Detective Ruggiero Carlucci investigates the killing of philanthropist and corporate giant James Deford Lyons, gunned down by a sniper in his own mansion, and finds himself dealing with hundreds of downsized suspects, his unstable mother, a back-stabbingpartner, and his relationship with the gorgeous Franny Perfetti 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 Ruggiero "Rugs" Carlucci, Rocksburg's top police detective, willingly escapes an overbearing mother to investigate the murder of a much disliked local steel magnate. The suspect list is long, and the violence is just beginning. More prime dialog and plotting from a popular writer. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Faithful readers of Constantine's superb series of novels about the economically devastated steel town of Rocksburg, Pennsylvania, will remember when Detective Ruggiero "Rugs" Carlucci's deranged mother was sending threatening letters to quiz-show host Alex Trebek. Time has passed, and Mrs. Carlucci has graduated to a nearly fatal assault on a cop, a neighbor, and Rugs himself. Faced with the need to do something about the mother he has been caring for since his return from Vietnam, Rugs is also investigating the sniper-style murder of a steel company CEO who exported his company, and the jobs that once made Rocksburg a viable city, to Brazil. Although almost everyone in town has a motive, Rugs quickly identifies the shooter, but he sees elements of himself in a decent man driven to kill by corporate greed, the multiple failures of government policies that benefit the rich and powerful, and personal tragedy. As in most of Constantine's 16 novels, the dialogue is achingly good and the characters painfully real. In the giddy ascent of the NASDAQ, in a world preoccupied by dot coms, it's easy to forget about the Rugs and the Rocksburgs. Grievance is here to remind us. Thomas Gaughan Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved " The pseudonymous K. C. CONSTANTINE is the author of fifteen previous novels set in Ro cksburg, Pennsylvania. They include Blood Mud, Brushback, Family Values, Good Sons, Cranks and Sha dows, Bottom Liner Blues, and Joey's Case, which was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for B est Mystery Novel." "No way at all that a few hundred words are going to do justice to this deeply affecting novel...if you're going to write about the way we live now, then you need to do it right. And this Constantine does perfectly...he gets everything right in this novel..." Used Book in Good Condition