Payback at Morning Peak

From Academy Award winner Gene Hackman, an epic and immersive 19th-century Western novel about family, vengeance, and redemption.

Teenager Jubal Young is forced into manhood much sooner than expected when he returns to his family farm and discovers it burnt down, with his mother and sister raped and murdered and his father left for dead. Alone in the world, he buries the bodies of his family and heads west to seek vengeance on the outlaws responsible.

With his Pa’s wisdom and memories of his family echoing in his head, Jubal enlists the help of a kindly local judge, determined to set things right. Pursuing his family’s attackers throughout New Mexico’s gold mining towns, Jubal doesn’t yet know how to exact his revenge—but he knows that nothing can stop him in this epic Western odyssey from one of America’s most beloved actors.

Gene Hackman is the author of two novels and coauthor of three other novels. He is a two-time Academy Award–winning actor with lauded performances in such films as Unforgiven, Bonnie and Clyde, The French Connection, Mississippi Burning, and The Poseidon Adventure, among others. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife and two German shepherds.