Brushback

Mario Balzic Detective Mystery #14

by K.C. Constantine

The best days of Rocksburg, Pennsylvania, are behind it. The mills are closed, the mines shut down, and the townsfolk while the days away in the local bars and somehow manage to get along. Yet every once in a while something or someone strikes a spark that lifts everyone up and puts Rocksburg back on the map. Decades before, Bobby Blasco went north to pitch for the Boston Red Sox. Known as the Brushback Kid, he set records in every league he played - including most hit batmen. During spring training in 1959 he even threw square to the head of the great Ted Williams. Later a mysterious accident landed him a permanent place on the disabled list, and he came home to run an illegal gambling club in Rocksburg's Flats. Now Detective Sergeant Rugs Carlucci, the acting chief of the Rocksburg PD, is at Conemaugh General Hospital: Mom is having either a heart or an anxiety attack. While they're in the ER, Rugs gets the call. Someone has murdered the Brushback Kid. Running the plays in a major-league murder investigation - and trying to ensure his own domestic tranquility - Carlucci must find out why the pitching phenom went wrong. Interviews of a parade of Blasco's ex-wives and former friends show a man out of control, a man who took domestic abuse to its farthest limits and who made an enemy of virtually everyone who crossed his line of sight. Carlucci's question: Which of these, in an ironic fit of sportsman's logic, was enemy enough to take a Louisville Slugger to Blasco's head in a pitch-black, frozen alley?

288 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1998

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

[Kat A · Rating 1 out of 5]

Brushback is really tedious. I really enjoy Constantine’s books, especially those featuring Chief Balzic. However, those featuring Acting Chief Carlucci and his stumbling speeches are frustrating. This book had the added annoyance of lots of philosophizing about a reprehensible, unlikable jock. It’s as if the reader is supposed to care that this wife beater had a tough life growing up. It’s also as if Constantine was being paid by the word with all of the uh huhs and uh uhs.

[Chris Halpin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Need to read some earlier novels of his. Love the dialogue

[Mark Lisac · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mystery itself is worth the reading time, as is the case with all the Constantine books. But the real draws are the utterly believable characters and the visceral reality of the Rust Belt town of Rocksburg. The dialogue sounds like a record of conversations the author actually heard. When the people in Brushback speak, you hear the authentic voices of a disappearing subculture. That's the same as saying you hear the voices of real people anywhere.
This review stands for what could be similar reviews of nearly the entire Constantine-Rocksburg canon, the best mystery series I know. The only two entries that fall somewhat short of the standard set by all the others are The Blank Page and The Man Who Liked to Look at Himself; both were written when Constantine (Kosak) was still finding his way. The rest are stunningly good. Yes, a secondary character like Mo Vulcanas may occasionally be overdone. Short bits of dialogue may occasionally be stretched out a bit too far, with the speakers working a little too hard to understand each other. But you could say John Ford never quite achieved perfection and that would not reduce an achievement like The Searchers. One can only hope that Constantine (Kosak) still has a manuscript or two kicking around that may eventually see the light of day.
Reread Brushback in 2014 after reading it when it first came out. It did not lose a bit of its appeal after the passage of several years, which is another measure of its quality.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#14 in the Mario Balzic / Rocksburg series. Rugs Carlucci is the interim chief after Mario's retirement.

Rugs Carlucci series - Ruggiero "Rugs" Carlucci is investigating the brutal murder of Brushback Bobby Blasco, a local hero who once beaned the immortal Ted Williams. Blasco, who has a history of beating wives and girlfriends, has been bludgeoned to death with a Louisville Slugger autographed by the Splendid Splinter. But Rugs has many competing concerns: his mother's nightly anxiety attacks; his duties as acting police chief; byzantine city politics; undertrained, overworked cops; and summoning the courage to ask a beautiful woman for a date.

[Hans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another stunning entry in Constantine's Rocksburg series. The book follows the personal, professional and political struggles of Detective Sergeant Rugs Carlucci, as he serves as acting chief of the police department.

The author has built a lot of history by this novel, as well as, shifted the tone of the series. I guess someone could pick this book up without reading the earlier novels, but the character developments make a lot more sense in the context of the previous volumes.

[Bradley]

Mario Balzic