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April 28th, 2026

From NYPD to War-Torn Streets: A Cop’s Journey with Author Michael Kell Mahoney

  1. From NYPD to War-Torn Streets: A Cop’s Journey with Author Michael Kell Mahoney Teri M Brown 23:58

My guest today on the Online for Authors podcast is Michael Kell Mahoney, author of the book The Land of Broken Toys. Michael Kell Mahoney is a retired New York City detective who somehow found his way from Manhattan to the Balkans. After his time with the NYPD, Michael spent two decades working internationally for the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, and the U.S. Department of Justice as a police and Security consultant.

 

Land of Broken Toys: Kosovo is a fictional account, based on real events, from Mr. Mahoney’s one year police mission in Kosovo. Michael’s writing blends reportage, reflection, and storytelling, inviting readers—and now listeners—into a landscape where the past is never far away and every story carries weight.

 

The Land of Broken Toys: Kosovo is a crime thriller by Michael Kell Mahoney. But it is so much more than that. Readers will get a history lesson to help explain the issues in Kosovo, as well as a young cop’s journey figuring out what he really wants out of life.

 

We meet an NYPD cop named JB who wants to be a detective. However, a series of mishaps leaves him shaken and certain that he will never make detective. With that knowledge, he decides to open a chocolate store. But he’ll need Money, so he signs on for a year-long UN policing mission in Kosovo. What he believes will be a simple 12-months training local police recruits turns into so much more than he bargains for.

 

We meet a host of characters who have chosen to go on the same mission for a variety of reasons – and with a variety of belief systems in place. We also meet the antagonist, Gashi, an Albanian who hates the Serbs – and anyone who disagrees with him, even Albanians. Gashi’s men wreak havoc across the area, and JB is right in the middle of the action.

 

This story moves quickly, has fun, quirky characters, and keeps you guessing. This is a fun read.

Subscribe to Online for Authors to learn about more great books! https://www.youtube.com/@onlineforauthors?sub_confirmation=1

 

You can follow Author Michael Kell Mahoney

Website: https://jbbyrnenypd.com/

 

Purchase a copy of The Land of Broken Toys:

Paperback: https://amzn.to/4v2vWq9​

Kindle: https://amzn.to/4s54zJj

 

Teri M Brown, Author and Podcast Host: https://www.terimbrown.com

FB: @TeriMBrownAuthor

IG: @terimbrown_author

X: @terimbrown1

 

Want to be a guest on Online for Authors? Send Teri M Brown a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/member/onlineforauthors

 

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*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Teri M Brown Award-winning Author and Podcast Host

Born in Athens, Greece as an Air Force brat, Teri M Brown graduated from UNC Greensboro. She began her writing career helping small businesses with content creation and published five nonfiction self-help books dealing with real estate and finance, receiving multiple awards. In 2017, after winning the First Annual Anita Bloom Ornoff Award for Inspirational Short Story, she began writing fiction in earnest, and published her debut novel in 2022, Sunflowers Beneath the Snow, a historical fiction set in Ukraine, which has won twelve awards. Her second novel published in 2023, An Enemy Like Me, takes place during WWII, winning 27 awards. Her latest novel, Daughters of Green Mountain Gap, a generational story about Appalachian healers came out in January 2024 and has already won three awards. Teri is a wife, mother, grandmother,podcaster, and author who loves word games, reading, bumming on the beach, taking photos, singing in the shower, hunting for bargains, ballroom dancing, playing bridge, and mentoring others. Learn more at www.terimbrown.com.