THROWN AWAY CHILD - Softcover

Adcock, Thomas

3.24

25 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671519840 ISBN 13: 9780671519841

Publisher: Pocket, 1997

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In New Orleans, NYPD detective Neil Hockaday and his African-American wife, Ruby Flagg, are swept up in a web of family secrets, politics, murder, and revenge involving a scamming alderman, a preacher, and a jazz funeral man. Reprint.

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From the Back Cover:

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.

From Booklist:

NYPD detective Neil Hockaday is a recovering alcoholic fresh from a stay at the Straight and Narrow Rehab Clinic. His marriage to black actress Ruby Flagg isn't really in trouble, but it's been better. When Ruby suggests making a trip to New Orleans to meet her family, it's the right idea at the right time. But when they arrive, cousin and ex-con Perry DuClat is wanted for the murder of his best friend. After hearing two rabid New Orleans cops question Perry's mother-in-law, Hockaday is convinced that Perry won't survive an encounter with his pursuers; he also senses his mother-in-law's unshakable belief in her nephew's innocence. He does what he can to help, which requires crossing paths with the Reverend Zebediah Tilton, a voodoo priest who only saves those in the flock worth fleecing. The fifth Hockaday entry is the best. It's a compelling mystery set in what may be the best mystery city, New Orleans. It's also about growing up black and poor, and white and poor, and never quite being able to shake the stigma. It's also about families and shared memories and honoring the dead without sacrificing the future and learning to live without fear or shame. It's a compellingly human novel that just happens to be structured as a mystery. Wes Lukowsky

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