Saddlemates

A Western Story

By: Max Brand

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

The mining certificates granting ownership of the Christabel mine that Edward Dugan inherited from his father had a face value of $250,000, but the mine itself had been declared worthless. Still, Henry Christian, the man that had sold them to Dugan's father, said he'd buy them back for $1,500.

Penniless, Dugan decided to walk the 3,000 miles from his home in Boston to the mine in the Southwest to check out the offer. But along the way he meets a travel companion named Red. Red knows Christian by reputation, and by another name: Bonanza Chris. He knows the only reason Bonanza Chris would buy the mine back is if he had discovered it was far from worthless. He decides not to abandon Dugan to negotiate with Bonanza Chris on his own, but not even Red can imagine how far Bonanza Chris will go to restake his claim on the mine.

©1932 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. © renewed 1960 by Dorothy Faust. © 2014 by Golden West Literary Agency for restored material (P)2018 Blackstone Publishing

I had to explain to my family why I was laughing.

What a wordsmith! The story is funny, light, and well read. I think the ending could have been better explained, but overall a sweet and entertaining story.

Slope the Simple!

Edward Dugan inherited controlling shares of a gold mine, supposedly worth $250K, from his father. Unfortunately, the shares were now believed worthless. Henry Christian, the man who sold the shares to Dugan’s father, offers to buy the shares back for $1,500. So Dugan made his way to Potts Valley to meet Christian. On the way, Dugan meets “Red” who knew Christian as a swindler named “Bonanza Chris”. Red offers to accompany Dugan, who has now picked up the nickname “Slope”. The story continues as a fun romp with Red, Slope, and another new friend named “Blondie” matching wits with Bonanza Chris over the mine. It is a fun story with likable characters and witty dialogue. One issue was the last few chapters. The anxiety had me nearly pulling my hair out. You’ll know what I mean when you read/listen for yourself. I wasn’t impressed with the ending either.

good book

Great story, Max Brand has a way of making simple people, become heroic men. Slope reminds me of, Ronicky Doone

A great yarn

As is often the case for Brand, the hero in this story is honest, physically powerful, and thought of as a fool by others. But the narrator is definitely not any of those things and this has more humor in it than any book I’ve read by Max Brand.

An easy read

This book was written in 1932. I have read Max Brand books all my life. His name was Frederick Schiller Faust and he wrote under at least a dozen different names. He also wrote a wide variety of books. This book is a bit different than the usual Max Brand story. My favorite Max Brand western is “Destry Rides Again” written in 1930 and he wrote the script for the 1932 movie starring Tom Mix. There have been many movie sequels since 1932 with the big western star of the era in the lead.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is seven hours and five minutes. One of my favorite narrators, Grover Gardner, does a great job narrating the book.