After four years on the bloody battlefields of Europe during World War II, Army Staff Sergeant Mark Shaw returns home to Arizona with nothing but the hope of living a quiet existence and chasing the sunset on horseback forevermore. Scarred by the war in the way only a soldier who has been on the front lines can be, his every step is haunted by the rattle of machine guns, the roar of artillery, and the screams of dying friends and comrades.
The homecoming he receives upon his return, though, is nothing like what he'd hoped for—a wife who couldn't wait for him in an America that has become almost unrecognizable in his absence. Shattered by her betrayal, Mark gives up on love, life, and the possibility of ever finding the peace he longs for.
Life is not quite done with Mark, however. While he throws himself into the backbreaking work of building a ranch, fate takes a hand, first in the form of Alma Cornbird, a Pima woman, then in the guise of a beautiful rodeo queen named Julie Wright. Both women are determined not to let him slip further into isolation and despair, and both leave their mark upon him. With their help, the violent afterimages of the war begin to fade, and life blooms again from the hollow shell it left behind. The only thing he lacks is the right horse on which to chase that sunset once more.
Author of over 85 novels, Dusty Richards is the only author to win two Spur awards in one year (2007), one for his novel The Horse Creek Incident and another for his short story “Comanche Moon.” He is a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the International Professional Rodeo Association, and serves on the local PRCA rodeo board. Dusty is also an inductee in the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame. He currently resides in northwest Arkansas. He was the winner of the 2010 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction for his novel Texas Blood Feud and honored by the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2009.