“It’s so beautiful,” she said, peering out at the valley.

“Yeah, Idaho is a beautiful state. But Blight County itself is a corrupt little place.”

“Corrupt?”

“Only in the good sense. Most of the politicians can be bought, but they don’t charge much. Even the poor can afford a politician or two. It’s very democratic that way.”

People have been telling me for years I have to read some Patrick F. McManus, and I see now what they mean. Judging by The Blight Way, the first book in the series, McManus’ Sheriff Bo Tully is a welcome departure in the world of mysteries and police procedurals. Here’s a book that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

When Sheriff Bo is called out to view a dead body, hanging over a ranch fence and dead of a couple of bullet wounds, his first suspicion is against the outlaw Scragg family, on whose land the corpse was found. But why would they call the police on their own murder? Shortly thereafter, a shot-up Jeep is discovered not far away, with three dead bodies in it. Bo’s going to find out what happened, and he’ll do it the Blight County way, which means a lot of cunning and a minimum of pesky legalities. He has his crotchety old father, a former sheriff himself, to help out, and there’s a pretty new medical examiner for him to romance – he’s already romanced most of the single women in the county, without a lot of success.

The Blight Way is refreshingly free of some character elements I’ve gotten tired of (as I’ve told you more than once) recently in mystery stories. Bo Tully is a widower, having lost a wife he loved deeply. He was raised by a single mother, and never even knew who his father was until he was nine. That could be the background for one of those grim, damaged detectives we see so often in contemporary mysteries. But Bo is optimistic and self-confident. He has a good time dating, even if he strikes out a lot, and he has an amusing, cross-talk relationship with “Pap,” his reprobate old man. He’s surrounded by a colorful cast of citizens, most of them more or less involved in criminality, and he generally enjoys riding herd on them. Most of them don’t hold grudges, on either side.

The Blight Way was a fun read. Mild cautions for the usual things, but I don’t think many of you will be much offended by anything here.