Dogs of the Captain

by Max Brand

When he earns Captain Slocum's respect, Don Grier gets a financial backer for his mission to find the truth surrounding the murder for which his father had been hanged, which leads him to a rough-and-tumble mining town where he must prove himself in order to get answers. Reprint.

Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Frederick 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.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jun 9, noon ~~ Another hit in my Max Brand project, this book was originally published in Western Story Magazine in 1932.

Our main character is a boy named Don. He gets into typical boy trouble with his friends, until the day he decides he just HAS to have one of Captain Slocum's famous watermelons.

Captain Slocum is the mystery man of the town. Big house, lots of land, plenty of money, and creepy helpers that are known to be dangerous to anyone who tries to get through the thorny hedge around the house. There is a ghost in the tower on the house, and four huge dogs that have been known to nearly kill more than one trespasser.

But darn it, Don wants to try one of those watermelons! And one night he is possessed so strongly by the need for a watermelon that he gets himself to the Slocum house, through the hedge and into the garden.

And his life changes forever.

The story was fast-moving and more complex than it seemed when I first got started. Just who is this Captain Slocum, anyway? That is one puzzle, but another is the story of what happened to Don's father. All we know at first is that Don lives with an Aunt Lizzie, who is a horrible woman who beats Don and doesn't really feed him enough. Layers and more layers are slowly peeled away as we follow what happens to Don after his daring raid on the watermelon patch. And we just know that Something Bad Must Be Going To Happen, because Don himself says so every so often in hints about the future.

This was a good story, very entertaining, and a nice mix of 'Oh I Know What Will Happen' and 'Boy, I Didn't See THAT Coming'.

[Mimro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this so much! You could guess what would happen, but that was just fine anyhow.

[Andrew Salmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frederick Faust (aka Max Brand) is one tough customer to pidgeon-hole. Staggeringly prolific in his lifetime (writing the equivalent of 530 books between 1917 and 1944 via short stories, novels, novellas, novelettes in any and old genres), the breadth of his imagination knew no bounds. Today, he is known principally for his Westerns which have been coming out in new editions regularly for the last 80 or so years. But, even here, while employing the tropes of the genre, he consistantly brings something new to the table.

DOGS OF THE CAPTAIN, although packaged like all Brand Westerns, is not a shoot-em-up. It's a wonderfully engagin coming of age tale. The focus of the story is Don Grier, a thirteen-year-old living with a shrew of a woman who has raised him since his father was tried and executed for a crime he didn't commit. The boy, rambunctious and wild, is found of pestering reclusive Captain Slocum by constantaly trespassing on the man's property. What begins with a Twain-like innocence of youth approach soon deepens once the boy learns of how his father died while simultaneously being taken under the wing of Slocum. The boy vows to find the truth and, with the aid of Slocum, sets out for the town where his father was tried and executed.

To reveal more would consitutute spoilers and to spoil this story for anyone would be a shame. Sure, you've heared the above tale before, recounted in a hundred tales and could rattle off a version of it. But that won't be this version. Sure, some fairy tale elements are present here, but Faust's tale often unfold with a dreamlike quality, turning on a dime or taking the plot in directions you never see coming. And it is this genius that elevates DOGS OF THE CAPTAIN to new heights.

This particular Leisure Books paperback is out of print but can be found cheaply just about anywhere as it is recent and was widely distributed. If you come across a copy, snap it up. Not only is it a fine, enjoyable read, but these Leisure reprints of the Five Star Western hardcovers, are the only editions of Brand that present his tales exactly as he wrote them. Millions of Max Brand paperbacks have been spewed out by countless publishers over the years and oftimes the tales have been heavily edited and, in some cases, rewritten. Not so with the 100+ Leisure Max Brand releases.

I recommend DOGS OF THE CAPTAIN. I enjoyed the heck out of it.