The Man Who Liked to Look at Himself & a Fix Like This: Two Mario Balzic Mysteries

I am not sure why Godine decided to put the first and third Mario Balzic mysteries by K.C. Constantine together in one volume and then second and fourth in this one, but that is the way it is so just accept it and move on. In "The Man Who Liked to Look at Himself" it becomes clear that things were just too comfortable for Police Chief Mario Balzic in the Western Pennsylvania town of Rocksburg because Constantine jettisons Lt. Phil Moyer of the State Police in favor of Lt. Harry Minyon. Whereas Moyer was inclined to back up Balzic in his investigations, Minyon is another constant pain in the nether regions in the mode of D.A. Milt Weigh and local reporter Dick Deitz, both of whom are noticeably absent from this second volume. For that matter most of the supporting cast from "The Rocksburg Railroad Murders" are missing this time around, such as Father Mazzo, Balzic's mom, and his young girls. The most important familiar face in the novel turns out to be Mo Vulcanas, the inebriated Greek lawyer. But then "The Man Who Like to Look at Himself" is much more of a solo effort for the chief than the first novel. Balzic and Minyon are out hunting pheasant and the day goes from bad (Minyon's dog bites Balzic and the only thing he shoots is a starling with a broken wing) to worse when the dog uncovers a piece of human bone that shows clear markings of having been hacked apart. More bones pop up and the common denominator is that they are all found on farms when the Rocksburg Rod and Gun Club, although not enough to allow for an identification of the remains. And if Balzic does not have enough problems, Reverend Callum is complaining to the City Council about the racist policies of the local police. Minyon goes off on a series of wild tangents trying to break the case and see his name in the papers, while Balzic takes a more methodical (and more intelligent) approach. "The Man Who Liked to Look at Himself" is good old-fashioned detective work, when asking questions from various people eventually gets Balzic in the right place at the right time to ask the right question to the right person. Given what happened at the end of the first novel, you cannot help but approach the conclusion of this one with concern over what horrible final twist of fate might intrude upon the denouement. The mystery elements are much stronger in this second Balzic novel, but the chief attraction remains the main character, who continues to care about people as well as solving the crime. Constantine has created a character who is a good cop and a decent man. I read a description of Balzic from the "Washington Star" that described him as "unpretentious, unsentimentalized, uncaricatured," which certainly hits the nail on the head all three times. In this novel the obstacles to Balzic's investigation are mostly offstage and it is more a question of Minyon catching up to what really happened before the Lieutenant makes another stupid mistake. This is not a mystery where you have to d