K. C. ConstantineRecensioni

My second Rugs Carlucci novel. Classic KCC w 3 different diatribes on the downfall of western PA society and how the collapse of the steel industry coupled w government indeifference affected towns full of eatern European and Italian imigrants and their relationship w more rural communities.
But they are interesting and you have to feel for Rugs.½

police life in small town, not mystery in usual sense

Mario teaches naive young mayor the facts of "justice system"

Balziac unofficially investigates a shooting, finds out too late it is murder, fights own conflicts over impotence

Balziac uncovers attempted scam but inadvertently sparks attack on black man.

Balziac deals with author upset over cost of libraries in terms of royalties and woman obsessed with truck driver. Not really a mystery.

I'm as much a fan of flawed characters as the next guy - maybe more - but this one rubbed me the wrong way.

Mario Balzic, police chief, has a host of issues. He leaves the police station to hide out for a day. He gets drunk and goes crazy. He reacts to comments by yelling and making threats.

Later, he sees the error of his ways and tries to correct the damage he has done. But isn't that what we see with alcoholics every day? But wait - the story.

A man goes missing. Balzic learns that the man was last seen by a bartender who bought a bunch of tomatoes from him. The man, Jimmy Romanelli, is not known for gardening, and he brags that he has produced these beauties earlier than anyone else.

While ignoring everyone and everything else around him, Balzic nevertheless is intrigued by the case and interviews the wife. From her he learns of the bad relationship between her husband and her father. And he interviews her father. Many times, hearing of little but tomatoes in the bargain. The competition between them to grow tomatoes faster - although the father does not admit to any competition.

Ultimately Balzic finds the solution and repents of his behavior. The repentance didn't buy him a place in my "readable" list. In a way, it may be a tribute to Constantine that he portrayed this alcoholic in a way that I recognized. On the other hand, I didn't really buy his introspective behavior. It didn't read true to me.

It's a fast read so it won't use much of your time.

A dense and not easy read as usual but I still get some pleasure out of reading these. Balzic has retired and Carlucci taken his place. Bad dialogue, a touch of racism, and no action make for tough sledding but a gritty sense of place in in SW PA in the early 1990's for sure.½

I picked up this book because someone on the forum recommended K. C. Constantine's mysteries. Unfortunately, this isn't a mystery. Sure there is a cop who investigates a few things but there is no uncovering, no detection and the one death that does occur (a young child who is killed when her mother torches a semi-trailer truck) is never solved.

I gather that K. C. Constantine is a reclusive writer and the name is a pseudonym. It is quite possible that the writer portrayed in the book is what Constantine is like personally. If so, then he has some rather unusual thoughts about libraries lending out books. I'm not sure he would approve of BookCrossing either.

Since this is the tenth book written by Constantine which stars the police chief, Mario Balzic, it is possible that his earlier work is more mystery-like. However, I don't think I will be searching for them. If you read this book as a novel exploring the life and times of formerly industrialized America it might work.

The conversations are so natural, you feel as though you're there. For writing, this book is a 5, but for story, for me it's a 4. The story is good but starts slowly. That gave me time to savor the writing, and for inspiring writers, this book is terrific learning material. Balzic is a police chief in a Pennsylvania mining town where the mine has closed. The cast of characters is realistic, the dialog more so. Book was published in 1982. The story is chiefly about Balzic's police life and the life of a local couple and her father. The husband loses his mine job and turns mean, also getting involved in crime. The police chief's father and the wife's father were once friends. Foreign accents are nicely done.

Someone has killed a nameless woman. Brutally shot her right in the face. It's up to Chief of Police Mario Balzic to solve her murder only he has two problems: not much to go on in the way of clues, witnesses or suspects and a new mayor who is a little too eager, a little too young and more than a little too green to understand how crimes are solved. He wants this case put to bed yesterday.
The title of the book comes from the idea that in the ways of crime there is one rule: always have a body to trade; meaning there is an accomplice on who to rat if you get caught.

My only "issue" with Always a Body... was that I found it hard to believe the some of the things Balzic would say and do as being professional. I can't see the chief of police readily admitting to a deputy warden that he had been drinking the night before and probably too much so. Another huge red flag was the fact that Balzic never followed up on leads. He always took them at face value...which made the ending completely predictable.

Classic KCC, Wayy too much dialogue and over build up and too little action. Not that too much action is need. Occassionally tense moments and sympathestic characters did arise. KCC always seems to be an action chapter away from a really good novel.

But I do like Balzic and will eventually read them all.½

Competent detective story.

Mario Balzic is the police chief in one of those small coal-mining towns in Pennsylvania where the mines have all but closed and the people are leading hardscrabble lives in a changed economy. This is a tale for any time. Balzic feels he knows the people on his turf like the back of his hand. So he is a little surprised when a woman he knew as a child begins to repeatedly call the police station because her husband is missing. He recognizes that she has problems and he feels a little guilty because he has not seen her for so long.

This case turns out to be a little like one of Balzic’s Pittsburgh Pirate’s baseball games, sometimes you do everything you are supposed to do and things still go against you. Baseball is the only game where the keep a record of the errors. This is a wonder series and Balzic is a low-key but very astute sleuth who loves his family, his wine and his town.

OK, but not great. Good character descriptions.

Balzic retires in what is the best of the Balzic novels I have read. Still minimal action and extended dialogue but this time he gets it right.

Another in and out Balzic mystery. OK to sometimes poorly written. But every time Balzic becomes sympathetic. Another non-action detective story that I enjoy reading. Really don't know why but I do. One awkward point is that Balzic's accent changed. Once articulate he continually dropped the g's unless he was speaking to Livingood. Still an ok read½

A Mario Balzic novel about a poorly prosecuted case and Balzic's aging self. Some slow dialogue and a total absence of action. But I do like the setting and the slight noir that is the aging 1980's Balzic of western Pennsylvania.½

Lively and impressively cynical police procedural, centered on Police Chief Balzic of Rockport, a blue-collar town in the depressed heart of the Rustbelt. This is the sixth in a series which is new to me. In this one, Blasic is trying to figure out who killed an unidentified young woman in what looks like an execution murder. He has few clues and must depend on a vividly-drawn series of informants to solve the case, while trying to deal with a new and very naive mayor. It's all a long way from "Law and Order", and it's nice to know the series is seventeen books long: I look forward to reading them from the beginning.½

I found this an intriguing book. It shows up in a number of 100 greatest mysteries lists, or the like, and one thing that is interesting about it is that there is very little mystery in the book and very little detective work. The detective is more concerned with preventing a crime than solving one. The book's interest is procedural, sociological and in its depiction of the characters. Primarily that means the character of Mario Balzic, the Serbo-Italian chief of police in a dying Pennslyvania town, but Constantine is also good at quicker portraits of people Balzic encounters. A non-urban procedural in which the main character works mostly alone, and in which the procedures have as much to do with city labor negotiations as with detective work.

For some reason I like these Balzic books. It must be the character and the odd western Pennsylvania location because the stories are slow and sometimes obvious. Once again the story unfolds slowly, gets interesting in the middle, and I am slightly disappointed with the ending.½

Truly fine investigation: a new mayor in Rocksburg, a black chieftain, a Jane Doe.

Very fine Balzic--sleazy sleazy