Louis L'Amour

"A man called Trent opens on nester Dick Moffitt lying dead where he was killed by King Bill Hale's riders. His son Jack and adopted daughter Sally, who witnessed the murder, head for safety to a cabin owned by a man called "Trent", an alias for Kilkenny, who is seeking to escape his reputation as a gunfighter. "In Riders of the dawn, a young gunslinger is changed for the better by a meeting with a beautiful woman. A classic range-war western."

The story of the three Sackett brothers, Tye, Orrin, and Tell, who leave Tennessee to start new lives in the West; not being a man to settle down, cowhand Conn Conagher drifts in and out of widow Evie Teale's life; career outlaw Catlow attempts to take some Confederate gold, with his friend, a U.S. marshal, and a ruthless bounty hunter on his tail.