Windows To The World

The Man Who Loved Slow Tomatoes 


by Michael Constantine

Mario Balzic is the police chief in one of those small coal-mining towns in Pennsylvania where the mines have all but closed and the people are leading hardscrabble lives in a changed economy. This is a tale for any time. Balzic feels he knows the people on his turf like the back of his hand. So he is a little surprised when a woman he knew as a child begins to repeatedly call the police station because her husband is missing. He recognizes that she has problems and he feels a little guilty because he has not seen her for so long.




The story begins with a gift of out of season tomatoes and progresses to a heart rending losing situation because of the hidebound attitudes that are built into a way of life.This case turns out to be a little like one of Balzic’s Pittsburgh Pirate’s baseball games, sometimes you do everything you are supposed to do and things still go against you. Baseball is the only game where the keep a record of the errors. This is a wonderful series and Balzic is a low-key but very astute sleuth who loves his family, his wine and his town. 




The first in the series, written in 1972 is the The Rocksburg Railroad Murders named after the town in which Balzic lives. In this debut Mario who is half Czech and half Italian and understands subtlety suspects immediately who the killer is, but knows that unless this case is handled with delicacy it will blow up in his face like TNT.

In these books there is a psychological aspect that is very basic. Mario Balzic uses psychology in one way or another all day long.  He counsels a young policeman on the way to go into a stranger's home who is afraid and also resistant to the police presence. Make yourself handicapped is how he puts it. If you show a person that you have human weaknesses and frailties like any other person, rather than barging in like powerful tank, they will open up to you. In one interview he asks for an aspirin for an imaginary ache and this eases the interviewee's concerns.


This book may be one of Constantine's best, but the series is well worth reading.