Grievance [Large Print] [Paperback]

K. C. Constantine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2001

James Deford Lyon, CEO of one of Pittsburgh's greatest steel companies, has been gunned down by a sniper, and detective "Rugs" Carlucci is the man lucky enough to receive the call. Quickly besieged by the demands of media figures and sifting through hundreds of suspects, Rugs has more than enough to worry about.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Penzler Pick, April 2000: The texture of America runs through the novels of the pseudonymous K.C. Constantine, whose original tales of police chief Mario Balzic and the faded industrial reality of his fictional hometown, Rocksburg, Pa., have given way to cases featuring a younger cop, "Rugs" Carlucci, in the same setting. Both men are supremely decent public citizens performing an almost thankless job, tireless soldiers in not just a perpetual battle against law-breakers but also ongoing skirmishes of class warfare against which their skills unfortunately count for less.

As Constantine fans (and I am one of long standing) already know, the mystery plot is never the reason to come to this series. While the plots are fine, and usually compelling, it is because of the often achingly alive characterizations, the glimpses into soul and spirit, that one reads this writer. His blue-collar milieu offers a variant on the "down these mean streets" exhortation that Raymond Chandler could never have envisioned. While Chandler meant the detective in the crime story should be a figure not involved in the artificial precincts of ersatz English manor houses and rural vicarages, he certainly never was imagining a hero like Ruggiero Carlucci, struggling to solve a murder while locked in daily conflict with the increasingly demented mother he lives with. Rugs--neither martyr nor saint, but exhibiting aspects of both--is simply a man who's trying to do not just his job but also his duty as a son. In Grievance, Mrs. Ruggiero is now herself engaging in mayhem, with Rugs twice in need of hospital attention as a result of her uncontrollable violent impulses.

There is, as well, an actual murder case demanding Rugs's official attention: the magnate who had allowed his steel plant to be closed, shattering hundreds of local lives, has been found shot to death. There are so many suspects who would have been happy to see him dead that Rugs isn't able to eliminate anyone. It's all in a day's work, even if it means brushing up against the kind of personal pain with which the suffering Rugs is all too familiar. Grievance is pure Constantine, and that's saying plenty of praise in just two words as he somehow remains below the radar of even sophisticated mystery readers as the best unknown crime writer in America. --Otto Penzler --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Nobody writes about rust-belt angst better than Constantine, whose stories (like 1999's Blood Mud) about the cops and other citizens of Rocksburg, Pa., resonate with generations of failed working-class hopes. Constantine's dialogue has been justly praised for reproducing the frustration of the inarticulate. But now that legendary police chief Mario Balzic has retired and detective Ruggerio "Rugs" Carlucci has moved center stage, there seems to be much more personal angst and much less actual crime or mystery. More than half of this new novel has to do with Carlucci's heartbreaking efforts to look after his mother, whose mental decline has taken a dangerously violent turn. Then there's the detective's uncertain relationship with psychiatric social worker Franny Perfetti, as well as his dealings with an ambitious, truculent state trooper, Claude Milliron. Using plenty of trademark dialogue to portray Perfetti and Milliron, the author doesn't devote much space to the basic plot: the murders of 65-year-old steel magnate J.D. Lyons, who helped the town's decline by moving his company to South America, and of local union official Frankie Krull, who didn't protect his workers. The publisher's publicity release quotes a review of Blood Mud that says that Constantine "virtually leaves crime fiction behind"; hopefully, the jacket of this finely crafted novel will repeat the warning. Mystery Guild featured alternate. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 399 pages
• Publisher: Wheeler Publishing (March 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156895946X
• ISBN-13: 978-1568959467
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,570,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The excellent Rocksburg series continues, June 8, 2000

By 

David E. Hintz (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Grievance (Hardcover)

K.C. Constantine's Rocksburg series deserves far greater recognition as it continues. Early novels focused on Police Chief Mario Balzic. From its humble beginnings to its nearly surreal recent entries, the one constant is brilliant dialogue and interrogation. As an insurance investigator, I find Constantine's dialogue the best I've read. It truly captures the diversity of the interviewees that investigators encounter. Do try to hunt down all the books in this series. At least try to begin with Joey's Case and go from their. The surreal quality slowly builds into a great series. Grievance fills in nicely and really builds Carlucci as a worthy successor to Balzic.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully writen and very affecting book, June 16, 2000

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"hjsam" (Naples and Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grievance (Hardcover)

Constantine captures the sadness of forgotten towns and their citizens like no one I have ever read. America has thousands of these places, old industrial towns like this one, almost closed down farming communities and so on. There are no real villains here--just victims, and their problems, so wrenchingly written about and described in their own words, will break your heart. This book is allegedly a mystery, but that only forms a rough scaffolding for his social commentary which is the real point of the book. A beautifully written, gritty book.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fine police procedural, June 3, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Grievance (Hardcover)

In Rocksburg, Pennsylvania police Detective Sergeant Ruggiero "Rugs" Carlucci is awakened in the middle of the night to go to a crime scene. Someone killed J. Deford Lyon, the steel-manufacturing mogul who is infamous for the ruthless and vicious downsizing of his company. The victim's enemy list could fill Three Rivers to capacity and still need an overflow arena.

Even before he arrives at the scene that he does not want to go to, he has a hard time. His lunatic of mother, who lives with poor Rugs, has tortured him for leaving. At the scene, the victim's wife refuses to cooperate. This is only the beginning of a case that seems to become more difficult to solve with every new clue. Perhaps the problems lie with cooperation worsening with each step Rugs takes and considering that he has none to start with that is quite a chore for the law enforcement official.

GRIEVANCE is a fine police procedural that sub-genre fans will enjoy. However, like in GOOD SONS and BRUSHBACK, this novel's strength lies with its incredible cast of characters including the township. Rugs remains likable, frustrated, yet patient. The secondary cast augments the tale with blue-collar depth and his mother adds the elder care issue confronting baby boomers. K.C. Constantine has written another great hard-core crime fiction novel.