The Double-Jack Murders (Thorndike Mystery) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Patrick F. McManus (Author)

Book Description

Series: Thorndike Mystery | Publication Date: February 3, 2010

Sheriff Bo Tully is the kind of western lawman who’s as good with the ladies as he is with his guns‚ and he never lets a death threat get in the way of a good barbecue. In this latest tale‚ Tully pursues a seventy-five-year

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lucas Kincaid, an escaped killer, is planning to get even with Blight County (Idaho) sheriff Bo Tully, who put him behind bars, in McManus's amusing third Sheriff Bo Tully mystery (after 2008's Avalanche). Tully insists that the crazed Kincaid's being on the loose has nothing to do with him taking a little camping vacation with his father, Pap, and friend Dave Perkins. Tully figures the camping trip might draw out Kincaid, but his primary purpose is to try to solve the disappearance of gold miner Tom Link and his helper, Sean O'Boyle, in 1927. The two miners were exploring a vein of ore in the Snowy Mountains when they went missing. The college-educated Tully is no rube. An artist of considerable talent and a clever politician, he's also a backwoodsman who rambles through encounters with women, lawbreakers and abandoned mines with the sangfroid of the most sophisticated lawman. Plenty of unusual and colorful characters add to the fun. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Everybody should read Patrick McManus.”

—New York Times Book Review

“The laid-back Bo and McManus’ signature humor are the main attractions in this third in the series.”

—Booklist

“A style that brings to mind Mark Twain, Art Buchwald, and Garrison Keillor.”

—People --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 287 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; Lrg edition (February 3, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1410422976
• ISBN-13: 978-1410422972
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,514,661 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Patrick F. McManus is a renowned outdoor writer, humorist, and longtime columnist for Outdoor Life and Field & Stream. His most recent books are the Sheriff Bo Tully mysteries Avalanche and The Blight Way. He is the author of many other books, including such runaway New York Times bestsellers as The Grasshopper Trap, The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw, and Real Ponies Don't Go Oink! He lives in Spokane, Washington.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Series may be drifting into a formula, March 20, 2010

By 

Mike Garrison (Covington, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Double-Jack Murders: A Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery (Sheriff Bo Tully Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I'm a longtime reader of both Pat McManus's humor stories and other people's mystery novels. So I was pleased to discover McManus is now working in this genre. I greatly enjoyed the first two books. But this one was missing something -- it was a novel that just wasn't very novel.

All the important characters were introduced in prior books. So was the setting. And the characters were pretty much static throughout the book, leaving us with something that just didn't seem to introduce anything new.

On the other hand, the wit was still there, the charm of "Blight County" was still there, and the gentle education of the reader about Idaho mountain history (in this case, gold mining) was still there.

It was an enjoyable book to read, but only on the surface level. There was no deeper character-driven story that came through to me. Perhaps Bo Tully came to some insights about what he is looking for out of life, but perhaps he didn't. And it's not clear anyone else did either.

More than ever, what these books really remind me of are the Spenser series by Parker. The hero is a tough man with a heart of gold and (unique among his friends) an artistic side. (Tully is a noted painter as well as a third-generation sheriff.) He has pulled together a small team of other tough men, and they have something of a respectful relationship with the tough guys on the other side of the law. It's very much like the early Spenser books.

But Spenser, in my opinion, became boring -- something of a caricature of his early self. I'm feeling Tully possibly slipping down that path, which would be a pity. There is a reason I stopped reading the Spenser books.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Mystery Novel Without A Mystery, October 31, 2009

By 

W. A. Carpenter (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Double-Jack Murders: A Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery (Sheriff Bo Tully Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Pat McManus is a great writer, particularly of outdoor-themed humor. He also created great characters in Sheriff Bo Tully and his supporting cast, including Dave, Pap, and others.

This is the third in a series of Sheriff Bo Tully mysteries and somehow it is a bit darker than the others and has more character development. I enjoyed that very much. It is fortunate that the characters are so interesting in this book because this mystery itself is hardly a mystery at all.

If you enjoy Sheriff Bo Tully, you'll enjoy this book. But if you're looking for a good mystery by a great writer, I'd recommend either of the first two books in this series: The Blight Way and Avalanche.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Bo Tully Mystery, October 19, 2009

By 

Chris (Montana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Double-Jack Murders: A Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery (Sheriff Bo Tully Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I love these books! Patrick McManus writes humor very well, but here with Bo Tully and his other characters, he has created a gem. I wish they would do all of the Tully books in audio for traveling. The first one, Blight Way, read by Charles Leggit was fantastic.

I am anxiously waiting for the next book in the Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery series.