Pennsylvania Books

As its former police chief, no one knows the failing industrial city of Rocksburg, Pennsylvania better than retired Mario Balzic. The former head cop turns to private sleuthing to relieve himself of the boredom of retirement, to escape the nagging of his spouse, and to supplement his income. Attorney Mo Valcanas hires his old buddy Mario to investigate an insurance claim that someone stole forty guns and 30,000 rounds of related ammunition.

As Mario investigates his town, he finds a myriad of suspects, some of who would not mind retiring the former police chief permanently. However, bullets and threats on his life aside, Mario suddenly suffers heart trouble as the cholesterol muddies his blood. Even as his health and his abilities diminish, Mario still needs to see justice is served before his mortality fails to allow him to finish this case.

The Balzic series is one of the best mystery collections on the market because the star suffers from all the problems of real life even as he conducts his investigations. The current tale, BLOOD MUD, shows how much talent K.C. Constantine possesses as Balzic finds mortality palely looking at him in the mirror. The investigation turns complex because of the number of suspects carving out their piece of a shrinking pie. The secondary cast such as Balzic's spouse and doctor augment the tale with humor and pathos. However, as in all the Balzic books, the lead protagonist makes it very clear that cardiac arrest or not he is the straw that stirs the plot of this entertaining novel.

Harriet Klausner

In Blood Mud, Mario & baggage are all there, but with something more this time. Not something new, but old dark currents made manifest, what's been brewing throughout the series finally poured in a glass & plopped on the bar in full view. Things, my friend, are all that they seem and always have been. Mario's fears are not only real, but have the power to bring him down. Now how to cope? His fire for justice burns hottest in his own chest, his own mind, and does its damage there. Injustice is not futility, but survival means a clawing back to the personal, to self-rescue, and Babyak, poor dupe, becomes not only an icon of what's so compelling about what Constantine does, but a metaphor for the historical & ahistorical moment that is the here & now in America. Say, for the bombing of a foreign embassy, or the incrimination of the politically expendable.

Mario has his hands full practicing self-rescue. He's learning hard lessons in the world & in his kitchen. But will Constantine leave it here? Is the retreat to the personal Mario's final response? What can one man do in his world, once he bears the weight of knowing?

One useful feature of the book that is not mentioned in the editorial reviews is its companion website, www.BrandywineGuide.com, which provides updates to the information in the printed guidebook.

The book in wonderfully interesting, providing rich history for each of the many subject locations, together with practical information for visitors . . . excellent directions, hotel information, etc. The author's style is engaging, and some of her "asides", such as a discourse on puzzling variations in the spelling of names, are delightful.

And, finally, this modest paperback is beautiful . . . loaded with splendid photographs. I dare say that if it were published with a hard cover, it could become a coffee table item!

A great book overall with well-documented and researched material.

Published by the British Museum Press in London for the museum there, it is an absorbing read that would interest any cat lover who wanted to get a little beyond the "pretty pictures of cute cats & kittens with scant text" as depicted in so many books. I recommend it to add to your feline library, or just to your library!