Dan's Latest Books

An American Tragedy

An American Tragedy

“Dan Flanigan’s novel is a masterclass in suspense and social commentary.” St. Louis Literary Review

“An American Tragedy is a smart, gripping, novel, but it is much more than that. It is a powerful monument to a deeply frightening time in the nation’s history, when sinister illusions ruled. All credit to Dan Flanigan for his fine work.” Philip Jenkins, Author Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED

In the scorching summer of 1988, amidst the frenzy of the Satanic Panic gripping the nation, private detective O’Keefe finds himself thrust into a trial like no other. As he strives to establish his fledgling agency, the last thing he anticipates is being drawn into a harrowing legal battle. But when Virginia Montrose, “Miss Ginny” to her students and his daughter Kelly’s most beloved teacher, is accused of heinous crimes against her current and former students, O’Keefe faces a moral quandary unlike any before.

Despite the risks and the overwhelming stigma, O’Keefe’s encounter with the shadowy child protection figures driving the prosecution sparks a fierce determination to seek truth and justice.

In this gripping tale of courage and conviction, O’Keefe’s resolve is put to the ultimate test as he confronts the darkest facets of human nature and dares to challenge the prevailing hysteria. O’Keefe must summon every ounce of his strength to uncover the shocking truth while struggling to reverse the relentless tide of injustice.

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On Lonesome Roads
2023 American Fiction Awards Winner
2023 NIEA Finalist, Crime Fiction
2023 IPPY Best Mystery/Thriller Ebook

On Lonesome Roads

“Rich characterization and jolting surprises set this polished crime novel apart.”
Publishers Weekly Book Life

SOME ROADS MUST BE WALKED ALONE

As private detective Peter O’Keefe’s continues to heal from the burns he suffered from the blast of a car bomb, neither he nor the police can prove who his assailants were. The media speculates that “The Outfit,” a mafia group in the city, is to blame. O’Keefe isn’t so sure, but he means to find out – and fast.

Terrified of another attack, O’Keefe’s ex-wife, Annie, won’t let allow his eleven-year-old daughter near him except under the tightest security, including an armed guard. He can’t blame her. It isn’t safe for Kelly, or anyone else he cares about, to be near him while his attacker is on the loose.

In a desperate effort to keep his family safe and restore his life to some measure of normality, O’Keefe becomes consumed with solving the mystery of who is hunting him. Along the way, he’ll be forced to negotiate with The Outfit – a “devil’s bargain” that just might cost him everything.

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The Big Tilt
Winner of 2022 National Indie Excellence Award for Crime Fiction
2022 IAN Book of the Year Finalist, Thriller
2023 Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize Short List

The Big Tilt

“Flanigan manages to conjure deft, hard-boiled, but literary prose that’s reminiscent of Raymond Chandler’s best work…A gritty and eloquent crime novel.”
Kirkus Reviews

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

The war in Vietnam didn’t kill Peter O’Keefe. Neither did his run-in with ruthless crime boss Mr. Canada. But chasing after justice in his own hometown just might.

A year after the private detective uncovered a criminal ring disguised as a mink farm in the Ozarks, O’Keefe is back home and back in trouble. A high school crush of O’Keefe’s turns up dead, but the details don’t add up. His pal, Mike Harrigan, has put his trust in the wrong people and now stands accused of crimes that could put him in the slammer. And O’Keefe? The mafia has put a price on his head.

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Mink Eyes
2023 Best Book Awards Finalist: Legacy Fiction

Mink Eyes

October 1986–the tarnished heart of the “Greed Is Good” Decade. Private detective Peter O’Keefe, physically scarred and emotionally battered Viet Nam vet, is hired by his childhood best friend, ace attorney Mike Harrigan, to investigate what appears on the surface to be merely a rinky-dink mink farm Ponzi scam. But, instead, O’Keefe finds himself snared in a vicious web—of money laundering, cocaine smuggling, and murder—woven by the mysterious mobster known as “Mr. Canada”. Also caught in Mr. Canada’s web is the exquisite Tag Parker, who might be the girl of O’Keefe’s dreams—or his nightmares. This is serious fiction wrapped in the cloak of a hard hitting, exciting detective novel—a story that has it all—terror, murder, addiction, sex, obsession, crime, and doom, yes—but also friendship, fatherhood, integrity, duty, self-sacrifice, and love. Dan Flanigan is a veteran practicing lawyer who gives us an insider’s real-world view of the formal and informal workings of our legal system and the schemes and scams germinating in the seamy underbelly of our business world.

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Dewdrops
2022 American Book Fest “Best Book” Finalist, Anthology
2022 Honorable Mention, Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards
2022 IAN Book of the Year Finalist, Short Story Collection

Dewdrops

“Flanigan is an entertaining, skillful storyteller…Three compelling, impressively crafted tales united by authenticity and grace.”
Kirkus Reviews

People on the Verge

Dewdrops--The life and death struggles of a charismatic but tormented drug rehab counselor and his patients.

Some Cold War Blues—A neighborhood snowball fight erupts into a thing as close to war as an 11-year-old American boy is likely to face.

 On The Last Frontier—Old and broke in Juneau with winter coming on . . .

“The diverse array of stories in…DEWDROPS, are compelling and realistic. Flanigan’s characters are vulnerable, and their struggles with addiction and loss are recognizable.”- Thaïs Miller, Author of The Subconscious Mutiny and Other Stories (2009)

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Tenebrae
2022 IAN Book of the Year Finalist, Poetry
2022 American Book Fest “Best Book” Finalist, Autobiography/Memoirs

Tenebrae

Sharp writing and keen imagery underscore poetic themes of love and loss, memory and regret.
Kirkus Reviews

“Mink Eyes” introduces us to Dan Flanigan the novelist.  “Tenebrae” shows us another side of Dan – the poet. The lead poem in this collection, “Tenebrae: A Memoir of Love and Death,” is a lovely bracelet of verse and prose poems that link brilliantly together in a gripping narrative and wrenching emotional journey through the illness and death of his wife. Other poems in the book – including several snapshot portraits of Dan’s extended family under the title “The Irish in America” – reflect this same grappling with the fundamental issues of our lives – loss, change, growth, hope, despair and acceptance, reflecting throughout a compassionate embrace of the human condition. These are truly poems for the people – plain but exquisitely crafted, direct as a dagger, and expressed in a language that is both elegant and easy to understand at the same time. They reach from the heart to the heart.

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Who Is Dan?

Dan Flanigan is a novelist, playwright, poet, and practicing lawyer. He holds a Ph.D. in History from Rice University and J.D. from the University of Houston. He taught Jurisprudence at the University of Houston and American Legal History at the University of Virginia. His first published book was his Ph.D. dissertation, The Criminal Law of Slavery and Freedom, 1800-1868.

He moved on from academia to serve the civil rights cause as a school desegregation lawyer, followed by a long career as a finance attorney in private law practice. He became a name partner in the Polsinelli law firm in Kansas City, created its Financial Services practice, chaired its Real Estate & Financial Services Department for two decades, and established the firm’s New York City office and served as its managing partner until October 2022.  His legal bio may be viewed at https://www.polsinelli.com/professionals/dflanigan.

Taking a break from the law practice for two years, he and his wife, Candy, founded Sierra Tucson, a prominent alcohol and drug treatment center located in Tucson, Arizona. 

Recently, he has been able to turn his attention to his lifelong ambition—creative writing. In 2019 he released a literary trifecta including Mink Eyes, the first in what would become the Peter O’Keefe series, and 2023 Best Book Award Legacy Fiction Finalist, Dewdrops, a collection of shorter fiction, and Tenebrae: A Memoir of Love and Death.

Tenebrae is a bracelet of verse and prose poems dedicated to his wife, Candy, to honor her last illness and death and their 40-plus years together, a work that has been described as “celebratory” and “heartbreaking and exquisite.” It was a Finalist for both the 2022 IAN Book of the Year in Poetry and in the 2022 American Book Fest “Best Book” Award in the Legacy: Autobiography/Memoir category.

The Big Tilt, the award-winning second book in the Peter O’Keefe series, was published in 2020 and has been described as “deft, hard-boiled, but literary prose that’s reminiscent of Raymond Chandler’s best work.” The Big Tilt won the 2022 National Indie Excellence Award for Crime Fiction and was a Finalist for the 2022 Independent Author Network’s Book of the Year in Thriller/Suspense. Most recently, The Big Tilt was a Legacy Fiction finalist for the prestigious Eric Hoffer Award as well as making the 2023 Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize Short List.

On Lonesome Roads, published April 26, 2022, is the third book in the series and continues in the award-winning tradition of its predecessor. Honored as a Notable 100 Book in the 2022 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition, On Lonesome Roads has more recently been a finalist for Crime Fiction in the 2023 National Indie Excellence Awards (after The Big Tilt won the award in 2022), a silver medalist for the 2023 IPPY Ebook awards, and winner of the 2023 American Fiction Awards in the Mystery/Suspense category.

Dan has also written stage plays including Secrets (based on the life of Eleanor Marx) and Moondog’s Progress (inspired by the life of Alan Freed), which was awarded the 2022 Honorable Mention in the 91st Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition for “Script.”

His novella, Dewdrops, was originally written for the stage and enjoyed a full-cast staged reading at the Theatre of the Open Eye in New York. The short story collection comprised of DewdropsOn the Last Frontier and Some Cold War Blues was a Finalist in the 2022 Independent Author Network Book of the Year for Short Story Collection and a 2022 American Book Fest “Best Book” Award Finalist in Fiction-Short Story.

He serves on the Board of Directors of Childhood USA, the U.S. arm of the World Childhood Foundation, established by Queen Silvia of Sweden, working to end child sexual abuse and exploitation everywhere.  He divides his time among Kansas City, New York City, and Los Angeles.

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