Brushback Book

The mystery itself is worth the reading time, as is the case with all the Constantine books. But the real draws are the utterly believable characters and the visceral reality of the Rust Belt town of Rocksburg. The dialogue sounds like a record of conversations the author actually heard. When the people in Brushback speak, you hear the authentic voices of a disappearing subculture. That's the same as saying you hear the voices of real people anywhere.
This review stands for what could be similar reviews of nearly the entire Constantine-Rocksburg canon, the best mystery series I know. The only two entries that fall somewhat short of the standard set by all the others are The Blank Page and The Man Who Liked to Look at Himself; both were written when Constantine (Kosak) was still finding his way. The rest are stunningly good. Yes, a secondary character like Mo Vulcanas may occasionally be overdone. Short bits of dialogue may occasionally be stretched out a bit too far, with the speakers working a little too hard to understand each other. But you could say John Ford never quite achieved perfection and that would not reduce an achievement like The Searchers. One can only hope that Constantine (Kosak) still has a manuscript or two kicking around that may eventually see the light of day.
Reread Brushback in 2014 after reading it when it first came out. It did not lose a bit of its appeal after the passage of several years, which is another measure of its quality.