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'Brushback' by K.C. Constantine

Rounding Up The Unusual Suspects

Sunday, April 05, 1998

By Michael Helfand

	Brushback By K.C. Constantine Mysterious Press $22.00

The saga of Rocksburg, milltown on the Conemaugh, continues to flow through deeps and shoals in this superb new novel (and police procedural) from K.C. Constantine.

It is no secret that Constantine began writing crime novels because they were easier to publish than serious fiction. Since then, he has written a series of critically acclaimed books using the town's police force and its chief, Mario Balzic, to explore the mysteries of character and its relation to the economic and social fabric of a small town.

As this novel opens, Balzic has been retired for three months. The acting chief of police and central character (for the second time in a Constantine novel), Sgt. Ruggiero "Rugs" Carlucci, is still waiting to find out if he will get Balzic's job.

Carlucci, a 43-year-old Vietnam veteran, single and living at home with a sick and domineering mother, is a careful and hard-working detective who is good-hearted but naive about the ways of local politics and women in his hometown.

When a local athletic hero, Bobby Blasco, is found beaten to death in an alley near the high school, Carlucci heads the investigation, although he shares it briefly with a state trooper with an odd affection for good fellas.

The murder weapon, a baseball bat autographed by Ted Williams, is found in the alley nearby. Blasco was a middle-aged, overweight restaurateur who abused women, gambled compulsively and lost wives and money as a result. Despite his continuing problems, Blasco remained immensely attractive to women, including those he abused, a hero to men who knew him well and a legend in the community for his brief, but successful stint as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.

He got his nickname, "Brushback," because as a rookie he threw at Williams' head in batting practice. It is Blasco's life and character, much more than his death, that makes this book a mystery.

A number of suspects immediately emerge, in cluding the boys who report the death, some local money lenders and Blasco's three ex-wives and their families.

But as with most Constantine stories, solving the case is not the point orthe pleasure of the book. As Carlucci rounds up the usual suspects, he discovers that they, as well as the victim and most of the people of

Rocksburg, are hardly usual and much more complicated than most writers and readers imagine. It is these characters who capture our attention and hold it.

While we miss Balzic, his family and friends here, there are compelling portraits of Blasco, two of his wives and Carlucci himself.

And Constantine gives us some colorful minor characters as well, such as an old woman Carlucci helps to cross an icy street. From her, he gets an unexpected life story and an unpleasantly direct (but accurate) analysis of his personal weaknesses. Other interesting characters include a priest with a broken hip who discusses the reality of pain, a social worker who proves

Carlucci's equal in deft interviewing, a lawyer whose faith interferes with his duty to his client and a patrolman who unaccountably deviates from his strict, by-the-book professional routine.

Presenting and understanding character, for Constantine, inevitably leads to families and local social institutions. Carlucci's work is shaped by his relationship with his mother, who needs home care and medical attention, and by wily Mayor Bellotti. He gets on well with his men, but the force is suffering from a lack of manpower and modern equipment because the mayor and the town council won't, or can't, find the funds.

Some of the best parts of the novel are Carlucci's conversations with the mayor and the occasional descriptions of the relations and responsibilities of state, county and municipal organizations.

But not all is dark in Rocksburg. There are some truly humorous moments, some between members of the force, and some showing Carlucci's bumbling attempts to meet and date a former beauty queen. People are constantly surprising Carlucci, and not all of the surprises are bad.

While Constantine's books have always been praised for their detailed, realistic portrayal of working-class life and speech, that is only the beginning of his accomplishments. It would be much more accurate to say that he writes (and writes well) about working people of all classes and backgrounds in the region.

That is quite clear in "Brushback," where we have both middle-class and working-class characters, and the focus, once more, is on the strength and destructiveness of family life and on the power of work and money to shape and distort relationships.

Add to that a subtle examination of justice, legal processes and police procedures, and you've got something more and better than a page-turner. This is the crime novel as serious fiction.

Michael Helfand is a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh.