Still needing to use his talents for some greater good, Daniel threw himself into investigative reporting. That was at a time when magazines still had budgets to support the kind of probing and fact substantiation that could take months for a single story. Covering politics and politicians, secretive sects, white collar criminals, the global munitions industry and such, his research was so solid that some of his stories resulted in indictments.

As magazines became less interested in supporting investigative journalism (a combination of shrinking budgets and fear of litigation), Daniel segued into producing more feature stories, which eventually led to syndicated columns as a books and classical music critic, and travel journalist. (“I was tired of being shot at, but still enjoyed travel.”)

During this period, he also worked as a book editor, as well as researched and wrote J.R.R. Tolkien, Architect of Middle Earth, which was the first biography about the creator of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.