| Blood Mud | |
| Author: | K. C. Constantine |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Publisher: | The Mysterious Press of Warner Books |
| Release Date: | 1999 |
| Media Type: | Print (hardback) |
| Pages: | 375 |
| Isbn: | 0-89296-647-5 |
| Oclc: | 39458968 |
| Preceded By: | Brushback |
| Followed By: | Grievance |
Blood Mud[1] is a crime novel by the American writer K. C. Constantine set in 1990s[2] Rocksburg, a fictional, blue-collar, Rust Belt town in Western Pennsylvania, modeled on the author's hometown of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, adjacent to Pittsburgh.[3]
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.[4]
The novel opens with Balzic again being lured out of his retirement with an offer: track down the missing guns from a local gun shop for an insurance company.[5]
It is the fifteenth book in the 17-volume Rocksburg series.[6]
A review by January Magazine calls the Blood Mud "Constantine's best yet," praising the complex story and rich dialogue.[7] Publishers Weekly comments on the "pitch-perfect dialogue", describing it as "beautifully developed and enigmatically resolved."[8]