Audiobooks by Max Brand

Luck and a Horse: A Western Duo Audiobook

Found among a group of unpublished works by Frederick Faust, these two Western stories both deal with cowardice. In "Traynor" the title character is believed to be a weak young man, having let Dr. Parker Channing steal his love, Rose Laymon, away from him. When the stage Traynor is driving into Little Snake is robbed and Traynor's best friend and stage guard, Sam Whitney, is killed by the robber, Traynor chases the thief and recovers his dropped Stetson, which was sold to Dr. Channing less than a month earlier. The medico takes off after Traynor confronts him, and despite a physical weakness overwhelming him, Traynor finds himself chasing the only man who can save him. In "Luck and a Horse," Tommy Grant works day and night on the farm of the tyrant and master manipulator Sylvester Train, who has not paid him for nineteen months. The man runs roughshod over Tommy as well as his niece, Margie Train. When Tommy balks at using his horse, Brownie, in the plow, Train sends him to Fruit Dale with two wagons of grain and a shopping list. In town, he learns that Lefty Lew Hilton is looking to gun down the jailbird, Bert Ellis. Events take a strange turn when Tommy finds himself in the back room of a saloon, playing cards with Ellis. When Ellis is shot in the middle of the game, a hundred posse men give chase to Tommy, who is believed to be the killer of Ellis.

Max Brand (Author), Tim Getman (Narrator)

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The White Streak: A Western Duo

Recently, a number of Western stories have been discovered among Max Brand’s unpublished works and the first story in this book, “The White Streak,” is one of them. Its protagonist is twenty-one-year-old Jimmy Babcock, a former football star, but now a worker at the local bank run by William Parker in the town of Dresser, which has changed from cattle country to one made up of oil and alfalfa fields. When Parker fires Jimmy, all Jimmy can think is how he will hurt Muriel Aiken, his fiancée, who wants to marry. When his father signs over the old family homestead that is in serious need of repair, Jimmy feels better. But an unexpected invitation from Parker to meet him at the Club convinces him that Parker wants him back. When he learns what Parker really has in mind, Jimmy finds himself recalling the stories he has heard about the notorious robbers the White Streak and Utah Billie, and he has to make a hard decision. In “The Masked Rider” the betrothed of Carlos Torreño, Lucia d’Arquista, is making her way to Casa Torreño in Spanish California in which no expense has been spared in making her journey a lavish one by her soon-to-be father-in-law, Francisco Torreño. But it is on the journey that Francisco decides that Lucia is a sparrowhawk and that she must be watched carefully, especially once she takes an interest in Taki, a Navajo who is working off a debt to Francisco.

Max Brand (Author), Tom Burka (Narrator)

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Magic Gun: A Western Duo

Hugh Collier in “The Danger Lover” feels he is living an empty life as a little more than competent bank employee in the town of Stanton. He decides to leave behind a life that for him was a “caricature and savage cartoon of the beautiful truth that life may be,” and he heads into the mountains alone, carrying only the essentials on his horse. Even though his efforts at hunting and fishing prove to be failures in the early days, he keeps his spirits up by celebrating his small successes as he travels deeper in the wild. Two things change the course of his adventure: he sees a town from a hill, and a stranger, desperate to file on a claim, convinces Collier to trade horses. Once he walks the stranger’s horse into the town, he soon finds himself to be mistaken for the outlaw Bill Gadsden by both worshipers of the outlaw and the man after the outlaw, Lassiter. In the title story, twenty-two year old Lewis Dikkon has led a sheltered life, working seven days a week as a shoemaker for his taskmaster uncle, Charles Bender. Being inside most of the time, he knows little of the town and its inhabitants and they have no interest in him, other than as a poorly dressed oddball. A stranger named Sam Prentiss begins showing up at 8 p.m. every Saturday night to sit in a chair in the shop’s doorway and look across the street for an hour. Their conversations, though limited, begin to set Dikkon’s mind to work and before long he decides he wants to buy a gun. When Dan Hodge, the gunman, is killed and his personal items go up for auction, Dikkon gets his Colt, which he believes is a magic gun.

Max Brand (Author), Traber Burns (Narrator)

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Jigger Bunts: A Western Story

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.

Max Brand (Author), Traber Burns (Narrator)

Audiobook

Torturous Trek

On a cold, gusty night in Circle City, Alaska, Sammy Day walks into Nagle's Bar. He is only twenty-two, but he has been on his own for ten years. He has worked cattle from Montana to Chihuahua, but a little 'accident' at a poker table in Montana sent him on a forced march to Alaska to avoid a posse. He is down to his last fifty cents.

Max Brand (Author), Traber Burns (Narrator)

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Sunset Wins: A Western Trio

When Happy Jack in 'The Gift' learns that Sandy Crisp was behind the killing of his pal Jackson, a married man and the father of three, he hunts him down at his cabin. Feeling fear for the first time, as Happy Jack tries to taunt him into a fight, Crisp is struck by the physical similarity between Happy Jack and Johnny Neilan, the son of his nearest neighbors, who died twelve years ago in a log jam. Bitter and rich, Johnny's parents still believe he is alive and will one day return. Crisp proposes Happy Jack pose as the Neilans' son and rob their safe, giving his share of the money to Jackson's widow. Reluctantly, Happy Jack agrees, but he is not prepared for what he encounters on this Christmas Eve. Jim Orchard, the hero of 'Jerico's Garrison Finish,' suffers from 'reckless generosity' which keeps getting in the way of his ability to save the $5,000 he needs so he can marry Sue Hampton, who fears that he is an easy mark and that he will never put the needs of a family first. When he hears that Garry Munn has been visiting Sue, he becomes worried and desperate as he has lost most of his money again. Munn is the favorite in the upcoming race in the rodeo, and Orchard sees his only chance of getting his $5,000 stake is to ride Jerico, a killer horse, racing against Munn. In 'Sunset Wins,' Gordon MacDonald is a throwback to his ancestors, big and brutal, a man who 'looked like a lion' and 'thought like a fox' and 'fought like ten devils, shoulder to shoulder.' No prison in the world could hold him, though they had tried. Eventually he returns to the States, making his way to Texas, where he wanders for ten years, until his heart settles on something he must have-a horse named Sunset.

Max Brand (Author), Traber Burns (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Trail Beyond

Peter Quince was a fighter born and bred. Orphaned at a young age, he remembered an old woman saying that he was a bad one and would cause a lot of trouble in the world. Others claimed he had bad blood and it would show up sooner or later. But Bill Andrews felt a connection with the boy, took him home and raised him as one of his own despite his wife's misgivings. Peter soon learned he could manipulate people by withholding his true feelings-showing and telling them what they wanted to see and hear. Peter had learned that battles should be won by cunning and strength, with cunning being far more important. But when he beat his foster brother in a fight over a girl named Mary, Peter knew it was time to strike out on his own. In his travels he would seek out those with skills he needed and learn from them until he was able to master his teacher. At barely twenty, he had a price on his head for shooting a man in self-defense. As he outsmarted lawmen in five states and territories, the bounty rose to over $100,000. He finally fled to Mexico, but there he would fall into trouble again with a wealthy land baron, a beautiful woman, and a notorious bandit.

Max Brand (Author), Armando Durán (Narrator)

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Saddlemates : A Western Story

The mining certificates granting ownership of the Christabel mine that Edward Dugan inherited from his father had a face value of $250,000, but the mine itself had been declared worthless. Still, Henry Christian, the man that had sold them to Dugan's father, said he'd buy them back for $1,500. Penniless, Dugan decided to walk the three thousand miles from his home in Boston to the mine in the Southwest to check out the offer. But along the way he meets a travel companion named Red. Red knows Christian by reputation, and by another name: Bonanza Chris. He knows the only reason Bonanza Chris would buy the mine back is if he had discovered it was far from worthless. He decides not to abandon Dugan to negotiate with Bonanza Chris on his own, but not even Red can imagine how far Bonanza Chris will go to restake his claim on the mine.

Max Brand (Author), Grover Gardner (Narrator)

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The Brass Man: A Western Story

Lorrimer Weldon has spent his life being a tumbleweed and rolling where the wind blows him. Up to Canada, down to Mexico, through deserts, forests, and mountains; anywhere fortune could be found. Those travels helped earn him a reputation as a gambler and a gunfighter-a reputation that frequently preceded him.When Weldon rode into San Trinidad, he found he immediately had two job offers: the outlaw Roger Cunningham wants Weldon to join his smuggling operation as a hired gun, and Dr. Henry Watts wants to hire Weldon's gun as well, but as muscle to protect a patient dying of consumption, the beautiful Helen O'Mallock.Weldon finds Watts' proposition far more attractive, so he accepts the offer, knowing that Cunningham will resent the decision.

Max Brand (Author), Traber Burns (Narrator)

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Old Carver Ranch

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, so with his father's passing, Tom Keene renounces his selfish, worthless past and sets out to preach to others that the greatest happiness is born of trust in one another. Tom gets a chance to demonstrate his new way of life when he rescues a little girl who has fallen into a well. He learns that the little girl comes from the country's wealthiest family, now in financial straits. The family's head, John Carver, is an improvident man who is at times cruel to his dependents, and Tom Keene's good intentions are about to cost him more than he knows. Tom is jailed for a crime he did not commit, beaten and bullied until he changes again, this time into a cunning, calculating man whose sole purpose now is to be avenged for the wrongs done to him. Once released, he chases the trail of the desperado that double-crossed him.

Max Brand (Author), Traber Burns (Narrator)

Audiobook

Sour Creek Valley: A Western Story

After hitting a rich vein of gold on the back of Champion Mountain, Blondy Kitchin heads to the big city to have a good time, but there his luck runs out and he ends up spending two years in prison. The prison's chaplain helps educate him, smooth out his rough edges, and convinces him that the range is the place for Kitchin to make use of his brute strength and free spirit.

Max Brand (Author), Traber Burns (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Cure of Silver Cañon: A Western Trio

Max Brand wrote hundreds of stories, books, films, and TV shows. His output was so voluminous that though he died in WWII, posthumous books have been published approximately every four months since. This book collects three stories from his early work in Western pulps. "Señor Coyote" was first published under Frederick Faust's pen name John Frederick in two installments in Argosy (6/18/38 - 6/25/38). It was the last Western short novel Faust wrote. It was fitting that the story was published in Argosy since Faust's earliest Western fiction had been sold to All-Story Weekly and The Argosy owned by The Frank A. Munsey Company, which merged the two magazines in 7/24/20. In this story, Frank Pollard, a small-time rancher down on his luck and owing the bank $500, looks to his legendary friend, Slip Liddell, to give him the money before the banker, Foster, forecloses on his ranch. Liddell refuses to pay Foster even for his friend. Pollard threatens to do something about it, and then the bank is robbed and Foster shot. Will Liddell help when his friend is accused of the crime?Only two years into his publishing relationship with Street & Smith, which was almost exclusive between 1921 and 1932, Faust was asked to contribute two Christmas stories to magazines the company published. The first was to Detective Story Magazine - "A Christmas Encounter" (12/23/22) under his Nicholas Silver pseudonym - and the other was the story that follows that he titled "The Power of Prayer." It appeared under the John Frederick byline in Western Story Magazine (12/23/22). In it Gerald Kern embodies many of those same qualities of a figure found in several of Faust's Western stories, a gunman who is also a gentleman."The Cure of Silver Cañon" by John Frederick was the second short novel by Faust to appear in Western Story Magazine (1/15/21). In Faust's Western fiction the mountain desert is a country of the imagination where no man is ever a hero and no man is ever a villain, but rather a mixture of both. This certainly proves the case in this story in which both Lew Carney and Jack Doyle love Mary Hamilton and where we, as readers, can never know with certitude for whose soul it is that Mary Hamilton weeps. The story's opening is perhaps the most imagistic and at the same time eerie as Faust ever wrote.

Max Brand (Author), Lloyd James (Narrator)

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