 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2019) |
 First edition | |
| Author | K. C. Constantine |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | David R. Godine |
Publication date | 1982 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 177 |
| ISBN | 0-87923-407-5 |
| OCLC | 7737675 |
| Preceded by | A Fix Like This |
| Followed by | Always a Body To Trade |
The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes is a crime novel by the American writer K. C. Constantine set in 1980s 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, the protagonist, is an atypical detective for the genre: he is a Serbo-Italian American cop, middle-aged, unpretentious, a family man, and someone who asks questions and uses more sense than force. [1]
The novel opens at Muscotti's Bar, Balzic's refuge, as Jimmy Romanelli sells several baskets of tomatoes to Vinnie, the barkeep. [2] It ends weeks later after a disappearance that sorely challenge the detective skills of Balzic. [3]
It is the fifth book in the 17-volume Rocksburg series.
