Frederick Faust (1892–1944)

From a financial standpoint, versatility was an advantage for pulp authors: the magazines didn't pay very well (a penny a word, and in some cases even less) so it behooved a writer to work in a variety of styles, frequently under a pseudonym. But even the best of these authors excelled in just a single genre, and when they stepped outside their comfort zone it could be excruciatingly evident. Conan creator Robert E. Howard, for example, also wrote horror stories and even the occasional show more detective yarn...but the former usually felt like blah Lovecraft imitations while the latter were just sword-and-sorcery action pieces set unconvincingly in the present day, replacing the barbarian's blade with a snub-nosed automatic. Howard did one thing very well, and when he tried to do something else the results were less than satisfying.

Max Brand essentially was a writer of Westerns (a few months ago I favorably reviewed "Wine on the Desert," one of his stories set in the American West), though he worked in a number of genres. After reading The Night Flower, I believe I can safely say that the hard-boiled crime story was not his métier. This book is a florid, schmaltzy, overwritten mess, a romantic melodrama that tries to fool the reader into thinking he's in Dashiell Hammett territory by setting the action against a big city gangland backdrop...but the resemblance is only cosmetic. There's none of the terse directness or nonsentimentality that made the hard-boiled pulp craze such an exciting phenomenon in the 1920s and '30s. Max Brand was not a bad writer as such, but he was a bad crime writer. There's a reason that Hammett, Chandler et al. are still in print while Brand's crime novels have faded into obscurity. One and a half stars. show less

This book was the most absurd book I ever read...and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The author really brought the characters to life. I found the main character to be charming in the most ridculous manner. An underdog who used his intelligence to get out of the most unexpected situations. I would recommend this book to anyone who roots for the underdog. Add the wit and humor the book has and you have an entertaining read.

Destry Rides Again by Max Brand was originally published in 1930 and unfortunately, it hasn’t aged well as there were far too many racial slurs to be comfortable with the read. Another thing that threw me off is that the excellent 1939 western comedy film of the same title has absolutely no connection to the story. The film company wisely just used the title and discarded the written story.

The basic plot of the book is Harrison Destry’s quest for revenge against the 12 jurors who allowed show more their personal feelings to affect their judgment and wrongfully convict Destry for a robbery. After serving six years Destry is released and comes back to town with plans to get even with anyone who had a hand in sending him away. Destry is not a very likeable person, he thinks he is superior to everyone and was a bully when he was younger. The one person he should be going after is the one that originally set him up to be charged of the robbery and now, pretends friendship but continues to plot against him.

Destry Rides Again could have been a western classic but unfortunately the author delivers his story with some rather clunky writing, unbelievable action and as mentioned above, far to many racial slurs. I would strongly advise anyone to skip the book and watch the 1939 film instead. show less

This story has a copyright date of 1933 so it is 90 years old as I read it. It is also the 7th book in a series featuring Jim Silver. I have not read any of the prior books in the series so I may have been at a slight disadvantage in understanding who Jim Silver and his stallion Parade are. Here he has been on the trail of two outlaws for a very long time. However the story begins before we meet Jim Silver, as it opens with a timberwolf who is a giant of his kind and is notorious in the area show more he lives. He has a $2000 bounty on his head and feeds at will on the ranch livestock in the valley below the mountain range he frequents. He has a very large reputation and has been named Frosty. A trapper has come a thousand miles to trap him and after six months he has failed to get him. The story begins with Frosty more or less telling us about things. Then we switch to the trapper, Bill Gary, who has laid a careful set of traps for Frosty. And it works. And in the words of Bill Gary, he got Frosty and Frosty got him.

There are many parts to the story that are quickly laid out with this beginning and the rest of the novel deals with some nasty bad guys, and a couple good guys. I got a kick out of the parts of the story told by Frosty. One chapter opens like this: "She was tall. She was beautiful. She moved with a light and delicate grace. There was bright humor and good nature in her eyes. And Frosty loved her the moment he set eyes on her in the moonlight of that glade." So begins the part of the story where Frosty finds his mate.

There are good descriptions of the people and the land in this western and I found it to be a good read. show less