Order of K.C. Constantine Books
K.C. Constantine is an American author best known for writing the Mario Balzic Detective Mystery series. K.C. Constantine is actually a pen name and the author’s real name is Carl Constantine Kosak. Not much is known about Kosak as he prefers his anonymity.
Constantine was born in 1934 and later went on to serve in the Marines in the 1950s. He now makes his home in Pennsylvania where he lives with his wife. Constantine debuted in 1972 with the first book in the series, The Rocksburg Railroad Murders.
Publication Order of Rocksburg Books
| The Rocksburg Railroad Murders | (1972) |    |
| The Man Who Liked To Look At Himself | (1973) | |
| The Blank Page | (1974) | |
| A Fix Like This | (1975) | |
| The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes | (1982) | |
| Always a Body to Trade | (1983) | |
| Upon Some Midnights Clear | (1985) | |
| Joey's Case | (1988) | |
| Sunshine Enemies | (1990) | |
| Bottom Liner Blues | (1993) | |
| Cranks and Shadows | (1995) | |
| Good Sons | (1996) | |
| Family Values | (1997) | |
| Brush Back | (1998) | |
| Blood Mud | (1999) | |
| Grievance | (2000) | |
| Saving Room for Dessert | (2002) | |
Publication Order of Anthologies
| Criminal Records | (2000) | |
If You Like K.C. Constantine Books, You’ll Love…
The first book in the Mario Balzic series is The Rocksburg Railroad Murders. The first book in the series introduces us to Balzic who is an atypical detective. He is a middle-aged Serbo-Italian American cop and he’s not filled with dread like so many other detectives. Instead, Mario is a family man who is unpretentious and uses more sense than force in his investigations. This book tells the story of a man that Mario knows being beaten to death with a Coke bottle. The body is found in the platform of the Rocksburg railroad station. Mario’s investigation sees him becoming convinced that the man’s stepson is the culprit, but proving that will be easier said than done.
Another popular book in the series is called Blood Mud. This is a later book in the series when Mario has retired from the police force and taken a job as a private cop. His job is to track down stolen guns for an insurance company and the investigation leads him into much bigger trouble. Things get even more complicated when a murder puts a twist into his search and his own heart issues nearly end his investigation before it starts. Mario’s mission goes beyond trying to find some stolen guns, now he’s just trying to stay alive.