The Neil Hockaday Mysteries Series

This “irresistible” police procedural “bares the New Orleans underbelly few tourists get to see” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).   NYPD detective Neil Hockaday has traveled to the Big Easy, hometown of his wife, African-American actress Ruby Flagg. Her family was driven from their home long ago by an evangelical church and fell on hard times, but Ruby fled and found a life for herself in New York.   And this won’t be a peaceful visit for Hock. In a city famed as much for its corruption as its cuisine, he’ll become entangled in a web of not only family secrets but also politics and murder, dealing with a preacher, a scamming alderman, and even some voodoo, with only a little time left over to attend a jazz funeral or take in the other city sights . . .   “Intelligent . . . sharp-witted and perceptive.” —Susan Isaacs, author of Compromising Positions   “Compelling.” —Los Angeles Times   “Marvelous characters.” —The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)

A rabbi is killed and a Catholic procession is sprayed with gunfire in this crime thriller in the “beautifully written” Edgar-winning series (The Washington Post).   NYPD detective Neil Hockaday has acted on his conscience by reporting a fellow cop for bias and brutality—but there’s a killer on the Manhattan streets who seems to have little concern with morality. First a rabbi is murdered by a shadowy figure right in front of his shocked congregation. Then a group of Catholics is gunned down on Good Friday. Now, while coping with tensions within the force and an ugly act of retaliation, Hock’s also under pressure from a panicked mayor, searching for a suspect whose motives may be rooted in hatred, madness, or dark secrets from decades past . . .   “Adcock fills the shell of the detective story to the bursting point with Catholic guilt, self-laceration, and spiritual crisis, with a magnificent starring role for Hell’s Kitchen.” —Kirkus Reviews

An NYPD detective travels to Ireland to investigate his own family’s past in this “smart, textured, immensely readable” mystery (The Washington Post Book World).   Neil Hockaday’s father died in World War II before his son could ever know him, and now the police detective is visiting Ireland to meet his last living relative and try to fill in the blanks of his family history. But while he’s on vacation, death isn’t taking a holiday. The apparent suicides of a retired priest and two cops—and an Irish woman’s death in a bombing—combine to keep Hock busy on both sides of the Atlantic in this rich, riveting police procedural, filled with “lively and literate” dialogue, from an Edgar Award–winning author (The New York Times Book Review).   “Unusual and engrossing.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review   “Dense and vibrant . . . as charming as an Irish brogue.” —Publishers Weekly   “One of the most lively and memorable novels to come out this year.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch

The first in the “beautifully written” Edgar-winning series featuring an NYPD detective working the mean streets of Manhattan’s West Side (The Washington Post).   Detective Neil Hockaday, a son of Hell’s Kitchen who grew up to join the NYPD, had a promising meeting scheduled with a snitch—until his informant turned up dead. Meanwhile, a prominent Harlem preacher with a lot of followers, and friends in high places, has been receiving death threats—and Hock’s assigned to keep Father Love alive and find out who’s after him.   But Hock’s harrowing work life hits close to home when he discovers a dead body in his own bathtub and must untangle whether—and how—all these events are connected . . .   “A satisfying narrative . . . Adcock’s picture of the Big Apple is not pretty, but it is gripping and effective.” —Publishers Weekly

Edgar Award Winner: An NYPD detective navigates a lethal labyrinth in this entry in Adcock’s series of “gritty procedurals” (The New York Times Book Review).   The old, shabbily dressed man who walks up to Neil Hockaday in the park one morning rambles on semicoherently, though he’s sharp enough to make Hockaday as a cop. He introduces himself as Picasso, makes snide comments about the policeman to an invisible companion—and issues a vague homicidal threat just before his bus leaves.   Born and bred in Hell’s Kitchen and now an NYPD detective, Hockaday has been exposed to plenty of strange characters. But Picasso’s haunting words—and the killings that follow—soon have the officer searching the city for someone who considers murder his masterpiece . . .

A killer targets New York’s gay community in this “well-plotted” police procedural in the Edgar-winning series (Publishers Weekly).   Neil Hockaday’s on furlough from the NYPD as he attempts to cut back on the booze, but his new wife, Ruby, is going back to her advertising job after the couple’s trip to Ireland. Unfortunately, the same day she returns to the office, her much-disliked ex-boss’s body is found, killed in grisly fashion and wearing a leather mask.   Meanwhile, some of Hock’s colleagues on the force appear less than interested in solving a string of murders in which gay men are the victims. Now the detective’s working on his own time, in cooperation with a private investigator he knows, to uncover the truth in a case that will take him everywhere from the Metropolitan Opera to the nightclubs of Manhattan.   “[A] beautifully written series.” —The Washington Post