Joey's Case by K. C. Constantine

Mario Balzic Detective Mystery #8

by K.C. Constantine

Police Chief Mario Balzic has got one hot Italian on his heels. Albert Castelucci wants to straighten some things out about his son's murder. It seems that the investigator Balzic appointed to Castelucci's case made such a mess no jury could convict the killer. Pushing Balzic into losing his temper may just provide the answers Castelucci needs.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

Hardcover

First published March 1, 1988

About the author

Carl Constantine Kosak is an American mystery author known for his work as K.C. Constantine. Little is known about Kosak, as he prefers anonymity and has given only a few interviews. He was born in 1934 and served in the Marines in the early 1950s. He lives in Greensburg PA with wife Linda.



http://www.badattitudes.com/KCCintvw....

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another entry in the Mario Balzic series. Balzic is a police chief in a small rust belt town near Pittsburgh. The author has better than average chops in developing characters, none of whom are the cardboard cutouts usually found in genre fiction. I wish he would make of the setting, other than just noting the ethnic make-up and economic decline. This is a region worth describing. Readers not familiar would never picture the geographic uniqueness - really part of the Appalachian mountains - where a street can run so steeply that it is almost impossible to walk up. A standard joke: you can see where you want to go but you can never figure out how to get there.

[Mark Lisac · Rating 5 out of 5]

The moments of humour may be stretched and at times even lame, but the characters and the dialogue are more real than in just about any crime novel I can think of, aside from other K.C. Constantine books. Except for his second and third efforts, all of Constantine's novels are outstanding. This one reaches further than most of them in its consideration of manhood, power, men's interactions with women, and the interactions of law and justice. Funny, borderline bleak, realistic.
It may have struck me as even better in a reread now 25 years after first discovering it. The ultimate message may be that humans try, but fate, or whatever higher power you believe in, decides.
Constantine (pen name for Carl Kosak) chronicled life in the Rust Belt around Pittsburgh, beginning at the time it began rusting. His acute observations spoke to a larger experience.

[Sean Brennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my opinion, the best Balzic story so far, a novel that brings home to the reader, both the absurdity at times off the Law, and the fact that too many people the police are either omnipotent or simply placed on the earth as personal assistants to themselves! Rather Good!

[Virginia Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Albert Castelucci keeps bugging police chief Mario Balzic to find the man who killed his son Joey. Never mind that the murder happened outside of Baltic's jurisdiction. Balzic finally agrees to look into it and learns something about himself in the process.

[Hans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mario is forced into making an off-the-books investigation of a botched investigation while dealing with his own personal crisis. This volume is as engaging and complex as the rest of the series.

Here's a choice excerpt:

Doc, you can't spend time in saloons and not drink. The only people who can do that are bartenders, and most of them can't get through a shift without drinkin' something. Can you imagine bein' in a saloon and not drinkin'? Hell, Doc, there's no--you talk about alcohol being a depressant--hell, there's no more depressing place on earth than a saloon when you're not drinkin'. Sittin' around, sober, watchin' other people drink? Jesus, a guy told me once--and I believed him--he said the only place more depressing than a saloon when you're not drinkin' is a church when you got nothin' to pray for, when everybody you love is healthy and when all your enemies are either dead or paralyzed from the neck down."

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started reading this on my way to see one of Bruce Springsteen's final concerts in Giant's Stadium, and the mood of the night was in a magical symmerty with the book. Set in a rough-and-tumble outpost in Western Pennsylvania - clapboard houses, beer-soaked taverns, and dismal civic offices - the book has very much a lived-in, gritty feel, a place inhabited by Springsteen's mythic characters of many of his songs. Balzic is an intriguing protagonist, with a medical condition I've never read of in detective fiction (book written in the 80s - the pre-Viagra days). Book had a hold on me, though the last thirty pages or so were a bit of a letdown (as often happens). Still, an impressive read, not so much for the story, but for the characters and atmosphere. I would definitely be interested in checking out more titles in the series.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#8 in the Mario Balzic/Rocksburg series. Another fine entry in the realistic view of the depressed, rust belt town of Rocksburg, PA and its veteran police chief Mario Balzic.

Mario Balzic series - Albert Castelucci nags police chief, Mario Balzic, into checking on the killing of his son Joey. The grieving father believes the state police have bungled badly. When Balzic agrees to investigate unofficially, he hears that Francis Collins, the lover of Joey's wife Rose, had fired the fatal shot to save his own life. Rosa's relatives support the claim that Joey was beating Collins before the gun went off. Balzic's suspicions of a conspiracy grow stronger and during Collins's trial, he contemplates the gap between justice and the law. Disclosures after the verdict provide the climactic moment.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Balzic can't get clear of an Italian guy who wants justice in the case of his son's death. Yeah, the son was a bad one, but was he set up and taken out or was he the killer? Balzic uncovers betrayal, lies and collusion as he deals with erectile dysfunction - thanks KC Constantine!

[Rome Doherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this off the shelf the other day and on re-reading (from years ago) I was really impressed. the mystery is less important than the character development which is marvelous. It reminds me of Trollope or a less sordid Dickens.