''Family Values'' is a
crime novel
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
by the American writer
K. C. Constantine set in 1990s Rocksburg, a fictional, blue-collar,
Rust Belt
The Rust Belt is a region of the United States that experienced industrial decline starting in the 1950s. The U.S. manufacturing sector as a percentage of the U.S. GDP peaked in 1953 and has been in decline since, impacting certain regions and ...
town in
Western Pennsylvania
Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...
, modeled on the author's hometown of
McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania
McKees Rocks, also known as "The Rocks", is a borough in Allegheny County in western Pennsylvania, along the south bank of the Ohio River. The population was 5,920 at the time of the 2020 census. It is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. In ...
, adjacent to
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
.
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.
References
https://www.fantasticfiction.com, w. (2019). ''K C Constantine''.
nlineFantasticfiction.com. Available at:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/k-c-constantine/ ccessed 14 Apr. 2019
Good Sons by K.C. Constantine. (1996, February 1). Retrieved from
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2176688.Good_Sons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Family Values
1997 American novels
Novels by K. C. Constantine
American crime novels
Novels set in Pennsylvania
Mysterious Press books