Family Values
Good fictional cops don't fade away--they get another sequel. In K.C.  Constantine's novel,Cranks and  Shadows,Rocksburg P.A.'s police chief, Mario Balzic, retired. Now, inFamily  Values,he's bored out of his mind and itching for something to do. Before he can  drive himself, his wife, his bartender and his friends completely nuts, Deputy Attorney  General Warren Livingood arrives to make Balzic an offer: investigate a 17-year-old  murder that just gets messier with every passing year in exchange for the title of Special  Investigator, state credentials and thirty-five dollars an hour.Soon Mario is conducting jailhouse interviews with a crew of unsavory folks, all offering  up differing stories of the sordid crime at the heart of this tangle: a double homicide  resulting from a drug deal gone bad. Eventually, however, the trail leads to Balzic's  dopplegänger of sorts: another small-town police chief who, in his prime, was the  devil's own. InFamily Valuesthe mystery is almost secondary to the fascinating  array of complex characters Mr. Constantine creates--characters that will remain in the  reader's mind long after the murder has been resolved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.