Thrown-Away Child — Thomas Adcock

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)