Max Brand
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The fifty empty freights danced and rolled and rattled on the rough roadbed and filled Jericho Pass with thunder, the big engine was laboring and grunting at the grade, but five cars back the noise of the locomotive was lost. Yet there is a way to talk above the noise of a freight train just as there is a way to whistle into the teeth of a stiff wind. This freight-car talk is pitched just above the ordinary tone-it is an overtone of conversation,...
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This fast-paced story is about a tough rebel named Destry who is sent to prison for years, serving time for a crime he did not commit. Once out, he aims to seek revenge on the 12 jury members who sent him to prison. However, his mission isn't to kill but to find other unique ways as punishment...
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A girl of eighteen named Joan Daniels, grown up in seclusion on a ranch, begins her adult life in a wide world, where secrets will be revealed and love will be found.
When Harry Gloster returns to camp and finds his mining partners murdered, he panics. Unknown in the town of Wickson, Gloster knows he'll be accused of killing them for their share of the gold, so he sets out for Mexico.
On route, he chances upon Joan and begins to fall in love with...
4) Trailin'
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Twists and turns abound as a man with no prior wilderness experience tracks the cold, calculating killer of his father across the open plains and mountains of the Wild West.
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Max Brand's first novel and one of the first in the genre of Westerns along with Zane Gray. Has everything a Western needs: a unbeatable stallion, other horses, a semi-tamed wolf, a young lady "purtier than any filly", unbounded plains, hills, and mountains, untamed skies and weather, and of course--desperados. (Goodreads)
6) The untamed
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With uncanny abilities, Whistlin' Dan Berry keeps the toughest of situations under control. The protagonist of Brand's first western novel was radically different from earlier, more realistic characters. In 'The Untamed', readers are introduced to the modern conception of the west as a violent world of fairy tale.
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The Great West, prior to the century's turn, abounded in legend. Stories were told of fabled gunmen, whose bullets always magically found their mark, of mighty stallions, whose tireless gallop rivaled the speed of the wind, of glorious women, whose beauty stunned mind and heart. But, nowhere in the vast spread of the mountain-desert country was there a greater legend told than the story of Red Pierre and the phantom gunfighter, McGurk.
These two...
9) Alcatraz
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A horse who had been bred to race escapes his masters home and gets used to freedom, but at a terrible price. Can he survive those who are trying to hunt him down? Nothing proves straightforward as the hunt closes in.
10) Black Jack
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After an outlaw is killed, his baby son is adopted by his lover. What will become of this boy? Brand keeps the reader in suspense as this classic tale of good versus evil, in the same person, unfolds.
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"Doc Willis, despite the nickname, is just an unemployed cowboy in The Valley of Jewels. Daggett Valley holds many secrets from the past, including a now deserted mining camp. It is there that Buck Logan lures Willis with the promise of great riches to be gained. What Doc doesn't even suspect is that he is to play a part in a most subtle feat of deception in which an old man, William Daggett, will be conned into believing that he is reliving his past....
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Published in 1919, this tells the story of Andrew/Andy, raised by his uncle to shoot and ride horses. Andrew is content with living a quiet life in a Western town, until a bully picks a fight. Andy knocks him out, and the guy hits his head on a rock. Andy goes on the run, thinking he's a murderer and subconsciously gravitating towards the lawless sector. (Goodreads)
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Peter Dunstan is a big rancher who wants to become bigger, to control more land. So when he buys Dr. Henry Morgan's ranchland that has been unsuccessfully converted to farming, it is his intention to return it to open range. The only stipulation the doctor makes is that Dunstan must retain Sandy Sweyn, who has more or less been Dr. Morgan's ward. Though the man is of age, he is generally considered a half-wit, even by the doctor. Still, Sandy has...
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Prairie Pawn tells the story of Paul Torridon, called White Thunder by the Cheyenne Indians holding him hostage. They believe that he cured Whistling Elk's son from a menacing illness and brought rain when others had failed to do so. Though Paul has been rewarded with many riches, he still seems unhappy, and the Cheyenne chief decides to undertake a dangerous mission to kidnap Nancy Brett from Fort Kendry. The Cheyennes believe that will make White...
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When Samuel Cross was growing up, he was rarely found without a book in his hands and that was the way his mother, a widow, wanted him raised. His uncle, Stephen Larkin, a frontiersman like Sam's father, wanted him to be strong and able to fend for himself, so he would take him into the mountains every summer to teach him how to fight and use a weapon. He proved to be as adept at these subjects as he had been at book learning, but when he was eighteen...
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"Tom Fuller, a scrupulously honest fellow, a person of extraordinary physical strength and owner of a savage horse, Rusty, that he alone was able to tame, is generally regarded as a half-wit. He has been summarily fired from every job he has ever had and even comes to regard himself as a failure. He makes one more try when he is hired on as a blacksmith's assistant by Boston Charlie. Finally here is a job that Tom can perform successfully, and his...
20) Old Carver Ranch
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After ten years of wandering, during which he has lived the life of a gambler and learned the ways of devious men, Tom Keene returns home, only to find his father alone and dying. Old John Keene's sole legacy to his son is a Bible. With his father's passing, Tom Keene renounces his selfish, worthless past and sets out to try to each others that the greatest happiness is born of trust in one another. Tom even gets a chance to demonstrate his new way...