Book Review: Torture Trail by Max Brand
The man calling himself Sammy Day (better known to many as “The Joker”) is tough. He shoots fast and straight, can lick a man twice his size in a fist fight, and is a winning poker player who knows how to cheat to lose as well. Yes, he’s tough. But he’s about to learn he’s not Alaska tough. Not yet.
Max Brand was the most common pen name of Frederick Schiller Faust (1892-1944), famous for his Westerns but also creator of the Dr. Kildare series. This book was published in 1965 which means either that it’s another author writing under the pen name, or it was originally a pulp magazine story reprinted here without mentioning the original publication. Anyone know?
The story’s a bit vague about when it’s taking place, but the Alaskan Gold Rush is already over and most of the characters are long-term residents. Probably in the early 1900s.
Sammy has left the Lower 48 as things down south have gotten a bit hot for him (though it’s quickly established that in fact the trouble has been fixed since he left) and winds up in a remote saloon in Circle City nearly broke. He winds up in a card game and throws the large pot to another player, who refuses to take it on principle, and gets into a fistfight he barely wins.
The one woman in the saloon attracts Sammy’s attention, and he decides to marry her and tells her so. She’s already engaged, and finds the man’s manner off-putting (no kidding, sister!) Goldie Mahan decides to be a bit mean, and insists she could never marry a man without a steady job. As it happens, there’s just one job on offer.
Bill the Dogman is looking for a man to help with his dogs. The pay’s excellent, but no one who took the job lasted more than two months, and the one who lasted that long came back insane. Sammy bets that he can serve out an entire year–if he can, Goldie agrees to marry him!
Turns out Bill is a dog breeder who’s trying to create a stable mixed breed that will be perfect as sled dogs. It hasn’t been going so well. Most of the mixes lack an essential quality (like being able to survive an Alaskan winter or intelligence) or don’t breed true. There’s one particular line that has almost everything, but they’re bad-tempered to the point of being untrainable, especially their finest specimen, Satan.
Sammy is basically Bill’s last hope. If Bill can whip Sammy into shape to become a dogsled driver, and Sammy can somehow tame Satan and his brothers, then there’s a big race in Nome a year from now that will allow Bill to show he’s on to something. Otherwise, Bill will have to give up and move back to the States.
The good: This is an exciting tale of survival and a man overcoming his limitations to bond with a dog. Sammy’s a hard-bitten anti-hero, touchy and stubborn, which has prevented him from having an easy life. His sheer cussedness is a great asset when it’s correctly pointed, however. The climatic race is full of interest, not just in Sammy and Satan, but colorful competitors as well.
Not so good: Sammy (and the story) treats Goldie as a prize to be won; her fiance turns out to be a rotter so there’s no contest there once the truth is known. Old-fashioned sled dog training methods are used (including the use of clubs) which may upset readers sensitive to animal abuse. Sammy’s kind of racist against Native Americans. (Most of these are slightly more excusable if the story was originally written in the 1930s rather than the 1960s.) Also, the ending verges on magical realism.
Recommended to fans of dogsledding stories who have read their Jack London books to pieces and need something else.
