Thrown-Away Child: A Neil Hockaday Mystery

Neil Hockaday Mystery #5

by Thomas Adcock

Traveling with his new actress-wife to her family reunion, NYPD detective Neil Hockaday is called upon to investigate the disappearance of his wife's ex-con cousin, who has been accused of killing a former cellmate.

Genres: Mystery

340 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Aka Buck Sanders (house pseudonym)

Thomas Adcock is a Detroit-born journalist and mystery novelist who won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original in 1992. His novels and short stories been translated into Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Bulgarian and Czech. He began his newspaper career at the Detroit Free Press and has written for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Chicago Today, the Toronto Telegram, the New York Law Journal and The New York Times.

Adcock has also worked at a Manhattan advertising agency and taught journalism and creative writing—at Temple University (Philadelphia), New York University, and the New School for Social Research (New York). He has been active in P.E.N. International, the Mystery Writers of America, the Czech Writers Union, and was co-founder of the North American chapter of the International Association of Crime Writers.

He and his wife, actress Kim Sykes, live in New York City and upstate North Chatham, N.Y., where they are activists in progressive political organizations

Reviews

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read from Thomas Adcock

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#5 in the Neil "Hock" Hockaday series. Too introspective and somber for genre fiction, this series continues the adventures of "Hock" Hockaday. On a visit to his new in-laws in a poverty stricken New Orleans neighborhood, "Hock" encounters casual racism from two white detectives who barge into his mother-in-law's home looking for her ex-convict nephew. A meeting with his wife's long ago boyfriend, now a black New Orleans cop, gives him further insights into a disgusting situation involving the deaths of unmourned blacks. Perhaps too many threads are bound into the same skein as there are also plot lines involving a venal church lady, the money mad minister, and "Hippo", a power crazed politician. Not an easy read, but a worthwhile one.

Neil "Hock" Hockaday series - The Irish NYPD detective, Neil Hockaday, arrives in New Orleans to meet the family of Ruby, his black wife, just as Ruby's ex-con cousin is accused of murder. Hockaday's efforts to clear the cousin's name bring him face to face with the city's poverty, racism and violence.

[John Senner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Not sure I believed all his black dialogue. Too many mens and womens in there by my experience, which is 23 years living in Little Rock. But not a total waste of time.

[Rod Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great combination of murder mystery, action, and history. If you love New Orleans, this is a great adventure with an old friend.