Patrick F McManus Books in Order

McManus's first story collection gathers tall tales of camping, fishing, and adolescent misadventures, from backyard safaris and disastrous backpacking trips to lessons from crusty mentor Rancid Crabtree, all told with deadpan exaggeration and affection for the Idaho backcountry.

A playful A to Z guide to camping for kids and beginners, this book mixes practical tips with McManus's stories about creepy crawlies, campfire cooking disasters, and how to stay mostly safe while having real fun in the woods.

This follow up volume offers twenty five more stories about live bait, leaky boats, inept ice fishing, and dogs like Strange, as young Pat's Idaho adventures grow a little wilder and the fish and canoes get more out of control.

Never Sniff a Gift Fish collects twenty eight humorous pieces in which McManus remembers coveted gear, disastrous hunting trips, lost tackle, and the oddball friends and relatives who turn ordinary days outdoors into stories that still make readers laugh out loud.

In The Grasshopper Trap, thirty zany sketches spoof everything from bait collecting and home brewed gear to facing down bears with an unloaded gun, as McManus and his cronies prove that merely getting to the woods is half the disaster.

Rubber Legs and White Tail Hairs offers another round of hunting, fishing, school, and small town episodes, including disastrous show and tell projects and misbehaving classmates, as McManus mines his Idaho boyhood and later escapades for fast, good natured laughs.

This collection centers on the legendary night a bear invaded Grandma Goombaw's campsite, along with other tales of whitewater mishaps, strange lake spirits, and coming of age in rural America where the humans are usually wilder than the wildlife.

Part memoir and part cookbook, this volume recalls McManus's hardscrabble Idaho childhood on Sand Creek, weaving family stories, hunting and fishing memories, and the thrifty recipes that turned whatever was on hand into comforting whatchagot meals.

Real Ponies Don't Go Oink! rounds up twenty six yarns featuring Rancid Crabtree, Retch Sweeney, and other regulars, as McManus tackles pig back rides, disastrous home projects, misbehaving hunting dogs, and the gap between glossy outdoor dreams and messy reality.

Here McManus focuses as much on human nature as the outdoors, revisiting his first kiss, a misbegotten public relations career, and a well meaning roadside rescue gone wrong, plus more hunting and fishing adventures told with his usual self mocking charm.

How I Got This Way gathers twenty seven autobiographical pieces about growing up poor but inventive in Idaho, from pit digging schemes and giant pumpkins to disastrous hikes and brushes with politicians, all charting how a shy kid became an outdoor humor writer.

Aimed at middle grade readers, this book collects twelve stories about young Pat's life in the Idaho mountains, featuring Crazy Eddie, Rancid Crabtree, skunk dog Strange, and other favorites as camping trips, blizzards, and secret places spin out of control.

In this later collection, McManus looks back on decades of hunting, fishing, and small town life, spinning tales about grizzlies, malfunctioning gadgets, impossible relatives, and the ways age, memory, and friendship change an outdoorsman's view of the world.

Here McManus turns teacher, using anecdotes, example pieces, and a fictional foil named Newton to explain how humor works on the page, from exaggeration and timing to voice, practice habits, and building a writing life of your own.

A later collection of outdoor essays, The Bear in the Attic finds McManus riffing on the lure of RVs, the strange comfort of getting lost, wily animals that outsmart hunters, and the eternal urge to double the size of every fish story.

Sheriff Bo Tully of Blight County, Idaho, plans to celebrate his father's birthday, but three dead men on a local ranch pull him into a twisty murder case where family grudges, city criminals, and his offbeat tactics collide.

When unpopular lodge owner Mike Wilson vanishes, Bo Tully, Pap, and tracker Dave head up for what they hope is a cushy investigation, until an avalanche traps them at the resort and a missing persons case turns into multiple murders.

Kerplunk! gathers folksy stories from the Pacific Northwest, where Pat and his friends tangle with stubborn fish, bad haircuts, frozen sleeping bags, unreliable bird dogs, and the hard lesson that you only know you are in the water when you hear the splash.

Bo Tully digs into a seventy five year old disappearance of two gold miners just as escaped killer Lucas Kincaid comes hunting the sheriff who put him away, forcing Bo, Pap, and Dave into a high country trip that mixes prospecting with survival.

On his way to pick huckleberries, Bo Tully stumbles on three executed farm workers in a mountain patch and a missing rancher no one can find, drawing him, Pap, and an ambitious FBI agent into a web of fraud, fugitives, and small town grudges.

This later collection ranges from fishing trips and bear hunts to hoarding neighbors and an opinionated horse named Huckleberry, as McManus revisits his childhood, marriage, and favorite sidekicks in a batch of warm, absurd stories about ordinary life in the West.

While tracking a suspected bank robber through the tamarack woods, Bo Tully and his deputy witness a murder that leads to missing cash, dead caretakers at a decaying mansion, shady locals, and out of town hunters who may be more than they seem.

Middle aged sheriff Bo Tully is thinking about retiring to paint full time when despised rancher Morgan Fester is found shot with an arrow, a strange circle appears in untouched snow, and the investigation draws Bo and Pap into feuds, fraud, and family secrets.