K. C. Constantine: Reclusive Mystery Author Revealed at Last!

Dave offers today's take on under-appreciated mystery authors, and he picked K. C. Constantine. We credit our client J. C. for getting us enthused about the Pennsylvania author's long-running police procedural series. And by a coincidence, 2011 is the year this highly reclusive author chose to break the barriers he's kept around himself! Read on:

My vote for one of the most under appreciated authors is K.C. Constantine (a pseudonym for Carl Constantine Kozak: born in 1934 in Mckees Rocks, PA). He is the author of 16 books in the Mario Balzic mystery series and one stand-alone mystery novel.

There is little public definitive information about Constantine and for many years he proved to be a mysterious person in the mystery world. His last novel was published ten years ago, in 2002.

His best known creation, Mario Balzic, is the police chief in the fictional town of Rocksburg, Pennsylvania, and for me his books portray both the benefits of residing in a small town and at the same time the negatives of living in a small community where your life is an open book and pettiness and rivalries are an every day occurrence. The police chief is always walking a very fine line.

A list of Constantine’s books:

Mario Balzic series

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)

Brushback (novel) (1998)

Blood Mud (1999)

Grievance (novel) (2000)

Stand-Alone Novel

Saving Room for Dessert (2002)

In May 2011 Kosak appeared in public as K. C. Constantine for the first time, at the 16th annual Festival Of Mystery in Oakmont, PA, which is facilitated by the Mystery Lovers Bookshop located in the same town.

The Kingdom Books inventory has ten K.C. Constantine books for sale and we even have a couple of books that are signed.