Hombre

A remote stage-coach station is closing down and a small group of travellers are thrown together on the last wagon out: the mysterious Doctor Favor and his wife, a traumatised girl, a brutal stranger called Braden, the station manager, the sharp-eyed young narrator and John Russell, known simply as 'Hombre'. The reader can be quietly confident that some of these travellers will not be reaching their destination alive. This superb Western, published in 1961, was one of the novels that made Elmore Leonard's reputation as someone who had single-handedly revived the genre. It was made into a film starring Paul Newman. Also included is Leonard's celebrated short story 'Three-Ten to Yuma'.