- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: No Exit Press (10 May 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1842430025
- ISBN-13: 978-1842430026
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 801,200 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
Product Description
Review
"'Balzic is one of the great characters of contemporary fiction' - Boston Globe "The best unknown crime writer in America." - Otto Penzler "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..." Washington Post Book World"
Product Description
Crumbling, empty buildings, a real-estate infrastructure sputtering out, next-to-no tax base for the town and its schools, a population thrown to the mercies of the welfare state...to many of Rocksburg's citizens, this was the bitter legacy of the mid-1980s. A brutal regimen of downsizing had shut down steel production and eliminated two-thirds of the factory's workforce - a policy enforced by steel magnate J. D. Lyons. If Lyons accomplished his business objectives, he has since paid the ultimate price. For J.D. Lyons has just been found in the trunk of his Jaguar, bent over a bag of golf clubs and sporting a small-calibre bullet wound at the base of his skull. The list of suspects is the size of the Rocksburg phone book. What begins as a singular homicide suddenly becomes a swath of murderous violence that touches the ranks of the local union hierarchy, threatens public order, and confounds all investigatory logic. This won't be an easy case for Detective Ruggiero Rugs Carlucci, and it's coming at a tough crossroad in his life. His always difficult mother has officially been deemed a threat to herself and others. And for the first time he finds himself falling in love. More than before, his mind is in a state of full-dress riot. Bringing order and justice to Rugs's world will test all his skill and resolve...even as he tries to part company with misery. Through the hearts and voices of one small fictional city, K. C. Constantine has created a nother tour de force - one that touches the American nerve at its most explosive, authentic and surprising.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
A short, thin man wearing a black tuxedo jacket and a black bow tie but otherwise naked was accepting a statuette on a pedestal. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
A short, thin man wearing a black tuxedo jacket and a black bow tie but otherwise naked was accepting a statuette on a pedestal. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
On one level it is a tough, obscenity-laden police enquiry into a murder; this is well-done, but not special.
However there are three unusual qualities about this book.
The depiction of the characters is achieved mainly through their speech, not through narrative. All the policemen , and the hero's girlfriend, are exceptionally credible.
There are several scenes where human kindness is shown, without sentimentality. It is surprising to be moved by a "hard-boiled" book.
Lastly, there is a section which examines addiction with hard-thinking clarity, and, by so doing, reveals the depth of thinking of the girlfriend, and how she relates to the hero. (Note: this is not a book about drugs )
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
The excellent Rocksburg series continues
9 Jun 2000
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
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
A beautifully writen and very affecting book
16 Jun 2000
Format: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
fine police procedural
3 Jun 2000
Format: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.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
