The Blight Way

Bo invited his dad along to work today – it’s his dad’s birthday and Bo thought it would be fun for them to have the day together.  Bo followed in his dad’s footsteps as sheriff of Blight County and these two men have so much in common.  What was supposed to be a quiet day turned into an action-packed murder mystery that sees them chasing criminals, shot at, and solving the crime together.  They don’t always play by the rules of the big city cops, but they still get results…The Blight Way.

Patrick McManus may be best known for his humor columns in “Outdoor Life” or “Field & Stream”, but this native Idahoan also released a book of camping tips, a cookbook, and a series of murder mysteries starring Sherriff Bo Tully.  The Blight Way is the first in the Bo Tully series, introducing us to the citizens of the backwoods county of Blight.  This is a novel about the surprises people hide about themselves and learning to see beyond the surface.

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I give The Blight Way 3 out of 5 stars.  I liked the premise of this novel, but I feel like the execution was lacking.  There were a handful of errors in the investigative tactics and police procedures that bothered me but didn’t change the meaning of the novel.  Several characters needed to be better developed to fully understand the story and the motivations – it felt like the story was missing plot and connection.  I think the biggest challenge for me with this novel was the juxtaposition of a superfluous love story against the murder mystery.  Many mystery books end up with a little bit of a love story, but this felt out of place and disconnected from the rest of the characters’ behavior.

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Given the discussions about murder and crime scenes, this book would be best directed to more mature audiences over 16.  If you enjoy other country sheriff mysteries like the Longmire series from Craig Johnson, you may like this book as well.  This is a quick read and would be a great choice if you’re looking for a lighter mystery book for a weekend read.

I chose The Blight Way for the US States reading challenge prompt “Idaho”.  The fictional Blight County where this is set may not be real, but it’s easy to imagine the mountainous setting.  The state is home to so many mountain ranges and several peaks well over 11,000 feet.  Of course, Idaho is best known for its big crop – potatoes.  The author utilizes that crop’s biggest enemy, the potato blight, for the play on words with this title.  I know McManus was a humor writer, but the dad jokes seem to abound here and may have also been part of why this scored so low for me.   Maybe this would be a better fit for some readers, and this serves as a reminder that a review is just one person’s opinion – take these into consideration but review the plot and other reviews before deciding to pick up a book.

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• Current print book: Gung Ho!, Ken Blanchard & Sheldon Bowles
• Current audio book: Fangirl Down, Tessa Bailey
• Book I’m most looking forward to: Anxious People, Fredrik Backman