Dead man’s walk. Larry McMurtry. 1995.

In Dead Man’s Walk Woodrow and Gus are not yet twenty, young Rangers in the days when Texas was still an independent republic. Having volunteered to join the forces of the capricious land pirate Caleb Cobb in a foolhardy attempt to seize Santa Fe from the Mexicans, they experience their first great adventure in the barren, empty landscape in which shocking violence appears out of nowhere, whether from nature or from Indians. Through their eyes, we meet the great Comanche war chief Buffalo Hump, his companion Kicking Wolf, who specialises in prolonged torture, the deadly Apache child-stealer Gomez. It is these formidable figures - cruel, swift and almost invisible - who confront and eventually defeat Caleb Cobb’snexpedition, plus most of the Mexican army.