Rocksburg Railroad Murders
Posted: 2016/01/27 Filed under: Book Reviews, Fiction | Tags: 2016, book review, february, Fiction, KC Constantine, mystery Leave a commentConstantine, K.C. The Rocksburg Railroad Murders. Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, 1982.
Reason read: to “finish” the series started in December with Always a Body to Trade in honor of January being Mystery Month. Yes, I read them out of order.
Written in a much different time. When else can you have a Meet Me At the Bar kind of cop who has a priest for a drinking and gambling buddy (on the clock, no less)? Here are some other facts about Chief of Police Mario Balzic: he’s married and a father of two teenage daughters. His mother lives with him and he’s a wicked gin player. A senior in 1942 he joined the Marines fresh out of high school. As a tough but sensitive Chief of Police in Rocksburg, Pennsylvania it’s up to him to figure out who bashed in John Andrasko’s face with a soda bottle at the railway station. For Mario, this murder is personal for he’s known John since they were kids.
Quote I liked, “A man went goofy with grief, he saw to it that the victims were covered, and everybody went home to a hot shower and a cold glass of wine. What else did you do when somebody you loved got killed?” (p 181).
Author fact: Mario is a lot like K.C. in that both are military men.
Book trivia: The Rocksburg Railroad Murders is Constantine’s first book.
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Big Ten Country: The Literary Midwest (Pennsylvania)” (p 31).