Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Another Day’s Pain by K. C. Constantine

K. C. Constantine was the pen name of Carl Constantine Kosak (1934-2023). He was born in McKees Rock, Pennsylvania, and lived most of his life in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, both suburbs of Pittsburgh. He memorialized the two towns as the city of Rocksburg in his series about Mario Balzic, chief of police, beginning in 1972. These books increasingly moved away from the traditional mystery format and focused on the economic decline in western Pennsylvania and its impact on the citizens of the region. His concern is always on the people of his stories.

After a gap of over 20 years, one last book in the series is being published, wrapping up the character arcs. Another Day’s Pain (Mysterious Press, 2024) finds Mario Balzic long retired and his friend Rugs Carlucci contemplating retirement while dealing with his failing mother. His sometime girlfriend has promised to never put her mother in a long-term care facility and is wearing herself to a thread between a full-time job and the growing difficulty of caring for her mother alone. When the two manage to compare notes, they are sad but see no way to change their hopeless situations.

In the meantime all of the members of the force with children have gone on vacation at the same time, leaving Rugs and a couple of others to juggle the various calls for assistance in Rockburg. In a hilarious scene Rugs is sent to deal with a woman off her medication terrorizing her ex-husband and their daughters. Rugs has had to cope with her before and he knows just how outrageous she can be. In another frightening sequence Rugs takes on a shooter who has killed his roommate and is attempting to kill everyone else in the apartment house.

The latter confrontation lands Rugs in hospital for a few days, giving him plenty of time to think about leaving the job behind forever.

Alternately somber and comical, this book is a fitting end to a masterpiece of a crime fiction series. Constantine had a gift for creating original characters and bringing them to life on the page in scenarios that every reader can identify with.

Starred review from Publishers Weekly.

For more about Constantine, see Jeff Siegel’s article from Mystery Scene magazine: https://www.mysteryscenemag.com/article/3139-across-the-great-divide-kc-constantine-takes-the-detective-novel-into-uncharted-territory

 

·         Publisher: ‎Mysterious Press (April 16, 2024)

·         Language: English

·         Hardcover: 232 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1613164831

·         ISBN-13: 978-1613164839

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4aeD2ND

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024

 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.