Thrown-Away Child

Neil Hockaday Mystery #5

by Thomas Adcock

Set in New Orleans, the hometown of Hock's new wife, black actress Ruby Flagg, Thrown-Away Child is a pungent Creole stew of family secrets, sour politics, ritual murder, and bittersweet revenge. Hoping for respite from his hard-drinking past in Manhattan, Hock travels to the fabled Land of Dreams with Ruby to meet her close-knit family. Hardly have the newlyweds arrived when the peaceful home of Hock's mother-in-law, Violet, is disrupted by two racist cops hunting for Ruby's cousin Perry Duclat, who has been living with Violet since his mother abandoned him. Now this thrown-away child is a grown and troubled man, wanted for murder. The victim is Perry's former cellmate at Angola penitentiary, whose mutilated body has been branded with a bizarre acronym - MOMS. When Perry disappears, Hock teams up with a disenchanted New Orleans cop to conduct a highly unofficial Investigation. Before justice is finally done, there are more brutal murders - and more brandings. Among the slain: a little boy so alone in the world he can only guess at his name. Besides the terrible murders, Hock must resolve personal quandaries: the meaning of Ruby's unsettling emotions about returning to her southern roots, and his own future - if any - with the New York Police Department.

Genres: Mystery

400 pages, Paperback

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.