Riders of the Purple Sage

335 pp. ...the novel has been called "the most popular western novel of all time." Riders of the Purple Sage is a story about three main characters, Bern Venters, Jane Withersteen, and Jim Lassiter, who in various ways struggle with persecution from the local Mormon community led by Bishop Dyer and Elder Tull in the fictional town of Cottonwoods, Utah. Jane Withersteen, a born-and-raised Mormon, provokes Elder Tull because she is attractive, wealthy, and befriends "Gentiles" (non-Mormons), namely, a little girl named Fay Larkin, a man she has hired named Bern Venters, and another hired man named Lassiter. Elder Tull, a polygamist[3] with two wives already, wishes to have Jane for a third wife, along with her estate. The story involves cattle-rustling, horse-theft, kidnapping and gunfights.--Wikipedia