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. ( )

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. ( )

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.
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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.

Working class police procedural in Pennsylvania--excellent detective ( )