Customer Reviews

Avalanche: A Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery (Sheriff Bo Tully Mysteries)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

We became a McManus fan back when we discovered his columns in Outdoor Life and in Field & Stream. Being avid backpackers and canoeist, we started taking his stories to read in the evening around the campfire on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway and the Appalachtian Trail.

Avalanche is another wonderfully humorous tale in his new, Sheriff Bo Tully series. By now, we look forward to meeting again his great cast of characters Tully, Pap and Tracker Dave. Patrick's 15 or so books are rich in good outdoor in humor. I recommend this new book highly.

For those of us who read McManus's non-fiction and miss Retch, Crazy Eddie, The Troll, Rancid and Strange, we can now console ourselves with Sheriff Bo Tully, Dave the fake Indian (faking it to build a casino), Pap, Lurch and Clarence in his new mystery series. AVALANCHE, the second book in the series, has the trademark McManus deadpan humor, outdoor misadventure (tent camping in Idaho in November), singular characters, deceptively excellent writing and a darn good whodunnit, too. So get on down to Grogan's War Surplus for a few supplies and trek up to Blight County for a grand time.

The Bo Tully Mysteries are good relaxation reading. They can help you unwind after a hard day. (If you are a fan of McManus that is.) These are different from his previous works. They have subtle undertones that are noticed more after the book is read a few times. This is not quite the McManus I grew up reading, but I can hardly wait for the next book to see where the story goes.

Blight County, Idaho resident Blanche Wilson reports her spouse Mike is missing. After obtaining information from Blanche, co-owner of the Branch Lodge with her husband, Sheriff Bo Tully obtains the assistance of his father retired sheriff Pap and their tracker friend Dave to go into the nearby mountains to find Mike, but first plan a couple days asking questions while relaxing at the affluent wilderness lodge.

However, their trek proves dangerous when the father and son team barely survives an avalanche. Disturbed by the rockslide mostly because he does not trust coincidence; the trio finds Mike's corpse, which turns the missing person investigation into a homicide case. They soon learn that Blanche has multimillion reasons to see Mike dead.

The second Blight Country police procedural (see THE BLIGHT WAY) is lighthearted fun as the hero sees a chance for a free soak in a hot tub while reading Danielle Steele's newest tale. However, the suspicious occurring avalanche changes his R&R concept as he and his companions believe someone wanted them dead. The whodunit is enjoyable though somewhat straightforward, but takes a back seat to the camaraderie between father and son.

Harriet Klausner

If you have not read Patrick F. McManus stories in Outdoor Life or his many collections, please do. The world is so much easier to take when you can relate your worst moments to one of the many adventures he describes.

This book is written in the truly superb style that only McManus has. What can any review add to the writings of Patrick F. McManus? Why would anyone need convincing that they should own the entire Patrick F. McManus library!?! Try it...you'll laugh your posterior off!

What a great second book! Pat McManus has created some great charictors and I can hardly wait for the next one!!

What do you get when you combine the pace of a Dick Francis mystery with the humor of Dave Barry, while throwing in a dash of Thoreau?

You might get a concoction that cleans the grease off your garage floor!

On the other hand, you might also get a witty mystery novel with unique characters, entertaining twists and turns, and wolves howling at your doorstep.

I choose the latter. Avalanche is a novel written by Patrick McManus. It is a "Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery," or a continuation of the life and times of one Sheriff Tully, his Pap, and an assortment of other folk. I've not read his other book in this series (I believe there has just been one), but Avalanche, which clearly does not require any prior knowledge of earlier books, makes me want to look up and read other books about Tully.

This is the first McManus novel that I can remember reading, although at an earlier age I remember devouring his humor columns in Outdoor Life every month decades ago. I don't think I would have expected any books other than collections of his columns. Avalanche was a mature mystery novel. For lovers of this genre, I recommend it!

Bought this as a gift for my brother who loves reading Patrick McManus. He had not yet read the book but I expect him to enjoy it.

I have enjoyed McManus' outdoor humor for about thirty years. The Bo Tully series is just as fun to read. But there are depths that I do not recall noticing in his shorter work. For example, it was over a month after reading "Avalanche" that I realized that one of the characters was Odin, a stern old man attended by two wolves and two ravens, brewer of midnight drink and a tricky seeker of wisdom.

Years ago, I read an article in a magazine written by Patrick McManus and couldn't stop laughing. I don't know how I discovered his Sheriff Bo Tully mystery series but, within 5 days I've read all of them - one right after the other. Love them. I am a mystery reader buff and he is right up there with Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie. I wish there were more in the series!!