In my files I found four manuscripts from this thrilling writer:

-In Search of Madness at 7,046 words, involving a special forces soldier named Michael, who is pleasingly nihilistic,

-What the Dead Men Fear 9,272 words, about a criminal and bull rider named Brazil being solicited for a dirty job,

-Cold Dead Hands at 4,474 words, which begins with the following passage and suspense kickoff…

“Always been hating something,

Never knew what it was.

Later I found out,

It was that god-awful, goddamn lonely fighting love.—Me

December, 2001.

It was the coldest sting Loren McGuire had ever been on. It was also his first which made the results unanimous.”

-Have Mercy at 7,977, has a lead character named Kent who is both harried and haunted by the past and the present, and which begins in rugged verse:

“Imagine now, that sacrosanct human race,

And that damned boot stomping upon its face.

Inclined upon a bed so sweet,

Stomach sated, mind thrilled, body in constant heat,

And who in their sanity might,

Rise from this lush couch of sheer delight?

Frail humanity, it hath heard say an evil hiss,

Beyond Big Brother’s restraining boot, is more than infinite bliss.”

I like A. Rohoman’s gritty style, his grey pace and how he sketches the world as a dark place.

I’m supposed to suggest that the author work these stories into one epic novel, expand each into a novel of otherwise compromise. But this is well-paced novelette length fiction of the kind that appeals to men, of the pulp tale that brought me into adventure reading when I was a youth. I have quite enjoyed all of these stories, especially the sketch of the slut named Cheyenne who figures prominently in What Dead Men Fear. His action is clean, plot uncluttered, characters starkly cut and not all deserving of misplaced empathy. Criminals, cops and soldiers, these are all the actors able to act as postmodern barbarians and the author dashes them into shit situations with a flourishing smirk.

I hope A. Rohoman puts these stories out as an anthology, as is. What a pleasing read. I’m glad I found them in mile files this evening.

Edited 9/10/20

Don’t know when I wrote the review