Audiobooks by Michael Daly

New York's Finest: Stories of the NYPD and the Hero Cops Who Saved the City

The gritty, true blue story of two remarkable cops and an equally extraordinary nurse who provided the spirit and smarts that transformed Fear City into the safest big city in America. NEW YORK'S FINEST is the story of a city's transformation through the tireless efforts of Detective Steven McDonald, Nurse Justiniano, Jack Maple, and a host of hero cops-including the great niece of Jazz Age great Josephine Baker-the finest of The Finest. The son and grandson of cops, Officer McDonald was shot and paralyzed from the neck down while on patrol in 1986. The doctors said that if he did survive, he would be better off dead. It was then he came under the care of one Nurse Nina Justiniano. Where the teenage gunman was produced by the worst of Harlem's social ills, she personified its many graces, rescuing Steven from despair and urging him to transcend hate and bitterness. McDonald was then promoted to detective at the urging of NYPD Deputy Commissioner Jack Maple, a postal worker's son who sported a bow tie, Homburg hat, and two-tone shoes as he implemented transformative crime-fighting strategies to deter violent subway robberies. Coming up in the force, Maple had been routinely mocked for imagining the impossible: that Times Square would one day be a destination for families and tourists. Now, resentments and tensions are mounting in the same neighborhoods that most benefited from the careful consideration of officers like McDonald and Maple. But as NEW YORK'S FINEST illustrates, their legacies, and those of people like Nurse Justiniano, may well rescue New York City from its present state of unrest and struggle in the wake of protests and the pandemic.

Michael Daly (Author), Michael Daly, P.J. Ochlan (Narrator)

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The Havana Papers

With a 1958 portable typewriter in his suitcase, the writer wanders Havana's crumbling back alleys, bullet-sprayed museums, and grand hotels where the relics of the Revolution and the ghost of Hemingway still speak loudly. When his typewriter breaks in transit, the writer is forced to reconsider his writing holiday and put his novel on hold, until a new story emerges from the vibrance and history in the Old City Habana Vieja. Recipient of a 2016 Eric Hoffer Award for non-fiction, The Havana Papers reveals a complex, contemporary portrait of one of the world's great historic cities.

Michael Daly (Author), Michael Daly (Narrator)

Audiobook

Topsy: The Startling Story of the Crooked-Tailed Elephant, P. T. Barnum, and the American Wizard, Th

In 1903 at the soon-to-open Luna Park on Coney Island, an elephant named Topsy was electrocuted, likely with advice from Thomas Edison, whose film crew recorded the horrible event. Over the past century, this bizarre, ghoulish execution has reverberated through popular culture with the ring of an urban legend. But it really happened, and today, Edison’s footage can be found on YouTube, where it has been viewed nearly two million times. Many historical forces conspired to bring Topsy, Edison, and those 6,600 volts of alternating current together at Coney Island that day. Journalist Michael Daly’s Topsy is a fascinating popular history that traces them, from the rise of the circus in America and the lives of circus elephants, through Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and the war of the currents, to the birth of Coney Island. Throughout the book, Daly follows Topsy’s picaresque life up to the point of her death, from her capture, the roar of the crowd, life on the endless road, and the tormenting of her trainers, weaving her tale through other big stories such as P. T. Barnum and Adam Forepaugh’s circus rivalry, trainers Stewart Craven and Eph Thompson’s kindness to the animals, and Thomas Edison’s attempt to prove alternating current was far more dangerous than his direct current. It’s a touching tale, and it is impossible to read Topsy and look at the circus, elephants, or Thomas Edison the same way again. Above all, Topsy is an entertaining read that brings to life this remarkable world and its characters. “This book should be read by anyone who’s ever been to the circus…I’ve always respected Michael Daly as a great New York writer. But here, he reaches out to the world beyond New York and goes deep. The results are extraordinary.”--James McBride, author of The Color of Water

Michael Daly (Author), Mark Peckham (Narrator)

Audiobook