—to enact revenge in a most brutal manner.
Now he’s calling on dangerous connections that have been buried for years—and should’ve stayed that way. But Will vows to do whatever it takes to see Alex’s killers repay their sins in blood, even if it means his own damnation.
Aric Davis is married with one daughter and lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan where he has worked for the past fourteen years as a body piercer. A punk rock aficionado, Davis does anything he can to increase awareness of a good band. He likes weather cold enough to need a sweatshirt but not a coat, and friends who wear their hearts on their sleeves. In addition to reading and writing, he also enjoys roller coasters and hockey.
Will Daniels is a former bartender trying to continue the writing streak that got him out of that job, but his new novel is not coming along as easily as previous manuscripts. During this precarious time, he learns that his troubled son, Alex, has been killed, apparently by the friends he had joined with on a bank robbery, a heist that ended with several innocent people shot dead. Will soon decides that the police are not doing enough to find the killers, and he calls on connections from his own shady past to track down the bad guys and avenge his son’s death. So begins a brutal journey into the world of bank robbers and drug lords. Along the way, Will deals with the feelings stirred up by losing his son, a son who had gone so wrong.
“Rough Men” is engaging in a disturbing way. The story has a graphic reality to it, and as Will and his brother pursue the killers—with the blessing of Will’s wife, who is not Alex’s biological mother—Will seems to lose his sense of right and wrong; the difference between justice and revenge is murky, and the brothers are plunging into darkness. In the beginning, Daniels and his wife give up on the police too quickly and, similarly, at the end things work out too easily after all that has happened in between. But that story in between is compelling, a wild ride that keeps you turning pages even when you are uncomfortable with what the characters are doing. The brothers are assisted by Will’s buddy from his criminal youth, Jason, who is often ruthless and cruel. One of the nice twists in the story forges a link between them that brings Jason’s own form of honor into play, and you can’t help but root for them as they careen from one violent scene to the next.
If you like edgy crime fiction and are not put off by bloody moral ambiguities, or the occasional plot twist that twists just a bit too far, “Rough Men” provides a quick and entertaining read.
Reviewed by Scott Pearson, author of “Star Trek: Honor in the Night,” for Suspense Magazine
This is a revenge novel with more than a hint of mystery surrounding the outer edges. It gives us one interpretation of how far a father would go to avenge his son, and it doesn’t stop until we’ve ended up with one big, bloody mess. The characters popped off the page like sentries in the snow, and the number of dead bodies wracks up with each turn of the page. Yet, the violence doesn’t feel out of place, or even out of touch with reality. It’s simply a father seeking answers through whatever means necessary, and you have to respect Will for his quest, even if it blurs the edges of right and wrong.
The pages turn with effortless ease, and while the author sacrifices a bit of character development in favor of a lean page count, I didn’t feel cheated at the end because I learned about Will and the other characters through their ruthless actions and punchy dialogue. ROUGH MEN truly tests the ragged edges of humanity, but it’s a journey that I greedily consumed and happily enjoyed.
Four young men enter the Lake Michigan Credit Union to rob it and while Chris and Alex go into the vault to empty the contents of one certain safety deposit box, Mumbo and Rob shoot two tellers, a little girl and a couple of other men. Alex kills one on the way out. When the four young men get to an old farm, Chris shoots Alex without any apparent reason. A few days later, the police call on Alex’s father, Will Daniels and his wife Allison, to report they had found Alex’s body burned in a van. Actually, Alex is not Will’s blood son. Will had been a wild young man, a gangster type, an alcoholic and one day a girl whom Will had been sleeping with dumped a baby with Will’s mother, stating that the baby boy was either Will’s or another man’s she had been sleeping with. By then Will was married, they couldn’t have children, and took the baby as their son to raise. Will eventually gave up his drinking and became a bartender and after several years at that, he turned his hand to writing novels. His long-suffering wife had put up with him, although no one knows why, and both Will and Allison struggled to raise this baby to be a decent citizen, but no matter what they tried, he ran with gangs and broke the law continuously, much like Will had years prior.
When Will found out about his son’s murder, even knowing that Alex had probably killed a person at the bank, he was determined to find out who did it and then burned the body. He went to one of his old time gang buddies, Jason, who had been in jail for several years and Will would have been there too, had he gone to the rendezvous that night, but he didn’t and escaped arrest. Will knew that he had to find somebody still in touch with all of the gangs and Jason was a dangerous man. But he went to Jason anyway and after telling Jason that he might be the other man who was the father of Alex, Jason became interested in finding the killers of Alex.
The story then encompasses Jason, with Will in tow, seeking out the other three young men, torturing and killing, sometimes necessary, sometimes needlessly, until they reach the crux of why the Credit Union’s safety deposit box was so important, and why Alex was killed. Jason and Will fight themselves in and out of gang fights, and a winter storm that almost destroys the countryside until everybody is wounded. But in the end, justice prevails in a diabolical sort of way. This is certainly a different type of action story and may be enjoyed by men more than women. For those readers who would enjoy a different type of mystery and action story, then this would be it. Although this isn’t my usual “cup of tea,” I did find it rather intriguing.
Rough Men is an intriguing look at vengeance. Will Daniels is seeking his own form of justice for the murder of his estranged son. This story definitely held my interest. Still, I have mixed feelings after reaching the last page.
The things I liked:
Will is a strong character and carries the lead role well.
The writing style is crisp and captivating.
There is a great twist at the end.
The theme holds a lot of appeal. The story made me think about issues such as justice, or the lack thereof, and revenge. And the plot moves quickly, never meandering or giving my mind time to wander.
The things I didn't like:
The characters felt a little hollow. The book is short and, consquently, character development suffered. I wanted to know more about what drove Will's behavior. Sadly, many people lose children to murder. Most of them don't seek revenge, particularly to the extent this man did. I wanted to see how he got to that point in his life; how he became that man who could drop everything and go out to blindly seek and destroy.
Will's wife wasn't believable for me. On the one hand, she is a peaceful, supportive, quiet, understated woman. Yet, she suddenly does this flip and is encouraging her husband to do things most of us wouldn't consider. Nothing explained how she arrived at a point where this was not only acceptable, but necessary.
Will's brother and a friend from his past join in his crusade, and I simply did not believe their characters. The brother not only risked his life, but did things most of us couldn't fathom. The friend jumped in and led the pack without a thought, despite the fact that the friendship had ended badly years earlier. The explanations for this, such as they were, didn't stand up to reason.
And, finally, no one seemed to pick up on the irony of avenging the murder of a person who had taken other innocent lives without thought.
For me, this book has huge potential but fell short of greatness.
I discovered Aric Davis last year when I was asked to review his book, A Good and Useful Hurt. I was attracted to the book because the author is a body piercer and I knew he could write about the spiritual side of body modification in ways that other authors might miss. I was right, he was able to do that, but he also told me a great story that drew me in from the very beginning. A mystery, combined with a bit of urban fantasy - I fell in love with the book.
Rough Men is a different novel than A Good and Useful Hurt, but just as compelling in its own way. The story is one that will be familiar to anyone who has spent good parts of their life watching B movies. Someone close to the main character is killed and the main character, who has unexpected skills from his past life, sets out for revenge. Rough Men is much more complicated than this, but this is the plot line Mr. Davis is exploring.
Will Daniels, the main character, is a former gangbanger turned bartender/drunk turned writer. His world is rocked when his son is killed during the commission of a particularly gruesome bank robbery - killed by his own friends, of course. Will, devastated and guilt-ridden, decides that it is obvious that the police won't solve the crime and that it's up to him to get the job done. With the help of an old friend who he hasn't spoken with in years and Isaac (Will's brother), he sets off to find out just what happened.
This is a short book that packs a big punch. The focus is entirely on the events of the day and the action that follows. There is introspection, but this is primarily a tightly written thriller. Once again I loved Mr. Davis' characters and I read this in one go - I just couldn't put it down. An entertaining and great read - highly recommended.
I think one of the things I'm learning to appreciate most about Aric Davis is his ability to change voices from story to story.
I enjoyed Rough Men and I admittedly chuckled a little bit at the overlaps with his other work; for instance, the protagonist, Will, authored The Fort and, of course, Dick Van Endel makes an appearance in this story as well. Will feels a bit autobiographical, like we're getting into Aric's head a little bit about the whole "being an author" thing, which I think is a neat way to connect the author to the readers.
The story is fast-paced and action-filled, delving into a gritty world that Will thought he had left behind. Will is an average guy, trying to make his way in the world and right all his past wrongs through a very dangerous quest. Redemption and revenge don't come easy...
If I had written this review after reading the first quarter of the book, I would have given it two stars. I did not find the Will's expressions of rage to be convincing, thought there wasn't much breadth to Isaac and felt that the story was contrived and awkward. Once the action began to pick up, my attitude changed and while I found many of the actions to be incomprehensible and not necessarily consistent with how Will and Isaac had earlier been portrayed, I found myself caught up in the action and enjoying the story. Overall, it is an uneven and disturbing work, but it proves again that Aric Davis is a talented author. I will continue to read his stories.
I read a good and useful hurt and Nickel Plated by Aric Davis and thought I would give this one a chance because I loved them both so much. Aric writes the things you almost don't expect to read but when you do your happy you did. Now sadly for me it just wasn't up to par with his first to books but don't get me wrong it is still a book worth reading. My suggestion is read Aric's books and just fall in love with the characters like I did. You won't be disappointed.
Mystery writer Will Daniels answers a knock at his door late one night to discover that his son has been killed after taking part in a grisly credit union robbery. Daniels himself had managed to leave behind a troubled past of excesses and misbehavior. So when the police don't seem to be solving his son's murder, Daniels's anger and past appear to offer exactly the right skills to do it.
A fast-moving mystery/adventure that invites a one-sitting reading.
I liked this "four stars," but as far as literary quality goes it's probably more of a "three stars" books. This one stretches the imagination beyond reality, and the killer stands out from other characters enough to be easy to spot, but Davis keeps the pace going enough to be enjoyable... like a Die Hard sequel.
Wow! I hope a lot of people read Aric Davis's books. He is different, and he is good. The first book I read of his was The Fort. An excellent, well written book. This one is heart-stopping. I had no idea how it would go. Thank goodness, a good ending. This is raw, and real. Wow!
I had seen this book pop up ony feed somewhere, and when I read the summary it caught my attention. The characters were well written and the plot moved along at a nice pace. I started this book last night after I got home from the bar and finished it lees than 24 hours later. It'e been a while since I've read a page turner like this.
A pacy tale told well. The characters are well rounded not cut outs and they interact well. Read it in a twenty four hour period even finishing it in the car waiting for somebody rather than leaving it at home.
This was a great story! I've enjoyed most of Aric Davis' work and this story didn't disappoint. He writes "real" yet over the top stories, most of which have a lot of violence and take place in his home state of Michigan. They are thorough but fast paces.
I love to see that Detective Van Andle made it into this book, as well as references to some of Aric's previous work.
I usually don't enjoy books about lowlifes, but this book was unusual! Having a middle-class protagonist, I enjoyed learning more about how gangland works. An interesting story to listen to during the traffic!
Full disclosure: this book was provided to me free of charge by Amazon Vine.
The sub-200-page novel is an interesting concept in today's culture, at least in America; it had lost its luster for a number of years as the 300-page novel became the standard in the same way the two-hour movie did in Hollywood. But the eighties brought a renaissance in doorstop-sized tomes, those things that in decades past would have been released in two (or three or four or...) volumes simultaneously because they were so unwieldy. It stood to reason that eventually the wind would shift the other way, and sure enough, it did. Hard Case Crime specializes in this sort of thing, and they do it very well. Now Thomas and Mercer, Amazon Publishing's mystery/thriller arm, seem to be taking up the mantle as well, and one of the first fruits is Rough Men, the third novel by Grand Rapids, Michigan author Aric Davis. I'm not sure it works as well as the best offerings from Hard Case, but it does what it sets out to do, and it does it well enough that you'll enjoy the ride.
Plot: Will Daniels is not a rough man at the start of Davis' novel; he is a mildly successful writer, an ex-barfly who has two major cares in the world. One is that he's suffering from writer's block, and he hasn't told his Seattle publisher yet. The other is his twenty-four-year-old son Alex, who wants very much to be a rough man. During his last stint in the lockup, he hooked up with some very bad dudes, who have taken him on a bank robbery as the novel opens. Three days later, a police detective appears on Will's doorstep with the news that Alex has been killed. Will wants to know why, and so, with the help of his estranged brother Isaac and an old associate of theirs from high school who is a rough man, he starts picking away at the life and death of his son.
On one hand, the brevity of this novel keeps the focus on one thing, and one thing only: the mystery. When it comes to genre novels, that is a very good thing indeed, and deviations from the storyline tend to derail such novels. On the other hand, here, it seems like it may have been a detriment. Davis has created a trio of main characters who are interesting, given them shady and unreliable pasts, and then set them loose in this storyline. I wanted to know more about these guys. I think that twenty, thirty, fifty more pages of character development and backstory would have worked just fine here. In short: a good novel, and a satisfying one, but I think that given a little latitude, it might have been a better one. ***
I got about 1/2 way through this short book and decided that it was it was not intersting enough to justify the graphic violent content. The story line was decent, but there was little depth of character or texture to the story. Maybe the story needed some subplots. In my mind, this book is an example of how hard it is to write a good novel--even with a good set of characters and a reasonable plot line, there is a need to add substance and nuance to the story. This book was more of an outline for a novel than an novel itself.