ROVERS
Richard Lange
Mulholland Books
ISBN-13: 978-0316541961
Hardcover
Thriller/Horror

I generally am not a fan of vampire works, be they movies or novels. It might perhaps be more accurate to say that I am selective. Books? ‘SALEM’S LOT. Movies? 30 Days of Night, Near Dark, and, um, ‘Salem’s Lot. I am adding the newly published ROVERS to the book list. It has been rolling around in my head like marbles in a boxcar since I finished reading it.

Lange hasn’t written a whole shelf full of novels, though he’s written a couple of books full of short stories. He generally writes dark crime fiction, and ROVERS is certainly that. It’s full of bad and dangerous people going at each other, and everyone else who happens to cross their path, with bad purpose. Add the vampire element and you have one of the best literary parties you are liable to come across in this or any summer.

Before we start, there are three things you should know. The first is that the title of this wild tale acquires its name from the term that the vampires use generally to refer to themselves. The second is that it takes place in the American west, primarily in Nevada and Arizona. The third is that it takes place in 1976 in the runup to the United States bicentennial, so that it could be considered historical fiction according to at least definition of the term. With that cleared up, there are three primary storylines that run through ROVERS. One involves a notorious group of rover bikers who call themselves The Fiends. It’s a gang of eight, and when we meet them they are on the verge of being hired for a bit of over the top nastiness with even nastier, over-the-top compensation that had me screaming. Seriously. Another involves a pair of rover brothers, Jesse being a bit older and much smarter than Edgar. There’s a bit of tension between them, caused by the older always having to boss the younger and the younger not liking it a bit. The third concerns Charles Sanders, a grieving father whose son was murdered by a rover. He conducted his own investigation into the killing and after discovering the existence of rovers is on the hunt, driving around the west and passing out flyers while seeking information and hoping to exact vengeance. Lange does not waste a whole lot of time bringing these storylines together, particularly those of The Fiends and Jesse and Edgar. Jesse, Edgar and a young woman out for some thrills interrupt The Fields just as they were completing their latest mission and get the whole gang after them hell-bent on revenge. Sanders kind of stumbles into the middle of things at a later point and the result is combustible, to say the least. Lange borrows from traditional and contemporary vampire lore but throws a few hand grenades of his own into the mix as well as he hints and foreshadows this and that while providing plenty of gore which adds to but does not overwhelm this compelling and yes, surprisingly literate story. Think of Stephen King collaborating with Joe R. Lansdale and it will give you a fair idea of what is going on here, though the end result is all Lange.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that ROVERS hews pretty much to my own worldview that there are folks on the fringes who have been among us for a while and who stay in the shadows until they don’t. I accordingly hesitate to call ROVERS “fiction” but I’ll go with that for now. Regardless of what you or I might believe, however, ROVERS is an addictive, one-sit read that will echo in your head the way it does in mine. Strongly recommended for horror fans and those who wish they were.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2021, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

The nitty-gritty: A unique take on vampires, Rovers is an outstanding blood-soaked, tragic tale of revenge and redemption. 

Richard Lange is known as a literary fiction writer, and even though he’s veered into speculative territory with Rovers, there’s still a strong literary sensibility to the book, which is one reason I loved it so much. Fair warning, though: this is a dark, bleak and at times depressing story about a group of “rovers”—men and women who turn to dust in the sunlight and must consume human blood in order to survive. Yep, vampires! It wasn’t always an easy read, but Lange’s evocative prose, dusty desert setting, and surprisingly sympathetic characters make this a standout book.

The story takes place in the summer of 1976 and follows three different groups of characters. Jesse and Edgar are brothers, and because they are rovers and need human blood to survive, they travel the backroads of California and Nevada, never staying in one place for long. Edgar is mentally challenged and cannot survive without his younger brother Jesse, but he resents Jesse’s strict rules: hiding whenever they spot another rover, and only making a kill once a month. At one of their stops, they meet a bartender named Johona, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Jesse’s old love Claudine, a rover who was dusted many years ago.

The second perspective is that of Charles, a man consumed with grief over his son’s murder—his throat was slashed and his body was drained of blood. The authorities were never able to find the perpetrator, so Charles left home and hit the road, determined to find the murderer on his own and bring justice to his son. One day Charles is approached by a man who claims that his wife was killed in the exact same way, and he offers Charles a chance for revenge. Charles’ chapters are a long letter he’s writing home to his wife about his adventures on the road (a nod to Dracula, perhaps?)

Finally, we follow a biker gang called the Fiends, rovers who have banded together to keep each other safe, but who have also gained a reputation among other rovers for being dangerous. In order to survive, they occasionally take on jobs from a rover named Beaumont—a sort of mob boss—earning enough cash to support their vagabond lifestyle. When the story opens, the Fiends have agreed to dust a rover who Beaumont has been after for years. In exchange, he agrees to give them the hefty sum of $ 25,000 plus a special perk: a live human baby, whose blood allows a rover to go an entire year without feeding.

When Jesse and Johona inadvertently interrupt the Fiends’ job, they find themselves running for their lives. As the Bicentennial—July 4th, 1976—approaches, these three groups will converge in Las Vegas for a violent and bloody showdown. 

Rovers is a complex revenge story with nuanced characters and an intriguing vampire mythology. Lange’s rovers are familiar in some ways but not in others. For example, they don’t have fangs, but use ice picks and stilettos to puncture their victim’s carotid artery in order to drink their blood. Just a touch of sunlight on their skin makes them blister, and only minutes exposed to the sun will result in their death. (It's ironic that the story is set under the brutal summer sun of the American Southwest.) They only need to consume blood every thirty days or so, and things like guns, knives and falling from great heights won’t kill them—in order to dust a rover, you have to cut off its head (or trap it in the sunlight). Rovers can also identify each other by the black aura that surrounds them, an aura only other rovers can see. Otherwise, rovers are pretty much human: they eat and drink and fall in love, seek revenge on each other and mourn the loss of their friends. They prey on the weak and the drunk, people on the fringes of society who won’t be missed, and they’re careful about disposing of the bodies so they won’t call attention to themselves.

Even though there are speculative elements in the story, Rovers reads more like a gritty literary crime noir, so even if you’re the sort of reader who would never pick up a vampire book, this might work for you, especially if you like your stories on the dark side. And this is very dark. Lange’s vampires live in constant fear of being discovered, homeless and jobless and always on the move. Jesse steals in order to survive, and as long as he and Edgar have enough money for a motel room and some food, that’s all they really need. The violent scenes seem to come out of nowhere, which made them all the more shocking. In a standard vampire tale, you know you’re dealing with otherworldly creatures, so the killing isn’t as horrific. But when your characters appear mostly human, it makes the act of murder seem so much worse. 

But despite the violence, Lange manages to infuse his story with emotion and some surprisingly sympathetic characters. Take Edgar, for example. Edgar is fifty years old but has the mind of a child. He’s trapped in a body he doesn’t like—he didn’t choose to become a rover, that was forced upon him by his brother (and there are good reasons for it but I won’t go into them here). All of the characters broke my heart in one way or another, but I really felt for Edgar in particular, who doesn’t understand why he has to live with “the Little Devil,” what he calls the monster inside him. I also loved the Fiends and how carefully the author developed each of their characters. I adored Elijah and Antonia, the unofficial leaders of the Fiends, who are deeply in love with each other and are considering leaving the gang and their bloody lifestyle behind. Lange gives us some flashbacks that show how Jesse and Claudine met and fell in love, another heartbreaking tale that brought me to tears. Even Charles’ story moved me, although I found his plotline to be the most depressing and unsavory.

The setting and time period are perfect for this tale: the hot, sun-drenched small towns full of outcasts and desperate people, and the lawless feeling of the 1970s. Even the Las Vegas setting worked so well. Instead of the glitz of the strip and casinos, we see the seedy side of Vegas, where you just know some bad shit is going to go down. The final showdown was as bloody as you might expect, and the ending was an emotional punch that I didn’t see coming. Quentin Tarantino fans should definitely check this out, and if Rovers doesn't get a movie option, I'll be very surprised. Fans of complex storytelling and relatable characters—who don’t mind some bleakness in their stories—will love this book.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

Rovers are what vampires call themselves. Forced to move from town to town to avoid detection, vampires chase victims and each other alone and in packs.

Jesse and his mentally slow brother Edgar have been circling the United States for almost a hundred years. When Jesse sees Johana, a human woman who is the spitting image of his lost great love, he can’t help but ask her out on a date. Unfortunately, the date goes horrible wrong resulting in all three being chased across state lines by a band of rovers called the Fiends.

Meanwhile, human Charles is searching the country for the killer of his son, Benny. He runs into a strange old man with a similar life story. It’s the eve of the nation’s bicentennial and the fireworks are just about to start.

I wondered why a book about vampires was classified as a mystery/thriller. But I was intrigued enough by the synopsis to give it a read. I am so glad I did. Even with blood, gore and death aplenty, Rovers is ultimately almost a literary fiction that happens to be about creatures that feed on human blood. After all, vampires are the definitive outsider.

The book has a slow motion almost dreamlike quality. Despite the pacing, it is incredibly hard to put down. The characterizations are so well done that even as a gang of vicious vampires argue over who gets to kill an innocent baby, you understand and sympathize with their needs. The author is so skilled that I only realized it after I was done with the book. And I am still thinking about it days after I finished it.

So, if you want to see a master at work, and feel like something completely different than what you usually read, pick up Rovers. You won’t be sorry (though you may be tired after staying up half the night to finish it like I did). 5 stars and a favorite!

Thanks to Mulholland Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rovers by Richard Lange is a well-written and engrossing read with well developed characterizations. Well worth the time spent reading.

Trying to not do the "it's Near Dark meets..." thing and just call this a stunner. Best thing I've read in a while. Poetic, compelling, cinematic--a vampire book, koff koff, that effortlessly steps onto "yeah, these characters just happen to be vampires" terrain and sucks you in (couldn't resist) until an ending that made me tear up. Excellent.