The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes

Mario Balzic Detective Mystery #5

by K.C. Constantine

K. C. Constantine's Mario Balzic is one of those police chiefs so close to his people that nothing moves or even sits still in his town without his knowing how and why. His town is Rocksburg, a small coal mining town in western Pennsylvania where most of the coal has run out. In this, his fifth case, tomatoes curiously ripening out of season are the key. It begins at Muscotti's Bar, Balzic's refuge, when Jimmy Romanelli sells several baskets of tomatoes to Vinnie, Muscotti's barkeep. It ends some weeks later after three deaths and a drained, disgusted Balzic, unable to take any satisfaction in his solution of Romanelli's murder, the proximate cause for Jimmy's twisted passion for growing tomatoes.

As in all Balzic novels, the Chief is the center of consciousness. He's fiercely unpretentious, in absolute command, without an officious bone in his head or phrase in his mouth. And so fundamentally gentle and good at what he does that not even his Mozartian profanity succeeds in hiding his detective genius. If you've not met this Serbo-Italian, profoundly American cop, it's time you did.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

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

[Sonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love it when I read a book that I know almost nothing about and it turns out to be so good. That’s this book. Recommended for those looking for a mystery with deep characterization and not much plot.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first foray into the Mario Balzic pantheon, and it certainly didn't disappoint. Constantine manages to offer a clear sense of time and place with wonderfully constructed dialogue. At the same time, it's amazing to me that this book is only 40 years old, since the story and characters feel so foreign to modern sensibilities.

The plot could never be transformed into a modern screenplay. Contemporary mysteries and crime thrillers require plot twists and clever villains, to an extent that the banality of the crimes in this book are almost shocking. But I think that would have even been an appealing aspect of the novel at the time of publication. The book isn't about the mystery so much as it is about the characters and their relationships.

And to the extent that Mario, our Chief of Police, gives the reader a protagonist, a modern reader would have trouble not looking past the fact that he is a bit of an overused trope, the big-hearted policeman who is rough around the edges, has flagrant disrespect for stuffed shirts, but cares about his men. But don't we all want our cops to have moral compasses? And don't we love the guy who looks at the lawyers in a union negotiation with contempt? Our Mario tells off who he pleases, storms off when he pleases, and comes out on top. Dopamine, catnip for the soul! And yet, as my better half would point out, he's at least a little bit "racist lite". So we get the drug abuse stereotypes of the '80s. And we get our prejudiced hero. And we get our somewhat-overdone dialect. But we don't get anything too sugar-coated, and at least we aren't left with anything unsolved. And we still enjoy the spirited writing on those yellowed pages.

[LettriceAssorta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il comandante della polizia Mario Balzic si trova al centro di un clima generale di sospetto e irritazione.Il sindaco e alcuni consiglieri comunali gli chiedono di assumersi un ruolo di maggiore visibilità nell’ambito del negoziato per il rinnovo dei contratti del sindacato di polizia, mentre lui evita apertamente di prendere una posizione in proposito. E’ dunque per questo motivo che Balzic, quella mattina, decide di lasciare alla chetichella il municipio di Rocksburg: desidera un po’ di relax presso il bar gestito dal suo vecchio amico Vinnie, in compagnia del solito bicchiere di vino rosso. La tranquillità tanto agognata viene però interrotta quando giunge al bar la telefonata di Frances. La donna lamenta il fatto che suo marito Jimmy non ha fatto ritorno a casa da quando il giorno prima era uscito per vendere dei pomodori. Stressata ed eccessivamente allarmata, la donna comincia rivolgersi ovunque, chiedendo l’intervento della polizia. Man mano che le pagine scorrono impetuose, il focus della storia si concentrerà sempre di più sulla scomparsa di Jimmy e sul suo rigoglioso orto.

Il Mistero dell’orto di Rocksburg scatta una vivace istantanea su una cittadina che ha costruito la sua identità soprattutto sul duro lavoro nelle miniere di carbone. La maggior parte dei suoi abitanti ha trascorso molta della propria vita lavorativa sottoterra, facendo a pezzi il carbone bituminoso a colpi di piccone e pale. Anche l’esistenza del protagonista è stata segnata in qualche modo da queste miniere: suo padre, fervente sindacalista, vi ha lavorato a lungo e a Balzic basta pensare ad una miniera di carbone per sentirsi stringere il petto e venire meno il respiro. Quando la scure della crisi economica si abbatte duramente su quel paese a vocazione industriale, molti uomini si ritrovano disoccupati e incapaci di reinventarsi. Tra questi anche Jimmy Romanelli il quale si trasforma gradualmente, sotto gli occhi impotenti della moglie Frances, in un uomo violento e rancoroso. Il racconto trae la sua energia dalle ambientazioni e dal contesto, descritti con vivacità e perspicacia. Il lettore viene proiettato in un ambito costituito da centinaia di zone abitate fra i giacimenti di carbone, tutte costruite tra la fine del diciannovesimo e l’inizio del ventesimo secolo, quando l’estrazione intensificata del carbone bituminoso era seconda solo all’industria agricola. Purtroppo ad un certo punto, le vene si sono esaurite e la società se n’è andata. E’ in questo clima che matura la storia: sulle braci delle miniere oramai in disuso e sul rancore covato nel nido di una mentalità ristretta, che vuole le donne a casa ad occuparsi esclusivamente dei figli e dei lavori domestici e dove la violenza è passivamente subita. Il capo della polizia Balzic conosce bene questa realtà e si muove tra le pieghe della storia cercando di barcamenarsi tra la sua vita privata praticamente inesistente, il vizio dell’alcol, la sua tendenza alla soddisfazione emotiva che lo porta a sfoghi eccessivi, e la voglia di fare bene il suo lavoro. L’indagine funge solo da contorno al protagonista indiscusso: il vivido e realistico contesto sociale attorno al quale essa si sviluppa. Su tutta la narrazione, campeggiano e brillano i dialoghi sapientemente costruiti, e un campo di rigogliosi e succulenti pomodori!

Stop

La Lettrice Assorta www.ilviziodileggereblog.wordpress.com

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mario Balzic is the police chief in one of those small coal-mining towns in Pennsylvania where the mines have all but closed and the people are leading hardscrabble lives in a changed economy. This is a tale for any time. Balzic feels he knows the people on his turf like the back of his hand. So he is a little surprised when a woman he knew as a child begins to repeatedly call the police station because her husband is missing. He recognizes that she has problems and he feels a little guilty because he has not seen her for so long.

This case turns out to be a little like one of Balzic’s Pittsburgh Pirate’s baseball games, sometimes you do everything you are supposed to do and things still go against you. Baseball is the only game where the keep a record of the errors. This is a wonder series and Balzic is a low-key but very astute sleuth who loves his family, his wine and his town.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The conversations are so natural, you feel as though you're there. For writing, this book is a 5, but for story, for me it's a 4. The story is good but starts slowly. That gave me time to savor the writing, and for inspiring writers, this book is terrific learning material. Balzic is a police chief in a Pennsylvania mining town where the mine has closed. The cast of characters is realistic, the dialog more so. Book was published in 1982. The story is chiefly about Balzic's police life and the life of a local couple and her father. The husband loses his mine job and turns mean, also getting involved in crime. The police chief's father and the wife's father were once friends. Foreign accents are nicely done.

[C.J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

10% mystery, 45% social commentary, 45% character study. Constantine offers a nice close-up of a bilious, somewhat bigoted small-town PA police chief & his neighbors. As a mystery fan, though, I didn't find these people as fascinating as the author did, in the long stretches when they weren't actually doing much.

[Elizabeth Milnarik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Constantine knows how to write about good people, and about how hard it is to be good. The mystery is just sauce on top.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many this past month, I watched and enjoyed HBO’s Mare of Easttown. I especially liked the first tier suburban Philly setting, the commitment to local culture, and the character-focused thrust of storytelling, even as there was a murder mystery to be solved. There was empathy for people and their situations in life, all of it centered around the titular Mare, the town detective.

I wanted to read a book with similar traits. Long Bright River is the easiest and obvious answer but I read (and enjoyed) that one last year. Some of the other recs were either too familiar or too far afield from what Mare was about.

And then, I listened to The Watch podcast as the guys talked about KC Constantine.

Constantine is a writer I’ve been meaning to try for a while, though I’d be lying if I said he was high on my list. Stephen King likes him but his books are hard to find. He pens a long running series about a police chief solving crimes in an exurban Pittsburgh outpost where the coal industry is dying. It’s the other side of Pennsylvania but stylistically, that’s close enough.

And yeah, I don’t know if the writers of Mare read these but the spirit of those books is definitely in the show.

Mario Balzic is your typical crusty cop, except that he knows and does care about his neighborhood’s residents. He tries to do right by them more often than not, almost to a fault. I picked up this one, the middle one in the series, because it’s what was available. I loved it. Again, like Mare, don’t read this for the whodunnit. Read it for the protagonist, the atmosphere, the supporting characters. Read it for the deep empathy. Read it for the tragedy.

Or just read it because it’s a really good book.

[Susan Beecher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this mystery with a main character who has baggage but is very human. Well-written.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: tomatoes curiously ripening out of season are the key here. Some weeks later, after three deaths, Chief Balzic is drained.

[Lorin Cary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mario Balzic is police chief in a small town. The mine in this Pennsylvania bituminous coal region is played out and unemployment is a problem. A missing person call leads Mario into the psychology of males out of work as he discusses the case with the man’s wife, victim of his abuse. It’s a tour de force of crisp dialogue, tight narrative and taunt pacing. Constantine wastes few words in this slim 1982 story which has relevance for the 2016 election, for it provides insight into blue collar voters who have lost work and take it out on women—although that is hardly the intent. Mario solves the case of the missing man in fine order. Vivid characterization, including on target ethnic dialogue. Good read!

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought this book simply because of the title. Actually liked the Balzic character.

[SoulSurvivor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being from Western PA , I thought I would enjoy this book more . Although it had some Pittsburgh collocquiaslisms , it didn't read like the Italian areas of that region .

[James Thane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1982 and set in the early 1980s, this is the fifth novel to feature Mario Balzic, the police chief of a small town in western Pennsylvania. The town's economy once depended on coal mining, but the coal has basically been mined out; people are losing jobs, and the consequences are inevitable.

As the book opens, Balzic is in the middle of the negotiations for a new contract for the police union, but the town has no more money with which to hire additional officers or to pay the ones they have a decent wage. Balzic is frustrated because the meetings are going nowhere and so, as a practical matter, he simply refuses to attend them any longer.

The principal problem that occupies his attention through the novel is that of a woman named Frances Romanelli. Her husband, Jimmy, has lost his job in the mines and is taking out his frustrations on his wife, both physically and psychologically. Frances calls to complain that her husband has gone missing and Balzic responds to the call.

Balzic knew Frances when she was a young girl and when her father and Balzic's father were comrades working in the mines. Balzic feels sorry for the woman and will spend the bulk of the novel trying to assist her.

There's not much of a plot to this very slow-moving novel; it is essentially a character study and my problem with the book is that I just didn't find the characters or their problems to be all that interesting. It's a slice of life in a time and place that were pretty depressing and which basically left me feeling pretty depressed myself. It's a well-written novel, and Constantine does a great job with the setting, but that wasn't enough to elevate the book to anything above three stars for me.

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm as much a fan of flawed characters as the next guy - maybe more - but this one rubbed me the wrong way.

Mario Balzic, police chief, has a host of issues. He leaves the police station to hide out for a day. He gets drunk and goes crazy. He reacts to comments by yelling and making threats.

Later, he sees the error of his ways and tries to correct the damage he has done. But isn't that what we see with alcoholics every day? But wait - the story.

A man goes missing. Balzic learns that the man was last seen by a bartender who bought a bunch of tomatoes from him. The man, Jimmy Romanelli, is not known for gardening, and he brags that he has produced these beauties earlier than anyone else.

While ignoring everyone and everything else around him, Balzic nevertheless is intrigued by the case and interviews the wife. From her he learns of the bad relationship between her husband and her father. And he interviews her father. Many times, hearing of little but tomatoes in the bargain. The competition between them to grow tomatoes faster - although the father does not admit to any competition.

Ultimately Balzic finds the solution and repents of his behavior. The repentance didn't buy him a place in my "readable" list. In a way, it may be a tribute to Constantine that he portrayed this alcoholic in a way that I recognized. On the other hand, I didn't really buy his introspective behavior. It didn't read true to me.

It's a fast read so it won't use much of your time.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first novel featuring Mario Balzic. He is the police chief in Rocksburg, Pennsylvania, where coal mining was king but now mostly run out. The chief is in the middle of contract negotiations for the police with the mayor and council. They have been ongoing for weeks and practically nothing has been agreed upon yet. He is at the end of his rope and often walks out of the meetings in frustration. He answers a call of a missing person. The wife is concerned because she hasn't seen her husband. She is upset because she doesn't believe the police are taking it seriously. Her husband lost his job over a year ago when the coal mine closed and he hasn't been the same since. She has started working to make ends meet but he doesn't like her having a life outside the home. He briefly shows up but then disappears again. Balzic finds out that her husband has been suspected of running drugs for some bad people. He soon finds himself in trouble with the DEA as they suspect he has interfered with an ongoing investigation. By talking to neighbors, Balzic finds that the missing man had been gardening with his father-in-law as they tried to grow tomatoes fastest. I really liked the main character and plan to read more novels in this series.

[Mark Lisac · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's some mystery content, but the real draw here is real people speaking in the real ways that people in Constantine's corner of the Rust Belt speak (or at any rate spoke in the early 1980s, which is the story's setting). It's possible to argue he overdoes some scenes. The presentation can seem a little heavyhanded at times. His is prone to stretching a point. That's small potatoes in the larger scheme. And the occasional approach toward awkwardness is offset by the unexpected subtlety in the way that Constantine (real name Kosak) shows how tragedy can develop out of the difficulty of understanding what others are really thinking and/or what really motivates them. There can also be tragedy in spite of anyone's best efforts to avoid it. Rocksburg police chief Mario Balzic knows that intellectually but in this story learns it on an emotional level, at some cost.
Remember really liking this one when I first read it in the early 1980s. A reread about 40 years after its publication has probably left me even more impressed. It's much better than many current best sellers, and better than a lot of prestigious prize winners.

[Scoats · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well if more of our books are like this one, I will complete my quest to read each of the 1000s of books we own quicker than I expected.

A small city police chief, who is in the middle of a potential police union strike, finds that the husband of a woman who he knew they were children has gone missing. So it seems to be a mystery story.

I gave up just before the end of the first chapter. The writing is fine but TEDIOUS. Lots of dry details that don't get you or the plot anywhere. I have little faith it gets less tedious as the book goes on.

Maybe if I was a shut-in with a boring life, I'd read this cover to cover. Happily I'm not, at least not yet.

Constantine's writing reminds me of John Cheever. I can see the appeal and the ability but too dang boring.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really happy to give 'Tomatoes' a five-star rating. So many times I find older literature in secondhand stores, and it's usually either dated or lost in the sands of time for a reason.

Constantine drew Pennsylvania coal country like few I've read before, perhaps just a step below John O'Hara. There's a scene where Balzic is interviewing a battered woman, gaining her confidence, and the dialogue they pass over a kitchen table is absolutely spot on to the region. I felt like I was at the table with them - maybe because my family is from Scranton, PA and the words ring true.

I was in the library today and found another one of Constantine's books for sale, this one from 1990, and snapped it right up.

It's good because it feels true.

[Kathy KS · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5*

MC Mario Balzic wasn't as enjoyable in this volume of the series; he's got multiple personal issues going on. Although they are believable, I don't read to experience a lot of angst in my main characters. There's enough in the world anyway. The story, first published in 1982, seems that it may be pretty accurate for the time and place; so, don't expect everything to be what today is called "politically correct". Mario is only a generation or two from his Italian/Serbian immigrant forebears and that situation does have some bearing on the story's characters.

So, not my favorite in the series so far, but I will continue reading, because Mario is pretty much an "everyman" will both positive and negative traits. He tries to be an honorable man, in his own way.

[Jo Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

With such a great title, I knew I had to pick up this book. Mistake. Boring, unbelievable; I was thankful it was just 187 pages. It was mostly dialog, so I felt I was reading a play. This is the fifth book in a series of mysteries featuring police chief Mario Balzic. I found Balzic to be a cocky smart ass. The book was published in 1983, although I don't think that matters. A boring book is a boring book no matter when it's written.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm reading these in order, with the hope that they get better, but they remain terribly dated. Balzic spends most of his time drunk, engages in random physical abuse, really needs to brush his teeth, and be nicer to his family.

The mystery in the story is not really a mystery. It's more of a domestic dispute.

There is a lot of talking. The only real character is Balzic. Everyone else is kind of a stereotype.

Unnecessary use of the n-word and other ethnic slurs.

[John Marr · Rating 5 out of 5]

A typically excellent Mario Balzic outing which finds Mario meandering through union negotiations and a wandering husband/domestic disturbance case. It may seem like a pleasant shaggy dog story wandering through a dying blue-collar American town, but it turns noir before you know it--and in a way you'll never forget.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

In K. C. Constantine’s The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes, conversations go on for pages beyond their plot utility yet never drag. Each page more deeply roots characters in the fading (and fictional) Rust Belt mining town of Rocksburg, Pennsylvania, and gives astonishing dimension to a book that clocks in under 200 pages.

[Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many dialogues that go on too long and aren't as funny as they think they are (and I hoped they would be). More than 70 pages into a 170 page novel and there's as yet no crime, just some hassle about police funding. The best so far is the title. Not finishing this.

[Lucie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An introspective book about an introspective chief of police and his relationships with his community, his family, and crime. Not my normal choice of book, but I was engaged by the characters and wanted to find out how they developed. A slow, but satisfying read.

[Dorothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really sure how to review this book. It is different more of a sense of learning about the main character and his interaction with people.

[John Guild · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended by the staff at The Mysterious Bookshop. A great, well-written portrait of a declining rust belt town in the 80s.

[Harper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the first 70 or so pages (great characterizations!) but the rest dragged so badly for me.

[Leah]

DNFing after a few chapters because life’s too short to waste on dull mysteries like this. I own another Constantine book which I’ll give a shot, but I don’t have high hopes.