Re: RARA-AVIS: Reading suggestions

Mario Taboada (matrxtech@sprintmail.com)
Sun, 29 Mar 1998 22:21:30 +0000 Peter Walker [on the remarkable coincidence that both he and I mentioned
Constantine's "Joeys's Case" simultaneously, so to speak]:

<<..because I was also going to post a question along the lines of who
is K.C Constantine? - the name being a pseudonym.>>

Nobody knows. Some people thought that Constantine was James Crumley
(there *are* quite a few similarities, especially in dialogue), but
there is no truth to it. I have heard speculation on Constantine's
"true" identity ranging widely, to the point of considering John Updike
as a suspect. But nothing has ever been substantiated.

The David Godine reissue of K.C.'s first two novels has a postscript in
which the editor (I forget his name) mentions talking with Constantine
on the phone and corresponding with him - but Constantine never gave any
hint about who he was.

It's rather remarkable that he has been able to maintain his identity
secret for 26 years...he's never toured, signed, gone to conventions, or
appeared in any public forum. One could conjecture that this guy *wants*
to be ignored.

Incidentally, the other day I saw an annoucement of a new Constantine
novel - Mario Balzic is now retired, and Carlucci is the protagonist.
This following of the hero until retirement and then replacement by a
subaltern as protagonist may well be a first in crime fiction. But then,
nothing about Constantine's fiction is ordinary - he's a great American
original.

Regards,

Mario Taboada
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