„Fortune’s Christmas” is a short story by Max Brand originally published in December 20, 1924. Brand was an American author best known for his thoughtful Westerns under the pen name Max Brand. Prolific in many genres, he wrote historical novels, detective mysteries, pulp fiction stories and many more. „Fortune’s Christmas” is a Christmas story, told from the perspective of Anthony Hazzard, a miser to end all misers. Anthony Hazzard is money lender to the desparate, a man wi...

Another Sleeper story, featuring Sleeper, a gunslinger turned horse-thief, from the collection „More Tales of the Wild West”. Six action-packed stories of the Old West, filled with unforgettable characters, includes „A Lucky Dog,” in which man’s best friend helps a would-be killer and thief find salvation, along with „A First Blooding,” „Inverness,” (aka „Sleeper Turns Horse-Thief”) and „Death in Alkali Flat.” In this story Sleeper is hired to break a horse and turns horse-th...

They called him Speedy because he could outsmart bankers, outfox barkeeps, and outwit bounty hunters faster than any man alive. He arrived on an iron horse. The day he rode into Durfee, he was more than ready to use his skills to make a killing. To Speedy, Durfee didn’t look any different from a hundred other towns he’d seen before. There were fat bankers waiting for his smooth talk, and lovely young ladies ready to swoon over his smile and his guitar playing. But this time t...

Something natural or supernatural enters the soul of Andrew Creel, a commonplace and disaffected young man, and drives him into a swift game where death is a probability on the one side and love only a possibility on the other. Creel plays it to the end: an end unlike the end that seemed so sure when dusk fell on the garden of that charming mansion with its sinister residents who have taken up residence in the title’s Windon Manor after a bank failure wiped out their fortunes...

„The Face and the Doctor” is another short story by Frederick Schiller Faust (1892-1944) who was an American author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary westerns under the pen name Max Brand. This story filled with excitement, suspense, good guys and bad, and plot twists aplenty! Orphaned at an early age, Faust studied at the University of California, Berkeley. He became one of the most prolific writers of our time but abandoned writing at age fifty-one to become a...

Doctor Kildare approached just in time to hear Meg say to the officer, „"I heard a shot outside my apartment, then a crash. When I ran out, this man was lying on the landing... „” „"Whiskey Sour"” (1938) is a Doctor Kildare story that continues the depiction of a „"gangster"” atmosphere surrounding the young doctor as he cared for East Side streets toughs and local political bosses while defying his hospital superiors. Max Brand (1892-1944) is the best-known pen name of widel...

In „Calling Dr. Kildare”, Dr. Kildare has left his family home to work in a metropolitan hospital with the brilliant Dr. Gillespie who is slowly dying. Kildare has been chosen to work under the irascible Doctor and receive his vast knowledge. On his first case, young Dr. Kildare defies his chief-of -staff, and faces danger and scandal... It is the second in the „Dr. Kildare” series, written by Max Brand, which was the pen name of prolific author Frederick Faust. He is best kn...

Another great Western by Max Brand aka Frederick Faust, Clung is one his most memorable and intriguing characters. As a Western author, Brand did not shrink from controversial topics such as race relations in the Old West. There is a mystery about the birth of Clung, who is raised by an old Chinese man in a small Arizona town, but none about his skill with weapons. At first he shoots in self-defense, then recklessly to avenge an insult. With a price on his head, he begins a l...

One of many recommended westerns by this prolific author. Frederick Schiller Faust (May 29, 1892 – May 12, 1944) was an American author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary westerns under the pen name Max Brand. In this short story told in the first person, Leon Porfilo, an outlaw of poor beginnings and lowly ancestry, goes up against Jeffrey Dinsmore, a gentleman outlaw born of the privileged class, in an attempt to clear his name and gain a pardon. In „His Fight ...

The most dangerous killer in Alaska, Menneval sends a certain Bill Ranger to California in search of information about his father and son Crosson. After many setbacks, Bill finally finds the Crossons in the woods. The life of father and son is shrouded in deep mystery. Bill will be with them to become a member of incredible adventures and bloody skirmishes.

When young doctor James Kildare and his fiancée, nurse Mary Lamont, make plans for their wedding day, brother Mary Douglas arrives at her. Douglas asks Kildare to arrange an appointment with a wealthy Mr. Chandler, whose daughter Kildare rescued at Young Doctor Kildare to ask for a fund to create three subsidized trading schools to train unskilled workers. Kildare does not want to impose Chandler for ethical reasons, but is concerned that Doug, who hears nonexistent sounds, m...

In the crowded waiting room of Dr. Gillespie there were people of ten nations of more than ten degrees, from the old pugilist with rheumatism in his broken hands to the Indian mystic whose eyes already were forgetting this world; but little Florrie Adams took precedence over all of these. Her mother lagged breathless, a step behind, as Florrie was led quickly on by a nurse so pretty that the little girl had to keep looking up at that freshness and that bloom; and so her stumb...

The Montana Kid, „El Keed” south of the border, slips a marriage noose to join Mateo Rubriz, prince of Mexican outlaws, in a wild cross-border raid. The target: a gold and emerald crown stolen by the governor of Duraya from the church under his protection. In Duraya, Montana and Rubriz have no problem getting into the governor’s fort, even finding the crown. It’s the getting out that nearly undoes them!

Kildare saves the life of a skater who had a car accident. But even though her leg is broken, she cannot walk, and she is trying to sue Kildare for negligence, and Kildare’s entire career and reputation are now based on the correct diagnosis in the courtroom.

Lucky Bill has the reputation of a natural battler, but he is not a cold-blooded killer. Then Bill finds himself on the wrong side of the law when he is accused of a crime he did not commit, and plenty of greenhorns and gringos set their sights on collecting the price on his head. He’s wanted by every tin star in the West and by every greedy gunslinger out for the price they can get for his no-good corpse. But Bill refuses to turn tail and run. Renowned Old West gunslinger Bi...

„Larramee’s Ranch” is another great and entertaining Max Brand novel! This is quite a change of pace for Max Brand. His hero Tom Holden is a bookish young man with a bad leg, no money, and no experience with firearms. When he sets out to make his fortune, he has no real prospects but through a series of bluffs he outwits a killer, faces down a town bully, makes a considerable bundle of money for himself. Then he announces he will marry Alexa Larrame, the beautiful blue-eyed d...

After ten years of wandering, during which he has lived the life of a gambler and learned the ways of devious men, Tom Keene returns home, only to find his father alone and dying. Old John Keene’s sole legacy to his son is a Bible, so with his father’s passing, Tom renounces his selfish, worthless past and sets out to preach to others that the greatest happiness is born of trust in one another. But Tom Keene’s good intentions are about to cost him more than he knows... Tom is...

Another great tale by Frederick Schiller Faust who was an American author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary westerns under the pen name Max Brand! The Kid was a lawman’s worst nightmare. A fearsome gun-for-hire, he was a legend written in blood and carved in the tombstones of the men he killed. But this time he was facing an old enemy from his twisted past – a man who had survived his bullet and lived for vengeance. This story filled with excitement, suspense, g...

Max Brand (Frederick Schiller Faust) is one of the greatest early Western writers who has been labeled „one of the top three Western novelists of all time” and „Speedy’s Bargain” is one of 9 „Speedy” stories that have seen print in various collections. „Speedy’s Bargain” features „Speedy,” Brand’s atypical western man of action who carries no gun and relies on his wits and psychological insights to stop crooks in their tracks. In it, an outlaw holds a family at gunpoint, thre...

Superstar pulpsmith Max Brand was best known for his Westerns, but his historical adventures rank among the best stories he ever wrote. He wrote somewhere around 12 or 13 historical swashbucklers not including the seven Tizzo stories. The complete tales of Tizzo the Firebrand contains the 7 stories. „The Great Betrayal” is one of it. The series is set in early 16th Century Italy. Luigi Falcone had taken in red haired street urchin Tizzo outside of the city of Perugia. Raised ...

A good classic western by Max Brand (Frederick Faust) about the famous outlaw King Bird. The King Bird, a young, reckless and mystery bandit, whose definition of happiness is freedom, the best horse, a wonderful girl, faces difficult choices when he attempts to save an old friend’s runaway daughter from a dangerous gang of robbers. „The King Bird Rides” is a fast moving, exciting, plenty of gun play and adventure. Max Brand’s action-filled stories of adventure and heroism in ...

Accused, tried, and convicted of robbery and murder that he did not commit, Jim Seton rotted in jail for five long years. Although the townspeople said he was lucky not to hang, that wasn’t how Jim saw it. He didn’t take kindly to being railroaded. Now he was free and ready. He was an innocent man who’d been sent to hell, and he was ready, willing, and able to return the favor. „The Return of the Rancher „ is a classical western excitement at its very best by a master of the ...

He was smiling continually, with such an air of removal above the concerns of ordinary mortals, with such an upward lifting of the head, that his fellows in the boat had called him, from the first day of labor and thirst, „The Saint.” This novelette filled with excitement, suspense, good guys and bad, and plot twists aplenty! Brand is a masterful story teller, slowly revealing his main characters’ unique idiosyncrasies, strengths and weaknesses that make them both human and a...

An exciting saga of danger, adventure, and romance on the Western frontier. Bill Lancaster was a dangerous man that no one dared mess with. He was fast with a gun, deadly with his fists, and a bully who never let you forget who was tougher. Young Dan Cadigan however refused to be pushed. Mistaken for a quiet weakling, no one expected him to stand up to Bill Lancaster. Fighting him with his fists he made Lancaster realize that someone was tougher than he was. Desperate he used...