In Joey's Case Constantine sticks to the aspects of craft he has well mastered: effective description of setting, skillfully written dialogue, and successful integration of disparate materials. The novel has increased use of dialogue and the presentation of Balzic's thoughts (techniques which are in turn related to a shift in emphasis from sociology to psychology), but uses relatively little physical description of setting. When it does appear the description again demonstrates the author's ability to present, through selective details of neighborhood and house furnishings, the essence of characters whose surroundings both express and condition their lives. The most notable example in Joey's Case occurs when Balzic visits Joey's parents, the Casteluccis.

In Joey's Case, however, unlike some of the earlier novels, characters are understood less through presentation of their conditioning milieux than by the way they talk. Constantine has been justifiably praised for his...