Dan Flanigan
AUTHOR

Dan Flanigan

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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 the Polsinelli website.

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.

In recent years, 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 the Peter O’Keefe series, "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.” An updated edition and the audiobook narrated by Dan himself will be released in April 2026.

"Mink Eyes," the beginning of the Peter O’Keefe series, was selected as a finalist in the 2023 Best Book Awards Legacy Fiction 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.” 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.

The fourth book in the Peter O'Keefe series, "An American Tragedy," was published in June 2025. It won the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Literary award in 2025 and was a 2025 NIEA Finalist in Legal Thriller. The "St. Louis Literary Review" called it "a masterclass in suspense and social commentary."

"Soldiers of Babylon," book number five in the Peter O'Keefe series published in December 2025. Of the many strong reviews, P. English Literature says it best: "Soldiers of Babylon pulls together survivalism, political extremism, undercover danger, personal loyalty, and the specific texture of late-1980s America into something coherent and urgent. Flanigan has the craft to hold all of it together without letting any single element collapse under the weight of the others, and the wisdom to know that a story this dark needs the relief of sharp dialogue, genuine wit, and characters whose company you actually want to keep. The result is a thriller that does what the best thrillers do: it entertains you completely while making you think about something you would rather not." Look for the audiobook in late 2026.

Dan has also written stage plays including "Secrets" (based on the life of Eleanor Marx) and "Tomcat'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 "Dewdrops," "On the Last Frontier," "Dude" 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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