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Smugglers Trail
In jail for counterfeiting, Jack Ripley thinks his trail has ended. But U.S. Marshall Tom Dallas offers him his freedom--for a price. In a desperate try for justice, Dallas arranges Ripley's escape, hoping that Ripley can succeed where others have failed to capture the West's most murderous band of smugglers. For the first time in his life, Ripley's guns are shooting for the law, not at it!
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 12, 1973
12 people want to read
About the author
Max Brand
1,858 books140 followersFrederick Schiller Faust (see also Frederick Faust), aka Frank Austin, George Owen Baxter, Walter C. Butler, George Challis, Evin Evan, Evan Evans, Frederick Faust, John Frederick, Frederick Frost, David Manning, Peter Henry Morland, Lee Bolt, Peter Dawson, Martin Dexter, Dennis Lawson, M.B., Hugh Owen, Nicholas Silver
Max Brand, one of America's most popular and prolific novelists and author of such enduring works as Destry Rides Again and the Doctor Kildare stories, died on the Italian front in 1944.
Max Brand, one of America's most popular and prolific novelists and author of such enduring works as Destry Rides Again and the Doctor Kildare stories, died on the Italian front in 1944.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 16, 2017
An old marshal, working for the US government in the fight to end the traffic in human souls, decides he needs an outlaw to infiltrate the smuggling of Chinese into the country from the Southern border. So he finds a not so bad outlaw, and runs him in, and appeals to his better nature...
Now, if you can survive a sense defying narrative gambit like that, and the simple luck that gets this hero into the middle of the ring he is to break up, you might be able to read this one. Like other Max Brand, the plot moves merrily along and there's a Big Mystery that keeps the middle of the story interesting (along with the high concept illegal alien plotline, which is at least different from what you usually get in Westerns). Things get a little schmaltzy at the end, but the climax is fitting, and has the sweep you might find in a good late silent movie.
As with Max Brand, there is a high bromance content, but in this case, the inseparable couple is the lead villain, and his somewhat gormless henchman.
Now, if you can survive a sense defying narrative gambit like that, and the simple luck that gets this hero into the middle of the ring he is to break up, you might be able to read this one. Like other Max Brand, the plot moves merrily along and there's a Big Mystery that keeps the middle of the story interesting (along with the high concept illegal alien plotline, which is at least different from what you usually get in Westerns). Things get a little schmaltzy at the end, but the climax is fitting, and has the sweep you might find in a good late silent movie.
As with Max Brand, there is a high bromance content, but in this case, the inseparable couple is the lead villain, and his somewhat gormless henchman.
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May 28, 2016read some time in 1986
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews