Crime Author Robert Daley Dies at 96

Kirkus offers a look back at the late crime author Robert Daley

Robert Daley, the author whose novels and works of nonfiction spanned a wide field of subjects, has died at 96, the New York Times reports.

Daley, a Manhattan native, was educated at Fordham University and served one year in the U.S. Air Force before taking a job as a publicist for the New York Giants. He worked for the NFL team for six years before becoming a reporter for the Times, covering news and sports in Europe and North Africa.

In 1971, he was appointed deputy commissioner for public affairs for the New York Police Department. Daley was controversial in the role, carrying a gun and seeming to relish his spot in the limelight.

He published his first book, The World Beneath the City, about underground New York, in 1959. He would go on to write several more nonfiction titles, including Cars at Speed, Target Blue, and, most famously, Prince of the City, a book about a New York police officer who exposes corrupt colleagues. The book was adapted into a 1981 film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Treat Williams and Jerry Orbach.

Daley also wrote more than a dozen crime novels, including The Whole Truth, To Kill a Cop, Year of the Dragon, Wall of Brass, and The Innocents Within.

In a 2021 interview with New York radio station WFUV, Daley was asked if he’s ever able to be satisfied by his work.

“The drive forward was curiosity, finding out about this stuff, and then finding out ways to use it, to sell it, which I had to do anyway if I wanted to make a living and go on learning,” he said. “All of this is interwoven. It’s not as complex as it sounds. That’s the way the world works, and that’s the way I worked it.”

Michael Schaub is a contributing writer. 

I enjoyed particularly his two true crime classics, Target Blue and The Prince of the City, as well as his crime novels. I spoke to him briefly some years ago about his last book.

I also spoke to Robert Leuci, the subject of The Prince of the City.  

You can read my posts via the links below:

Paul Davis On Crime: Robert Daley's "Writing From The Edge" Now Offered As Trade Paperback 

Paul Davis On Crime: Once A Prince Of The City: A Look Back At Robert Leuci, Crime Writer & Former NYPD Detective