The Gun-Brand

by James B. Hendryx

James Beardsley Hendryx (1880-1963) was an American author. Amongst his works are: The Promise (1915), The Gun-Brand (1917), The Texan: A Story of the Cattle Country (1918), The Gold Girl (1920), The One Big Thing (1923), The Challenge of the North (1925), Man of the North (1929), Corporal Downey Takes the Trail (1931), Blood of the North (1938), Hard Rock Man (1940), Law and Order on Halfaday Creek (1941), The Way of the North (1945), On the Rim of the Arctic (1948), Sourdough Gold (1952), Good Men and Bad (1954) and Terror on Halfaday Creek (1963).

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1917

Reviews

[David Welch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, action-packed read. Focuses around an adventurous woman named Chloe Elliston who goes north to open a school for Indians around the turn of the last century. She inevitably gets drawn into a love/power triangle with two local power brokers, Pierre Pierre and Bob McNair. Both are formidable frontier types, but have very different approaches to how to get power and use power. Chloe is young and naive as to what it take to survive in the north, and has a challenging time adapting, with consequences that complicate the power-struggle in the region. There's plenty of action scattered throughout to keep you reading. There are the occasional stereotypes that don't fly these days, and the question of educating/civilizing Indians just seems weird now. But beyond that it's a fun, pulpy northern tale worth reading.