Brian McDonald

Books

My first, published in 1999 by Dutton, is a family memoir of three generations of New York City police called My Father’s Gun. The book garnered critical acclaim, and in 2003, My Father’s Gun was made into a feature-length, award-winning documentary aired on the History Channel.

Since My Father’s Gun, I’ve written a biography of the first American Indian to play major league baseball called Indian Summer (Rodale 2003) (Indian Summer was finalist in the Great Lakes Booksellers Awards), the true-crime story Safe Harbor: a Murder in Nantucket (St. Martin's True Crime 2006), Last Call at Elaine’s, a memoir of my nights behind Elaine’s bar, published by St. Martin’s Press in April '08 and In the Middle of the Night:The Shocking True Story of a Family Killed in Cold Blood, published this past September by St. Martin's Paperbacks.*

Along with writing books, I frequently freelance for magazines and newspapers including the New York Times Proof blog. I also teach journalism at the City University of New York.

*To follow the trial and get updates on the Cheshire murder case click "blog" from menu on the top right of this page

selected works

True Crime
Safe Harbor: A Murder in Nantucket
Love, deception and death—in the one place where nobody thought that it could happen…
Memoir
Last Call at Elaine’s: A Journey From One Side Of The Bar To The Other
This is a rambunctious story full of self-deprecating humor, addiction, tragedy, outbreak, lies, rowdy nights and laughter.
--Malachy McCourt, author of A Monk Swimming
My Father’s Gun: One Family, Three Badges, One Hundred Years In The NYPD
An unsparing document of the thin line in law enforcement between heroism and infamy
--Publisher’s Weekly
Biography
Indian Summer
"This story deserves a gracious welcome."
--The Boston Globe

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