The Blight Way — Patrick F. McManus

Bo Tully, sheriff of Blight County, Idaho -- and a fellow who dropped twenty pounds on Atkins -- had been thinking about asking out Jan Whittle, his grade-school sweetheart. Problem is, he's already promised to celebrate his dad's seventy-fifth birthday with him. Thwarted romance proves to be the least of Bo's problems, however, when a dead body turns up on Batim Scragg's ranch. The baffling thing is that neither Batim nor his two wayward sons appear to be the culprits. Forced to put on his sleuthing hat, Bo finds himself faced with a whole slew of possible suspects. And what quickly becomes apparent is that, while the sheriff's investigative methods may not exactly be legal, they are, for better or worse, The Blight Way.