The Rocksburg Railroad Murders

The Rocksburg Railroad Murders is a crime novel by the American writer K.C. Constantine set in 1970s Rocksburg, a fictional, blue-collar, Rustbelt town in Western Pennsylvania (modeled on the author's hometown of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, adjacent to Pittsburgh, as well as his current place of residence, Greensburg, Pennsylvania).Mario Balzic is the protagonist, an atypical detective for the genre, a Serbo-Italian American cop, middle-aged, unpretentious, a family man who asks questions and uses more sense than force.As the novel opens, a man familiar to Mario has been found beaten to death with a Coke bottle on the platform of the Rocksburg railroad station. Mario becomes convinced that the man's stepson is the guilty party, but proving it will be a challenge.