Notable author Dan Walsh

 

I was introduced to Dan Walsh's books back in 2009 when I reviewed what I think was his first book: The Unfinished Gift:

"Patrick Collins has three items on his Christmas list. He wants the army to find his father. He wants to leave his grandfather’s house. And he wants--very badly--the wooden soldier tucked away in his grandfather’s attic. Set at Christmastime in 1943, The Unfinished Gift is an engaging family story that reminds us of the surprising things that can affect powerful change in our hearts–-like a young boy’s desperate prayers, a shoebox full of love letters, even a dusty, long-forgotten wooden soldier."

It is a great story, and I immediately got hooked on his books and have been reading everything he writes ever since.

His first several books were written with Revell Publishing, who I review books for. Unfortunately, he left them and now self-publishes, so I have not reviewed any of his books for a long time.

Most of the books he wrote while with Revell were the kind comparable to Nicholas Sparks, only Christian. 

One of my favorites of his, and one that was extremely emotional, is The Discovery:
"Gerard Warner was not only a literary giant but a devoted family man. When he dies he leaves his Charleston estate to his grandson, Michael, an aspiring writer. Michael soon discovers an unpublished manuscript his grandfather had written, hidden from everyone but clearly intended for Michael to find. Michael reads an exciting tale of Nazi spies and sabotage, but this story is very different from all of Gerard Warner’s other books. It’s a love story. As Michael delves deeper in, he discovers something that has the power to change not only his future but his past as well. Laced with suspense and intrigue, The Discovery is a richly woven novel that explores the incredible sacrifices that must be made to forge the love of a lifetime."

Also of note is the Restoration Series he did with Gary Smalley. It is a four book series about the fictional Anderson family. It was an amazing series, and had a lot about relationships woven throughout the story. 

Dan did one suspense novel for Revell, What Follows After. 

When he left Revell, he started writing more suspense novels instead of the type of books he had previously written. In November of 2014, he came out with When Night Comes, the first of four books in his Jack Turner Suspense Series. 

He did a spin off series from it, The Joe Boyd Suspense Series. His most recent book was the fourth book in that series, Treacherous Waters, came out in 2022. 

And his other series he did as a self-published author is the Forever Home Series, a series about dogs that get forever homes.

I don't see anything on his Facebook page or website about upcoming books, but hopefully he has something in the works.

While on his website, I noticed if you sign up for his newsletter, you get two full length novels of his (e-book): The first Jack Turner Suspense novel, When Night Comes, and The Deepest Waters...a novel based on a true story. Click here to sign up.

Check out his website for more about Dan and his books. I highly recommend his novels.

About the author:

Dan was born in Philadelphia in 1957 to a mostly blue-collar, hard-working Irish family. His father was the first person on either side of the family to earn a college degree. Took him 9 years, working during the day, going to college at night, using the GI Bill. In the mid-60s, GE hired his dad as an engineer for the Apollo space program. Dan’s family packed up and moved to Florida, which is where Dan spent most of his childhood.

Dan’s primary interests through high school were basketball and surfing. His family attended church every Sunday, but it was’t until his senior year that Dan made a personal decision to become a Christian. In the spring of that same year, he met Cindi, the woman who would become his wife. They were married in 1976. Today, they have 2 grown children, both married, and 5 grandchildren.

During a personal retreat in 1977, Dan experienced a call to pastoral ministry. He began studying and preparing for the next several years. In 1985, he was ordained a pastor and served in the same church for the next 25 years. In August 2010, after 3 of his novels were published by a major publishing house (Revell – Baker Publishing Group), Dan retired from pastoral ministry to write fulltime.

Dan’s novels have received popular and critical acclaim, getting rave reviews from USA Today and magazines like Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal, BookList and RT Book ReviewWhen Night Comes - Cover Finals. His very first, The Unfinished Gift, won 2 ACFW Carol Awards. It’s still in print 10 years later and has sold over 85,000 copies. Several of his 25-plus other books have won numerous awards and appeared on several national bestseller lists. Over 1.3 million of them are in print or have been downloaded.

His first 13 were under contract with traditional publishers (Revell and Guideposts). At the end of 2014, seeing that the majority of his readers were buying books online, Dan began to publish his novels “as an indie.” His 14th novel (the first to be published independently), is When Night Comes. It released in 2014 as Book 1 in the Jack Turner Suspense Series. Book 2, Remembering Dresden, released the following May. Since then, he’s added 2 more books to the series (Unintended Consequences and Perilous Treasure). Combined they’ve received over 3,000 Amazon Reviews (avg 4.6 Stars). His newest suspense novel, Treacherous Waters, is Book 4 of a “Sequel Series” with Detective Joe Boyd (a popular character in the Jack Turner books) taking the lead role.

As an indie author, Dan now has the freedom to write both inspirational and suspense novels. Book 1 of his first indie inspirational series, Rescuing Finley, released in November 2015. Rescuing Finley Cover - half sizeSince then he has released 3 additional books to the series. All of them feature a shelter dog as a main character and also include a love story element. The books have been a smashing success with readers (even those who aren’t dog-lovers). Rescuing Finley has received over 2,000 Amazon reviews. Combined the 4 books have over 6,000 reviews (Avg 4.8 Stars).

In addition to his writing, Dan also enjoys public speaking and is frequently invited to speak at writer’s conferences, either as a keynote speaker or teaching workshops and seminars on a variety of writing topics. 

The rights to his novel The Reunion was optioned and adapted into a screenplay by 2-time-Oscar-winning screenwriter and producer Nick Vallelonga. The Reunion movie project is in pre-production (Nick plans to make it his next feature film). Dan has recently co-written the screenplay for his award-winning Christmas novel, The Unfinished Gift with his talented son, Isaac, who is now writing and directing movies himself. They are hoping to get this screenplay in production after The Reunion is made.