I am a Romance fan, big time, so why am I writing about Westerns? Because there are many similarities between Romances and Westerns...all right no eye rolling, I can hear those eyeballs falling back in your sockets! A good Western is a good story; everyone likes a good story, (okay not everyone, but I can't imagine who)! I am going to venture to say that Max Brand is a romantic in the broadest sense of the word. Which I looked up in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Definition #4 states romantic "marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of the heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized." Max Brand lived a romantic life; near starvation before finding acclaim as a writer, screenwriter and poet and then giving up the good life to become a World War II correspondent (he was disappointed that he was too old and unhealthy to become a soldier).
His Western Crossroads is all about that; the American Southwest is harsh and beautiful, the hero is larger than life, with a hunger for adventure and the women are mysterious and idealized. Dix Van Dyck is a hell raiser, he enjoys fights and he has killed a man in self defense. After earning the hatred of the new sheriff, Dix decides to head out for adventure and new worlds to conquer. The title of chapter one is Destination - The World. However Dix doesn't get very far; he stopped for a meal in the town of Double Bend and saw a beautiful young woman whom the other men in the saloon were avoiding. She piqued his interest and asking questions, he discovered that she was bad luck. She had all the good luck and the people who got close to her lost money, horses and sometimes their lives. Dix decided she was just the adventure he was looking for. Jacqueline "Jack" Boone was intrigued that Dix wasn't afraid of her reputation and saw her as an opportunity for action and adventure. As they ride off together into the sunset, actually, the adventures begin..there are villains in Jack's past out to get her and that new sheriff that Dix insulted is out for blood.
I must make this disclaimer. Crossroads was written in 1919 and has all the prejudices and beliefs of the times. The women are either good or bad. The villains are completely villainous. The Latinos and Native Americans are either noble or foolishly wrong. But if you can live with this Crossroads is an exciting adventure story and yes even a sweet romance
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