Terre Haute author’s ‘inspirational mystery’ promotes acts of kindness

Daniel Kelly, a member of St. Patrick Parish in Terre Haute and a juvenile court judge of Vigo County, hopes his book The Beauty Beneath inspires readers to treat others with “unsolicited kindness.” (Photo by Natalie Hoefer)

By Natalie Hoefer

Daniel Welch Kelly was sitting in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in a perpetual adoration chapel about 15 years ago at his parish, St. Patrick in Terre Haute, with recent events weighing on his mind.

“I felt bad with the whole priest sex-abuse scandal over several years,” he says. “I know [the negative media attention] wasn’t undeserved, but it felt like all priests got tarred in the process.”

Kelly says he’d always had an interest in writing. There in the adoration chapel he was “wondering how I might use any gifts God had given to me to help spread his message,” when an idea came to him “in a flash.”

It was a story—a plot from beginning to end.

“It came in fairly good detail,” he recalls. “I don’t know if it was me or the Holy Spirit for that main story to come to me in a flash.”

The main plot involves a priest whose face had been scarred by an unknown incident in his past. Despite his off-putting visage, he was well‑known and loved for his tireless efforts in reaching out to others, practicing kindness, listening. It didn’t take much time for even the stodgiest of characters to see in the priest the beauty beneath his skin.

And so Kelly started his recently published book, The Beauty Beneath, which he calls an “inspirational mystery or an inspirational thriller.”

“I wrote it back then [after the idea came to him], 15-16 years ago,” he says. “But life happened, and it got put on the back burner. Then months turned to years, and years turned to over a decade.”

The “life” that happened included raising his and his wife’s six children (now ages 15-32) and his two step‑children, spending time with his seven (soon to be eight) grandchildren, and serving the local community in his work as a lawyer. In 2010 Kelly, now 56, was chosen as the juvenile court judge for Vigo County. For many years prior to serving in that role, he worked both in private practice and part time as a deputy prosecutor.

His law background came in handy in writing the book, with a few of the subplots dealing with prison and court.

But the main story and character—Father Peter Kearns—come from the inspiration Kelly received during adoration and from the many priests he has known throughout his life.

“[Father Kearns] was a compilation of the selfless, quiet quality of a lot of priests,” he says. “We’ve all known positive, quiet priests leading their lives and doing good. They don’t get any notice, but they make a difference in people’s lives.”

In The Beauty Beneath, the priest touches and even helps turn around the lives of people in the hospital and in his parish. The reader gets caught up in their lives, too, curious about their outcomes and struck by how the ripple effect of acts of kindness keep traveling outward.

But the book is not a tale that simply follows Father Kearns from one good deed to another.

“It’s sort of [John] Grisham with soul,” says Kelly with a laugh.

The story involves crime, punishment, justice, redemption—and an unsolved mystery about the priest’s past that leaves the reader guessing until the very end.

“It’s harder for stories with a spiritual message not to get relegated to the religion section,” Kelly says. “No one would have read [Victor Hugo’s] Le Miserables if he’d said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this really good religious story for you.’ ”

He notes how the generosity of the bishop in Le Miserables toward the thief Jean Valjean “blew Jean Valjean away. Even though it’s fiction, I like the way the kindness in the story turns [Valjean] from a bad circumstance to one of the most heroic figures in literature.”

Such is the goal of Kelly in writing The Beauty Beneath—not just to highlight the benevolence of the vast majority of priests, but also to help readers understand that “any of us can do whatever we’re doing in our daily lives with unsolicited kindness,” the author says.

“I want [readers] to be entertained, but also to be inspired to realize it doesn’t take any huge acts for each of us just living our daily lives to make a difference in others’ [lives].

“That’s the message I got in the perpetual adoration chapel. It came through loud and clear.”
 

(The Beauty Beneath, Westbow Press, 2017, by Daniel Kelly of St. Patrick Parish in Terre Haute, can be purchased from several online sellers, including Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble online and Books-a-Million online. The softcover price is $15, and the hardcover price is $35. Those not comfortable with online purchases can order the book directly from Kelly by calling 812-239-1088 or e-mailing him at dan674@gmail.com. Parishes wishing to have Kelly sell his books at parish events may contact him using the above information.) †