Alan Hlad Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Alan Hlad is an American author who is best known for his debut novel “The Long Way Home,” which he published in 2019. Before he became an author, he used to work as a corporate executive but decided to leave to become a professional author.

Over the years, Hlad has made a name for himself by penning some very popular historical fiction novels. Most of his novels are set during the first and second world wars and are based on love stories and facts that have a touch of the dramatic as well as the emotional.

The author currently has at least four titles to his name and has shown no signs of slowing down any time soon.

He credits the Akron Writers Association and the Cleveland Historical Novel Society for making him into the writer that he is.

It was from his membership in the two organizations that he got to meet many aspiring and published authors who inspired and motivated him to become a successful published author.

Hlad currently makes his home in Ohio where he lives with his wife and children.

Growing up, Alan Hlad was always a reader. His first ever book was Mildred Myrick’s “The Secret Three.” He still has fond memories of reading the children’s book aloud to his mother, a voracious reader and artistic woman that filled his life with books.

The first story Hlad wrote was “Indigo House” a short manuscript that helped hone his writing skills but will probably never get published.

Since his mother was a very artistic woman, she instilled in him a passion for writing, reading, and music. She would often sit patiently as he read all manner of books and fumbled many of the sentences.

As an eight-year-old, he had one of the most enduring experiences during Thanksgiving. His mother and father were preparing dinner while listening to a medley of Engelbert Humperdinck, Neil Diamond, and Tom Jones on their stereo while he played in the kitchen and got in the way.

To keep him occupied, his mother got paper, an old typewriter, and a whiteout bottle and asked him to pen a story. Over about two hours, he came up with a poorly constructed story.

He would ultimately sell the story to his relatives who came for Thanksgiving dinner.

Alan Hlad was also influenced by his father’s entrepreneurial pursuit. His father was the owner of two small grocery stories and motivated Hlad to pursue business studies when he ultimately attended Bowling Green State University.

However, Alan never left behind his love for writing and enrolled in creative writing and literature classes for his electives. Upon graduation, he made a list of two of his dream professions. He wanted to become an author or failing that start his own business.

But when he realized he had to pay his own bills, he got employment with a large casualty and property insurance company. He believed this was just a transitory career phase, only to find himself promoted through the ranks to senior vice president.

During this time, he continued writing whenever he had any free time, even as he also penned professional business articles and spoke at corporate events.

He would finally establish an executive search firm and with the rapid growth of the business and now in charge of his schedule, he had more flexibility. Writing every day he finally published “The Long Flight Home” in 2019.

“The Long Flight Home” by Alan Hlad is set in 1940 September just a year following the start of the Second World War. Britain is being pounded by German bombs and there are fears of an amphibious invasion by the Nazis.

Enemy planes have been spotted blackening the sky near the home of an old man named Bertie and his grandchild Susan Shepherd.

Susan had lost her parents to the flu when she was still a child and now finds comfort living with Bertie and raising homing pigeons. One of the birds is particularly close to her as they have formed an incredible bond.

Meanwhile, Ollie Evans is a young crop duster pilot in Buxton Maine thousands of miles away. He intends to join the Royal Air Force and moved to Epping and was posted to the National Pigeon Service.

It was here that he meets Susan who is working on a covert new assignment. The assignment has been codenamed Source Columba and is designed to airdrop thousands of homing pigeons in France which has been occupied by the Nazis.

As the mission draws near, Susan and Ollie’s friendship deepens which only makes their separation and the downing of Ollie’s plane even more devastating for Susan.

Alan Hlad’s novel “Churchhill’s Secret Messenger” is set in 1941 in London, in a cramped bunker in the Cabinet War Rooms of Winston Churchill. It is right beneath the Treasury Building at Westminster where dozens of civilians work on typing up confidential reports and documents.

Ever since Rose Teasdale lost her parents in a bombing raid, she had decided to help in the war effort. She now works double shifts at the Prime minister’s bunker only concerned with winning the war.

When she comes to the attention of Churchill, it represents a dangerous even if rate opportunity. She has ultimately recruited into a secret espionage organization to infiltrate France under the codename Dragonfly.

She is to work with French Resistance Fighter Lazare Aron who had looked on in horror as the capital city of his country was hollowed out with the buildings draped in Swastikas and the streets left desolate.

Since losing his parents who had been banished to a work camp in Germany, Lazare had dug into his work with renewed fervor. But this is a dangerous and very high-stakes mission and they just might not survive it.

“A Light Beyond the Trenches” is set during the World War in 1916 with the fervor that had first been highly evident now fading away. Throughout Germany people have to deal with the rationing of essentials and hope too has been diminishing.

Ana Zeller has been giving her best to the war effort as she works in an overflowing hospital in Oldenburg as a nurse. While doing her job of comforting the soldiers that are broken in spirit and mind, the hospital receives the director of the Red Cross Ambulance Dogs Association.

She manages to convince Dr. Stalling to employ her in his new dog training school. She also works with war veterans to become the perfect soldier. She ultimately finds her person in Jewish soldier Max Benech who had been blinded by chlorine gas.

He had lost his fiance, his eyesight, and his hopes of one day becoming a professional composer. But despite sacrificing so much, the tide of anti-semitism has been rising.