The Gauntlet

The Gauntlet provides the reader with another excellent selection of novellas from Max Brand (Frederick Faust). There's is quite simply no western writer like him and this collection shows why. The Blackness of MacTee is as charming and riveting a love story as one is likely to find. Two friends, who would gladly die for each other, turn murderous over winning the hand of one fair maiden who has admitted she loves one of them, but won't say which for fear of causing harm to the other. Sound like a Western? No. But, believe me it is, with much hard riding, fist fights and some detective work thrown in. Part silly, loads of fun. And impossible to put down. King Of Rats is another of the immortal Reata series which mirrors the myth of Hercules. Reata must steal a horse to flush out the villain Pop Dickerman wants him to kill. With a couple of hapless cronies along for the ride, this is another one which defies the reader to stop reading. Believe me, you won't The title novella, The Gauntlet, is a twisted take on Cinderella. Our intrepid hero has been slaving away in his mine, looking for gold. Now, with his fortune in hand, it's easy street. Until he finds a woman's glove in the road on the way to town. Being alone for so long, he immediately conjures an image of who wore the glove and falls in love with this imaginary female. So much so that he must find her. And he'll risk everything to do so. Anyone unfamiliar with the work of Max Brand will probably be surprised at the content of these stories. Well, this is what Brand does, and he does it better than anyone. You never know quite what to expect when you pick up a Brand book. But one thing you should never expect is to be disappointed. The Gauntlet is one of 80 or so (so far) titles from Leisure Books and having read more than twenty of them myself to date, I have not been disappointed. Brand was one of the all-time best. Not only of Western fiction. He wrote well in just about every genre there is. Totally unique and original at a time when formula fiction was king. And he writes with style and language as fresh today and when the stories first appeared. A timeless genius who will always have an audience. I strongly recommend The Gauntlet or any of the other Leisure offerings. They are simply that good.