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| Author | K. C. Constantine |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | The Mysterious Press of Warner Books |
Publication date | 1997 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 216 |
| ISBN | 0-89296-545-2 |
| OCLC | 34772318 |
| Preceded by | Good Sons |
| Followed by | Brushback |
Family Values [1] is a crime novel by the American writer K. C. Constantine set in 1990s Rocksburg, a fictional, blue-collar, Rust Belt town in Western Pennsylvania, modeled on the author's hometown of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, adjacent to Pittsburgh.
Mario Balzic is the protagonist, an atypical detective for the genre, a Serbo-Italian American cop, unpretentious, a family man who asks questions and uses more sense than force.
The novel opens with Balzic being lured out of his retirement with an offer: investigate a 17-year-old murder that just gets stranger as time passes in exchange for the title of Special Investigator, state credentials, and thirty-five dollars an hour.
It is the thirteenth book in the 17-volume Rocksburg series. [2]