 |
- Mystery - |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Grievance |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
G rievance:A Rugs Carlucci mystery by K.C. Constantine Warner Books (Mysterious Press) 279 pages, June 2000 ISBN 0892966483 Reviewed by Phillip Tomasso III Although I have not read other works by K.C. Constantine or any previous Carlucci mysteries, I found Grievance to be an intriguing novel. Constantine has clearly created a complex character in Detective Sergeant Ruggierro (Rugs) Carlucci, who lives in Rocksburg, PA. Here is a man who seems to have dedicated his life to the job. In this tale, Rugs finds himself in a confused mental state for several reasons. He has to work on a case with a state trooper he doesn’t like. When he is not at work, he is at home taking care of his violent elderly mother. And as a side story, Rugs is perhaps falling in love yet doesn’t know how to let himself fall in love. When Rugs is informed by police dispatch that a body has been found, it seems that everyone else is busy, leaving State Trooper Milliron with no one to take photographs. Rugs agrees to help investigate the homicide of J.D. Lyons, a rich and once powerful man in Rocksburg who used to own a steel mill employing more than half the town. Lyons made a fortune when he moved the mill to a third world country - but he instantly created a suspect list a town-long. The case becomes more involved when the former president of the steel mill’s union is also found murdered. Milliron and Rugs link the two deaths together and begin to look for a former disgruntled employee. The search for suspects narrows when they learn of a secret about the mill’s union and upper management employees. Milliron knows that this double-homicide will make his career. He sets out to solve the case without much empathy, which drives the two policemen further apart. Rugs’ mind is in disarray as he sifts through physical and testimonial evidence, all the while trying to decide what to do about his wielding mother, and the woman he may be in love with. Grievance is full of genuine dialogue, descriptive settings and intense scenes. Constantine takes readers back and forth as the story switches from the investigation to Rugs’ aging mother. You never know what to expect from either story line. Grievance includes some fierce narrative that leaves the reader grasping for clues and answers. Don’t miss it. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||