The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes

The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes is a crime novel by the American writer K. C. Constantine set in 1980s Rocksburg, a fictional, blue-collar, Rust Belt town in Western Pennsylvania, modeled on the author's hometown of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, adjacent to Pittsburgh.

The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes

First edition
Author	K. C. Constantine
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	David R. Godine
Publication date	1982
Media type	Print (hardback)
Pages	177
ISBN	0-87923-407-5
OCLC	7737675
Preceded by	A Fix Like This
Followed by	Always a Body To Trade

Mario Balzic, the protagonist, is an atypical detective for the genre: he is a Serbo-Italian American cop, middle-aged, unpretentious, a family man, and someone who asks questions and uses more sense than force.[1]

The novel opens at Muscotti's Bar, Balzic's refuge, as Jimmy Romanelli sells several baskets of tomatoes to Vinnie, the barkeep. It ends weeks later after a disappearance that sorely challenge the detective skills of Balzic.

It is the fifth book in the 17-volume Rocksburg series.