Mysterious Traveling Hero (e.g. Shane)

[Trisha]

I'm looking for books that follow what I like to call the "Shane" trope.

Typically we have some town or group of people under distress, often by bandits or a local gangster. One day a mysterious, traveling anti-hero happens to come by, sees the problem, and proceeds to kicks some serious ass. After saving the day, he leaves mysteriously. There's quite a few movies that fit this trope, including:

- Drive
- Man with No Name
- Yojimbo and Sanjuro

I'm looking for a book with this sort of set up. I'm open to any genre and setting, but I'm slightly more interested to see if this has been done in fantasy/sci-fi as opposed to a typical Western setting. But then again, I'm pretty open to checking out anything.

Thanks in advance!

[Pamela]

Try novels based on the TV show Doctor Who. The Doctor (as you very likely know) does this in practically every episode, and there are dozens (hundreds?) of novels that are not retellings of specific episodes in which he does the same. I recommend Doctor Who: Dead of Winter, by James Goss. Doctor Who: Dead of Winter

[Peter]

There are a couple of TV Tropes pages that might lead you in the right direction

Knight Errant

Walking The Earth

The ones that I recognized that I think fit very well include

Killing Floor by Lee Child. It's the first of the Jack Reacher series. Reacher is very much what you're looking for. Most of his books are about him wandering into a messed up situation and taking whatever actions he deems fitting.

The Saint series by Leslie Charteris. Don't know any particular titles.

The Conan and Solomon Kane stories by Robert E Howard. Not all of them, but more than a few.

[Trisha]

Thanks for the response guys, I'll check out the TVTropes page.

I have actually read Killing Floor before and I agree that Reacher's adventures are sort of what I'm looking for. It's unfortunate that I saw the movie before reading the books, so now I'm forever stuck with Tom Cruise's face on Jack Reacher, haha.

[Teri-K]

Perhaps The Sword-Edged Blonde series about Eddie LaCrosse? He's pretty much a loner and the series is like a cross between detective noir and sword-and-sorcery fantasy. I think they're quite good.

[Avaminn]

If you like manga, maybe Rurouni Kenshin, Vol. 1? It's set in 1800's Japan and it's about a former assassin who becomes a wanderer. There's lots of sword-fighting scenes.