SOLVED. Western-Waring Cattle ranchers plead help from a retired hired gun, not the first book in the series (read in 2012). Spoilers ahead... [s]

[Kelsey]

Ok, so there are going to be spoilers about this book in this comment to try and give as many details as possible. Alright so the book starts off with a man and his wife running a school, the man receives a letter from a small cattle ranch asking for help to fend off another rival much bigger cattle ranch. The man goes, when he gets into town before he meets the family he is involved in a shoot out at a bar. After this he goes to the ranch, he teaches the family how to shoot and what not. MAJOR SPOILER HERE: I remember one of the girls was raped by the rival family and I also recall that one of the hired hands had his genitals mutilated. I don't remember who wins (I'm assuming the smaller cattle ranch). As the main character is going home, a small boy sees him. The boy is holding a book with the man's face on it. Apparently within the book, the main character had books written about him. Some local thugs try to take him on, he defeats them while say "I'm so tired" then he goes home.

[Kris]

A guess - Bullet Creek by Peter Brandvold?

Kelsey, what did the hired gun/gunslinger do when he retired (e.g., raise a family, work on a ranch, drift from town to town)?

[Kelsey]

Kris wrote: "A guess - Bullet Creek by Peter Brandvold?

Kelsey, what did the hired gun/gunslinger do when he retired (e.g., raise a family, work on a ranch, drift from town to to..."

I think it was Bullet Creek!! Thank you so much!!

[Kris]

You're welcome! I'll move your request to a Solved folder. If you find this isn't your book, just come back and let us know.

Here's the search tool I used:
www.worldcat.org (advanced search) -- Keyword: retired gunslinger | 1950-2014 | Non-Juvenile | Fiction | Book | English