Drown All the Dogs

by Thomas Adcock

Overview

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504059985
Publisher:	MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Publication date:	01/28/2020
Series:	The Neil Hockaday Mysteries , #3
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	341
Sales rank:	570,305
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Thomas Adcock (b. 1947) is an Edgar Award–winning novelist and journalist from Detroit. Since 1985, Adcock has written over a dozen short stories and anthologies, in addition to his popular crime thrillers starring New York–based detective Neil Hockaday.  Adcock was involved in PEN International, The Mystery Writers of America, and cofounded the North American chapter of the International Association of Crime Writers. He currently resides in New York.

Editorial Reviews

Drifting like a fine mist between legend and legacy, between dreams and waking, this dense and vibrant third work in a series is as charming as an Irish brogue and initially as difficult to penetrate. New York City cop Neil Hockaday, seen before in Sea of Green , journeys to Ireland with his love Ruby to visit his last remaining relative, terminally ill Uncle Liam. But as Neil and Ruby fly into Dublin airport, back home in Hell's Kitchen, explosive events occur. A retired priest, a family friend from Neil's youth, shoots himself; a young Irish copper plunges naked to his death from an apartment; and Neil's cop pal Davy Mogaill, being interrogated about the bombing death of his Irish wife, answers by placing his own handgun to his ear. While Hockaday dreams about a heroic father he never met (he died in WW II), his flesh-and-blood da's past is gradually revealed, disclosing how the Irish hatred for England allowed a group of wartime academics to embrace fascist principles. Antique pistols figure in several deaths on both sides of the pond; sometimes an ancient emblem adorned with poetry is found near the body. Adcock, who here seems as offbeat a stylist as Jerome Charyn, renders most conversations in broad accents and over glasses of stout ale. While the cautious reader may often wonder whether Hockaday is in fact asleep or awake during his investigations, the narrative remains convincing. This latest in the Hockaday series represents a major step forward for novelist Adcock. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Adcock's third book about Detective Neil Hockaday, NYPD, assigned to the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan, takes ``Hock'' to Ireland in search of his family at the request of his uncle. His father disappeared during World War II; Hock never knew him. Suddenly, a series of murders and suicides on both sides of the Atlantic lead Hock and his girlfriend, actress Ruby Flagg, on a near-deadly mission to discover long-hidden secrets of Ireland's past political history. The many Irish terms and slang, plus dream sequences and flashbacks, can make the story confusing at times; and though the plot is exciting, it is sometimes unbelievable in its intricate twists and turns. Recommended as an additional purchase.-- Marion F. Gallivan, Villa Maria Campus, Gannon Univ., Erie, Pa.

Library Journal

Neil Hockaday, member of the NYPD, has always been a bit of a renegade. Now his only living relative, a distant uncle in Ireland, is dying, and Hockaday believes that the best way to satisfy his curiosity about his past, his parentage, his homeland, and the mysterious father he never knew is to visit his dying uncle and discover the truth before it's taken to the grave. But Hockaday has no idea how dangerous and far-reaching the implications of the past can be, nor does he understand that the truth may be more disturbing and painful than satisfying. Adcock is an unusual writer who takes a bit of getting used to. He has a strange and disconcerting way of interspersing scenes of gripping violence with odd patches of dialogue that sound as if they're straight out of the 1930s, of dropping near-schizophrenic shots of comedy into the middle of darkly enigmatic, vaguely threatening passages. Still, if the melding of light and dark never quite works, this story does have an offbeat, oddball appeal for readers who like the unusual.

Emily Melton