In the Rough by George Arthur Davis
According to the bio information, Davis was born in Philadelphia in 1947. While the reader can infer that Davis is fond of his hometown, it is difficult to determine if he's writing from experience or simply using the city as a backdrop for a world full of drug dealers, lesbian loan sharks and two-bit hoodlums. The stories are gritty and brief, and fall between the lines of crime stories and tales of the seamier side of humanity. Davis does not indulge in sympathetic views of the characters; most of the stories offer a blunt narrative that has the feel of someone merely relating events that occurred.
Both books are quick reads, and some stories are more captivating than others. A couple of stories leave the reader wanting a bit more to bring the situation to a satisfactory conclusion, but the stories stand on their own as portraits of people and places that contemporary society deems underground and criminal.
- Item #: ISBN 978-0-9820479-4-1
