Frederick Schiller Faust, plus célèbre sous le nom de Max Brand, fut l'un des romanciers américains les plus populaires et prolifiques. Son œuvre considérable couvre un large éventail de récits qui ont conquis le cœur de nombreux lecteurs. L'héritage littéraire de Faust est défini par son talent pour créer des personnages captivants et des intrigues passionnantes. Il est décédé sur le front italien en 1944.
THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST Juan Oro would never know who his parents were or where he had come from. He had been given a Spanish name, but he was unquestionably American. He had been raised by Yaqui Indians, but captured by the men of Don José Fontana, a wealthy Spanish grandee in northern Mexico. The don made immediate arrangements to apprentice him to Matiás Bordi, a notorious outlaw who promised to turn Juan into the surest shot and the deadliest hand with a knife. But Don José asked one promise from Juan before he was turned over to Bordi's tutelage--that when he has become a true master of weapons, he will slay the outlaw leader who has become his mentor.
THE MASTER THIEF! Through the years, James Geraldi has proven to be one of Max Brand's most exciting and enduring characters, and this volume contains three of his greatest exploits. Geraldi has been dubbed the "Frigate Bird" because of his habit of stealing from thieves, and Edgar Asprey knows just how apt the name is. Geraldi once prevented Asprey from swindling his family out of a fortune, and managed to get rich doing it. That's exactly why Asprey now wants to form an alliance with him. Asprey has his eye on a rare, invaluable treasure, and he knows no one stands a better chance of stealing it than his old enemy, the Frigate Bird.
In Cuttle's Hired Man Bill Warner and Chick Newton are two cowboys who formed a friendship. Seven years later, Chick Newton encounters Bill Warner again in a small desert town in Arizona Territory. Time has aged them both, but Chick is sure that it is the same man, only Bill Warner denies it. His name, he insists, is Joe Tucker. The Girl They Left Behind Them is an extraordinary story about big Jack Innis, who finds himself attracted to Stella Cornish, daughter of the local sheriff. The problem for Jack is that Miles Ogden claims Stella as his girlfriend and has terrified or intimidated every other man who has ever dared show any interest in her. Speedy is a loner, able to outwit and outmanoeuvre even the deadliest men without the use of a gun. Speedy lives in obscurity because of his enemies, but in Red Rock's Secret, Jessica Fenton Wilson is on his trail.
Author Frederick Faust (AKA Max Brand) spins a tale of mystery and melodrama as Samuel Loring battles to save a girl unjustly accused of murder in a story never before reprinted. Originally serialized in seven installments in Flynn's Magazine, Champion of Lost Causes was one of Brand's earliest works to be filmed as a movie. This edition includes an all-new introduction by Brand expert William F. Nolan (Logan's Run).
The adventures of Lew Melody, who loves to court danger and who has earned a reputation for boldness and daring, are narrated in three related short novels.
The house on the hill in Merridan belonged to Captain Slocum. It was a house of mystery, protected by dogs that ran the grounds at night and armed men who allowed no visitors, even when the captain was away from the house. Don Grier was still a boy when he braved the terrors of the captain's domain to steal a watermelon. It made Don Grier a hero, and a hero has to be challenged. Don's father had been executed for killing his brother. Don cannot believe the charge is true and increasingly is determined that he must go to Chalmer's Creek, where the murder occurred, and learn the truth. On the way there Don is given training in the fighting skills he will need by the man who always guarded the captain's house on the hill, a man somehow enslaved to the captain. Once at Chalmer's Creek, Don finds himself playing a dual role: the hunter and the hunted.
A CLASSIC TRIO Max Brand created a number of immortal Western characters in his brilliant career, and certainly one of the most popular was Reata, the man who preferred a lasso to a gun. In the title story of this collection of three short novels, Reata is on the run with three pack horses loaded with stolen gold. The man from whom he got the gold has sent some men to get it back, and a sheriff's posse is hunting him down to charge him with the robbery. Reata means to elude them all. But can even Reata survive a run-in with the Overland Kid--a gunfighter thought to be invincible?
The narrative follows a young woman's transformative journey, blending classic themes of truth and virtue with thrilling adventures. Max Brand compiles his timeless thoughts into this accessible edition, featuring captivating chapters alongside some slower-paced sections. The engaging protagonist draws readers in, compelling them to discover her fate. Enhanced by a striking new cover and professional typesetting, this modern edition makes the classic story both appealing and easy to read for a new audience.
Every fall Tom Reynard, ramrod for the Bar L, had a hard time finding cowpunchers willing to work the winter range in the bleak badlands near the Sioux reservation. So when Jigger Bunts, an eighteen-year-old from New York who was familiar with riding and roping, happened along, he was hired even though his youth was a red flag to Reynard. To pass the time in the bunkhouse, the other cowhands spin tall tales for Bunts, whom they call the kid, about the exploits of Reynard, and soon Reynard becomes Bunts' hero and role model. Reynard quickly tires of the hero worship, so he concocts a new hero for the kid in Louis Dalfieri, based merely on a picture. Dalfieri replaces Reynard in the kid's mind as his hero, especially when the yarns the punchers tell the kid about this two-gun Robin Hood become outrageous. When a stranger is brought to the ranch by Bunts and he cheats the Bar L cowboys in a game of poker, the kid takes off to get their money back, to right the wrong as he believes Dalfieri would. This decision sends him down a path outside the law from which there appears to be no return, and for which Reynard can only blame himself. Reynard had all but given up hope to help Jigger Bunts when his mind is changed by a chance encounter with an old friend, Maybelle Crofter. Recently discovered among his unpublished works, this untraditional story will delight fans of Max Brand Westerns.
