Upon Some Midnights Clear

Mario Balzic Detective Mystery #7

by K.C. Constantine

Christmas threatens in Rocksburg, PA, and because it's not everyone's best season, it's bad news for the police. How bad, and how it turns Mario Balzic inside out, is the exhilarating burden of this seventh entry in the famous Balzic series.

Genres: Mystery, Christmas, Fiction, Crime

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

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

[Mark Lisac · Rating 4 out of 5]

The crime is relatively minor. The steps Chief Mario Balzic takes to solve it are secondary to the real purpose of the story, which is a detailed and sharply drawn portrait of people in a corner of the Rust Belt just outside Pittsburgh. Constantine knows them and portrays them with accurate, unsentimental sympathy — how they talk, how they think, how they act. There are episodes of his usual heavyhanded humour and appearances by a few minor characters that border on stereotype. Those are minor tradeoffs in exchange for the clear, unpretentious writing and absolutely believable dialogue. A book written with commitment to the subject rather than an eye to marketing; Constantine (Kosak) is on the top rung with Ross Macdonald.
It's also a very good sign that a reread after about 30 years was as satisfying as the first time around.

[Hans · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be my favorite in the series so far. Mario does his best to solve several problems that pop up right before Christmas. This of course means that he mostly resolves the problems and creates a few new problems along the way.

The writing continues to be pitch perfect in setting the scene and describing the landscape. Though the story takes place in winter, here is a nice excerpt of a section talking about one of the neighborhoods in Rocksburg:

Summer meant terraced gardens abloom with vegetables, especially tomatoes and peppers and garlic and basil and dill and mustard seed, and men with hard round bellies arguing over how best to increase their produce or how to cure it or preserve it or pickle it and women in sleeveless cotton dresses with their arms brown from hanging clothes and telling each other that the men didn't know what the hell they were talking about.

The dialogue (while frequently filled with various degrees of the characters bigoted remarks) is equally entertaining and spot on:

"My friend," Valcanas said, "what you did, is take the bonds of friendship and lay them out in a muddy path and set loose a herd of diarrhetic goats on them. My friend, my arthritis is the only thing keeping me from socking you in the nose."

[Priscilla Herrington · Rating 3 out of 5]

On my first excursions to Goodwill since Phase 1 was finally lifted, I stocked up on books, grabbing, among other treasures, all the cozy mysteries they had that day. In my haste, I picked up this one which I mistakenly assumed was another Christmas cozy. In fact it's one in a series of more traditional mysteries. I think someone else would enjoy it more than I and am donating it back to Goodwill. There was nothing wrong with it - it was well written - but just not my cup of tea.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#7 in the Mario Balzic / Rocksburg series. A fine entry in the series. this book had me wishing that Mario would ignore Miranda and the Constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech and just throttle both the Fire Chief and the reporter. Of course, he doesn't and must permit them to be a 'boil on the ass of progess' in prosecuting the investigation of the outstanding cases.

Mario Balzic series - Ed Sitko, the fire chief calls to tell Balzic about Mrs. Gabin, who was mugged for her Christmas money and demands to know what Balzic is going to do about it. Before Balzic investigates the case Sitko has his men out collecting and the more Balzic looks into it, the less he likes it. In trying to clean up this mess he has to deal with the bigoted fire chief, a newspaper columnist who has little regard for the truth, an alienated Vietnam vet, and a small time criminal who always manages to worm his way out of trouble.

[Scott Drake · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first book in the series with this recurring character Balzic, and he's quite the hard-core, Sam Spade PI in a small town chief of police role. Really good, once I got past the drawn out patter and lengthy exchanges that don't progress the story once the character's traits are established.

I picked it up at a thrift store with some other "holiday" themed books and this was the best of the three I read this year. I have several other holiday books saved for next December now. It's fun mixing them into the year.

I look forward to diggin up some of the author's other books in this series!

[Alton Motobu · Rating 3 out of 5]

As Christmas approaches outside Pittsburgh, PA, an old woman claims she was mugged and lost her life savings of $500. Newspaper starts a charity drive for her, but police chief Mario Balzic is suspicious as evidence and eyewitnesses do not support the story. He proves story was a fraud, but has to fight politicians and others who have martyred the woman. Sidebar about racial prejudice - local black gangster vs. white vigilantes - more character study than mystery.

[Sean Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best Balzic story I have read so far. An eye opening reality check on the less glamorous or even particulally legal sides of Police Work. The series just gets better. Deserved more recognition that it got. Stephen King classes the series as the greatest available on the procedural model of crime story, but what does he know.