Police Chief Mario Balzics sixth case: theres a new mayor in Rocksburg PA one of those simplifying self-righteous amateurs bent on law and order who cant leave anything alone. His calls never stop even trapping Balzic in his refuge at Muscottis Bar.

Theres a double robbery in two identical apartments rented but hardly ever used by a Pittsburg drug dealer whos clean with the law. A young woman is found shot dead on the street. She cant be identified but her murder has all the appearances of a professional hit. The mayor is near hysteria and he smears the case all over Balzic who not only has to solve the murder but teach his nosy new boss the not-so-plain facts of police work.

Its an impossible assignment that turns raw and ugly (then uglier) because its a drug case Balzics first; because corrupt state narcs are involved; and because the Rev. Rutherford Rufee the exotic and superbly drawn boss of the local black underworld is Balzics best hope of solving the crime. And Rufee a guileful genius plays Balzic for his own vengeful purposes purposes that overlap Balzics own and climax in the never-never land of a bravura plea- bargaining deal all of which moves the mayors education well up into graduate study. Balzic and the law dont lose but the victory is hardly sweet.

There is not literary tyranny quite like a category. Constantine is a novelist who writes we say detective fiction but that misses whats most memorable about his books the superb rendition of social texture and of particular people embedded in it something only our best novelist can do. Always A Body To Trade belongs to readers who shun catagories. Its familiar small-town Rocksburg tough immigrant working class and shot through with the verbal magic Constantine weaves out of everyday speech heightened this time by miracles of Black English.