Cuba Libre

Elmore Leonard was born in New Orleans on 11 October 1925. He wrote forty-five books during his phenomenal career, including the bestsellers Mr Paradise, Tishomingo Blues, Be Cool and The Hot Kid. Many have been made into successful movies, including Get Shorty with John Travolta, Out of Sight with George Clooney and Rum Punch, which became Tarantino's Jackie Brown. He is the recipient of the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award and the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award. He died on 20 August 2013 in Detroit.

www.elmoreleonard.com

Sailing mares and guns into Havana harbor in 1898—right past the submerged wreckage of the U.S. battleship Maine—isn't the smartest thing recently prison-sprung horse wrangler Ben Tyler ever did. Neither is shooting one of the local Guardia, though the pompous peacock deserved it. Now Tyler's sitting tight in a vermin-infested Cuban stockade waiting to face a firing squad. But he's not dying until he gets the money he's owed from a two-timing American sugar baron. And there's one smart, pistol-hot lady at the rich man's side who could help Tyler get everything he's got rightfully coming . . . even when the whole damn island's going straight to Hell.

“The greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever!” — The New York Times Book Review
“An absolute master.” — The Detroit News