Michael Walsh is an accomplished American author, music critic, media critic, and screenwriter. He is well-known for his novels, particularly those in the spy fiction and thriller genres. One of his notable works is a series of spy thriller novels featuring the character Devlin. In addition, he has written a sequel to the classic film Casablanca and a fictionalized account of Owney Madden's life.
Walsh began his writing career in 1987 with the publication of his first nonfiction book, Carnegie Hall, which he co-wrote with Richard Schickel. His debut novel, Exchange Valley, was published in 1997. He has since published several critically acclaimed novels, including As Time Goes By, a prequel/sequel to Casablanca, and Hostile Intent, the first book in a series of five thrillers about the National Security Agency. Walsh has also achieved success in other areas of writing, including music and media criticism, and has written for several prominent publications, including Time Magazine and The Democrat & Chronicle.
In addition to his writing career, Walsh has also found success as a screenwriter. He co-wrote the Disney Channel's highest-rated show at the time, and his original movie, Cadet Kelly, was the highest-rated single program in Disney Channel history when it premiered in 2002. Walsh's work has been translated into more than twenty languages and has landed on best-seller lists around the world. He is a recipient of the ASCAP Deems Taylor prize for his music criticism and has been awarded for his reporting on heroin abuse in Rochester. Walsh was born on October 23, 1949, and graduated from the Eastman Music School in Rochester, New York, in 1971. He began his journalism career as a reporter for The Democrat & Chronicle and later became a critic of classical music for the paper. In 1977, he became the chief critic of a San Francisco-based paper, and in 1978, he became a music critic for Time magazine.