Sea of Green

NYPD Detective Neil Hockaday--``Hock''--is a good, dedicated cop, despite daily confrontations with the seamier aspects of life in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen and Times Square. The complex plot of Adcock's suspense thriller comes into motion when a snitch with information to sell is murdered before he can keep his appointment with Hock. Then Hock is handed a tricky assignment involving death threats to Father Love, a powerfully connected and flashy Harlem radio preacher. After saving Father Love's life when an assassin attempts to gun him down outside his church, Hock discovers--in his own bathtub--the icepicked body of a sleazy rent-collector and then realizes he is being followed. These events connect smoothly in a satisfying narrative that indicts some New York real estate developers for their unconscionable greed. Adcock's ( Precinct 19 ) picture of the Big Apple is not pretty, but it is gripping and effective. (Oct.)