A Man Called Trent and Riders of the Dawn: Fathers Day Gift Set

by Jim Gough (Narrator) Louis L'Amour

A Man Called Trent opens with nester Dick Moffitt lying dead where he was killed by riders. His children, who witnessed the murder, head for safety to a cabin owned by a man called "Trent," 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, it features that powerful, romantic, and compelling vision of the American West for which L'Amour's fiction is known.

Genres: Westerns

Audio CD

First published May 1, 2006

Reviews

[Ericka]

The second book in the Kilkenny series; after helping his friend in solving the dispute, Lance Kilkenny retired to the mountains, wanting to be by himself for a while, Lance took the name of Trent while staying up on a secluded cabin for a year, but as faith has it, the quietness and tranquility didn’t last for much longer and trouble arrived at his door step, his cabin-neighbor’s kids appeared at his place, escaping from some bandits that just murdered their father and were in desperate search for his protection. The bandits also came to knock at his door telling him to abandon the grounds or else, he would share the same faith as his neighbor, which he didn’t only rejected but took matters into his own hands.
Another story full of gun and fist fights, traps, and thrilling confrontations, I love it!

[LindaJ^]

This free audiobook contained two novellas written by Louis L'Amour. Both appear to have been originally published under different names (The Mountain Valley War and The Rider of Lost Creek). I read a lot of L'Amour's westerns back in the early to mid 1980's but I do not think either of these was one. They were in reverse chronological order on the audiobook. Both stories have the same theme and set up. The main character in both is Lance Kilkenny, a gunslinger who tries to kill only those "deservin of dyin" while protecting the rights of his friends. In both, someone is trying to take over land held by hard but good men and their families. In Riders, Kilkenny comes to the aid of a friend, a man who saved his life. While protecting that man and his ranch, Kilkenny meets Nita Reardon and falls in love, although he denies it to himself. He also meets two giant, gunslinging brothers. He kills one and beats the other one in a no holds barred fist fight. He, of course, saves the day.

In Trent, the name Kilkenny is calling himself, he's staked a claim to land himself along with other homesteaders. They all did it legal and have the federal papers to prove it. But the big rancher in the area wants them gone of "his" land and his hands have started to kill them to get them gone. The gambling house in the closest town is run by Nita Reardon. The Hatfields are one of the other homesteading families. In the end Kilkenny once again saves the day. He also converts the giant gunslinger he did not kill to a homesteader, has a public fight with a known brawler brought in to demolish him, which Kilkenny wins to the delight of the only two men in town who bet on him. And this time, he admits to himself and Nita that he loves her and wants to marry her. She just wonders what took him so long.

Think John Wayne and his Westerns and you'll know what these two books are like. Probably not 3* reads, but for old times' sake that's what they get!

[Grant Aagard]

You can’t go wrong with Louis L’Amour if you like western sagas. This pairing of two books from the Kilkenny series was problematic because it was out of order. The “Trent” story comes after the the other one which introduces multiple characters in the Trent story.
I find it hard to believe that Audible would make such a stupid continuity mistake. I’m very disappointed in this Audible presentation.