by Duane S--purlock
The Masterman (New York: Leisure Books, 2003. Originally serialized as 'The Masterman' by Max Brand [Frederick Faust] in Frank A. Munsey's Argosy March 18, 1933 - April 22, 1933.)
Dorchester Publishing's packaging of this novel provides a couple of false leads to its readers. First, although the cover of this paperback edition depicts a man wearing typical mountain man attire, The Masterman is not a mountain man story. Nor is it a western. Instead, this novel is one of Faust's northerns.
Second, the back-cover blurb for this novel reads, "Bob Melville, a fugitive, has been working a gold claim on Candy Creek for five years, and holding a grudge all that time against Steve Christy, the man who framed him. Five years of hatred and resentment flare up suddenly when Christy himself arrives at the cabin of Melville's only friend, injured and seeking refuge. Once his identity is discovered, Christy has no choice but to agree to a fatal plan: He will have one hour's lead time to escape; then Melville will set out after him, dead set on exacting revenge. Pursued and pursuer cross paths in a life-and-death race that only one will survive!"
Although the described feud and manhunt play a part in the story, neither Melville nor Christy is the novel's primary character. And the manhunt is essentially wrapped up by the end of Chapter 4 on page 35. These two plot elements actually introduce the main focus of the book: Riley Oliver, Melville's "only friend" who remains unnamed in the blurb, but whose thoughts and actions determine the course of the narrative from his entrance in Chapter 1 until the story's end on page 209.
That Oliver takes control of the story demonstrates some misdirection provided by Faust. In fact, it is one of at least two misdirections Faust builds into the story: the title is another. Early on, the reader learns that "the Masterman" is the name of a ferocious and intelligent wolf-like dog, the leader of Oliver's sled team. So, despite the book's blurb, one supposes that this novel may actually turn out to be one of Faust's animal tales, like Alcatraz (the main character of which is a wild horse) or "The Wolf Strain" (about a wolf named The Ghost that comes to be a companion to Bull Hunter, one of Faust's series characters). However, as the story unfolds, Faust makes clear that the actual masterman of the tale is Oliver.
Of the trio of characters mentioned in the back-cover blurb, Christy is the first to appear, and the reader initially assumes that he will be the primary character. Riley then is introduced as a mysterious fellow-acknowledged as an accomplished trapper and outdoorsman, he is also known as a loner, unfriendly and inhospitable. Yet Oliver takes in Christy when the latter is injured on the trail. While he recuperates, Oliver reveals that once he learned Christy's name, he wanted to help him heal so that Oliver's friend, Melville, could even things against the man who cheated and framed him many years ago.
Oliver is not depicted as an honorable character at this point. In fact, Christy is the sympathetic character. Particularly so when Melville finally arrives after Christy is back on his feet, and Oliver explains the rules of their deadly manhunt: Christy will have a choice of guns and an hour's grace, then Melville will take out after him; after another two hours, Oliver will also take up the hunt.
Faust used this technique -- that is, of tweaking a reader's expectations by revealing an unexpected primary character -- in other works. (For example, Singing Guns opens with Sheriff Owen Caradac tracking a famed outlaw named Rhiannon. Faust sets up the first chapter in such a way that the reader assumes Caradac is the primary character. However, the narrative focus swiftly shifts to Rhiannon for the bulk of the book.) Faust is quite effective in pulling off the same narrative sleight-of-hand in The Masterman. During the course of his stay in Fairbanks, Oliver encounters Jap LaForge, an outlaw infamous in the north for his audacious crimes and the bloody trail he leaves behind. LaForge sees through Oliver's disguise and recognizes an indomitable spirit similar to his own. He offers to free Melville if Oliver will join forces with him to commit a few criminal acts. Here lies the crux of the novel. In LaForge, Oliver faces his darkling double-the arch criminal is the person Oliver would eventually become were he to go along with LaForge's offer and give in utterly to the outlaw spirit whose pull he feels within himself. The remainder of the tale concerns the battle of wills-Oliver against his own nature and against the domineering power of LaForge. The Masterman was published in 1933. By this time, Faust's apprenticeship was long over; he was writing at the top of his form. This novel demonstrates his mastery of his particular sort of pulp magazine action story featuring dynamic, larger-than-life protagonists pitted against all odds and extreme situations. It's an excellent addition to the Max Brand canon. Links: Posted by ds at August 3, 2004 03:48 PM
In disguise, Oliver enters Fairbanks to find a way to break Melville out of jail. Oliver's loyalty to Melville arises from their similar circumstances. Like Melville, Oliver was framed-in his case, he was set up to take a fall in Texas by a crooked sheriff, whom Oliver later shot and killed while the villain led a posse against him-and he had hidden in the frozen Alaskan wastes for nine years. During that time, he became utterly self-sufficient and friendly to no one other than Melville, with whom he shared a loyalty like brotherhood. It is this loyalty that drives Oliver to mix among potential enemies in Fairbanks in an effort to free Melville.
You can purchase The Masterman by Max Brand from Amazon.com. For the hardcover edition, click here. For the paperback edition, click here.
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