Valley of the Vanishing Men

Silvertip

by Max Brand

Vintage paperback

Genres: Westerns

100 pages, ebook

First published September 1, 1981

About the author

Frederick 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.

Reviews

[Tim]

VALLEY OF VANISHING MEN begins with Ben Trainer receiving a letter from home that tells him that his brother who was bound for Alkali Hills has been missing.
Ben leaves his job punching cows and hits the trail to find his brother.
Ben happens upon a wolf that he sees make an incredible leap after making a mad dash for freedom and fails to clear the fast moving water below. Seeing the valiant effort and unable to stand by while the wolf drowns, he enters the water and saves the wolf, only to find the wolf is Frosty, the famous wolf owned by Jim Silver along with his horse Parade. Silver befriends Ben and accompanies him part of the way to Alkali, not only to help Ben but to pursue his well known enemy Barry Christian who could possibly be there.
Ben arrives in Alkali and begins to ask questions about his brother, and goes to the hotel where his brother Clive stayed. Finding his brother's journal with hints of woman troubles and gold seemingly all that he has to go on, he is determined to find his brother and follows a path fraught with danger and mystery as to what exactly has taken place, and who is involved in Clive's disappearance.
Very enjoyable story here by Max Brand that is really a tale of an ordinary cowboy who rises to the occasion when it's required, and having Jim Silver aka Silvertip call himself your friend in this kind of a situation is about as good as it gets.
I'm a big fan of the books in the Silvertip series, they bring to mind the old TV shows with the western hero and his nemesis. Anyone interested in starting the series might be want to start with Valley Thieves, although Goodreads shows the series begins with The Man From Mustang. Really, you can't go wrong no matter what order you read them in.

[Mateo Tomas]

The title is stronger than the tale.

Some of these stories are about Silver, some he features as a player in someone elses story. This one is the latter. You could say this has a Sliver of Silver.

Its a serial yes, but this is book 12 of 13 and when its the same villain gets beaten over and again, whats the point in having the same villain?

And the always villain Barry Chistian is also barely in this and doesnt shine as he has in other Jim Silver tales.

Either way its a quick read without any fat on the bone. Good for a few days subway rides of eye time.

[Alonzo Church]

I don’t think the plot of this one made any sense, but it moved so quickly that I couldn’t tell. A young man looks for his brother in an evil town, and finds himself in nonstop jeopardy. Fortunately, he’s a plucky youth who does right with wolves, impresses dance hall gals, and at important strategic moments can count on western pulp hero, Jim Silver (and his famous horse and famous wolf) to back his play. So it all works out ok.

I don’t know if Max is laughing a bit up his sleeve with this one. I mean the kid tames a town, reforms a dance hall girl, reforms a drunken doctor, rescues his brother, and finds a hidden gold mine, all in one story and in the confines of a couple of days. But it is fun, and you really feel like the hero, at the end, has earned his happy ending.

I have liked this a good bit more than some of the other Max Brands I have encountered.

[Éric Kasprak]

All Max Brand western have a definite style to them and Valley of the Vanishing Men is no exception. I like this story of revenge that showcased someone else then Silvertip as the main character. The story is about Ben Trainor, a regular guy who will have to do incredible things to find and eventually avenged his brother. Silvertip will help here and there, but the star of the show is Ben Trainor. The storytelling style of Max Brand is as always different but very effective and all the characters are well presented and interesting. I'm a bit mixed up in the reading order of the Silvertip series, but I think this book is the 3rd or 4th in the series, we get to see some of the pathos beetween Silvertip and the evil Barry Christian. Good stuff, I will gladly continue reading the series.

[Ronald]

read SOMETIME in 2008; don't remember plot so no rating given