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The Killers
Slim Jim Geraldi was a fearsome gunman and a crooked gambler who owed his life to a lovely stranger named Louise Asprey after she saved him from a vengeful posse. When she begged him for help in return, he couldn't refuse - would he find her father, a rich mine owner who had been hiding for years from the law? With a greedy eye on Old Man Asprey’s fortune, Cousin Edgar offered ten thousand dollars to fill him full of lead. When Slim Jim refused, he hired a notorious killer named Dick Renney for the job. Hot on the trail of Renney, can Slim Jim warn Old Man Asprey? Or will Renney's sharp shot finish them both?
230 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 16, 1928
About the author
Max Brand
1,943 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 - 1 of 1 review
February 8, 2017
This is my first Max Brand and it was definitely its own beast. At times it didn't feel like a Western at all what with the some of turns the plot took. In fact, the story had much in common with pulpy urban crime stories as with the Western. Which was all to the good, in its own way.
There is a certainly an "old fashioned" sensibility at work here, written 1928, but not to the extreme of say Zane Grey, and the prose is not near as purple. We're generally not at all confused about good and evil, and honor and propriety play major roles in how characters make decisions. And these characters are relatively one dimensional.
The plot, though, was constantly taking me by surprise. Our hero James Geraldi (what a name for a gunfighter!) is the requisite superhero, master of gambling, horseback riding, gunfighting, etc but also with some very non-Western talents I won't reveal here as they instigate some of the more interesting twists. In that respect, Geraldi is similar to the, again urban, costumed crimefighters of the 1930s. He is of course honorable to a fault, giving villains more chances and mercy than he should. That is part of what does make him more a Western hero than an Eastern city bound vigilante.
Though I'm not racing to read more Max Brand, I am curious to and will pick up more in the future.
There is a certainly an "old fashioned" sensibility at work here, written 1928, but not to the extreme of say Zane Grey, and the prose is not near as purple. We're generally not at all confused about good and evil, and honor and propriety play major roles in how characters make decisions. And these characters are relatively one dimensional.
The plot, though, was constantly taking me by surprise. Our hero James Geraldi (what a name for a gunfighter!) is the requisite superhero, master of gambling, horseback riding, gunfighting, etc but also with some very non-Western talents I won't reveal here as they instigate some of the more interesting twists. In that respect, Geraldi is similar to the, again urban, costumed crimefighters of the 1930s. He is of course honorable to a fault, giving villains more chances and mercy than he should. That is part of what does make him more a Western hero than an Eastern city bound vigilante.
Though I'm not racing to read more Max Brand, I am curious to and will pick up more in the future.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review