The Bystander: A Thriller About Crimes Gone Viral (ft. Author, John David)

Welcome to Let's Talk Media, the podcast series with conversations from the media and entertainment industry! Today, host Vedant Akhauri interviews crisis PR veteran turned debut author, John David, about his brand-new investigative thriller, The Bystander. If you're obsessed with true crime vibes, media manipulation, and high-stakes conspiracies, this book needs to be on your reading list immediately.What is The Bystander About? Our main character is Pete Lamaster, a TV reporter who is just trying to cover a pre-game party for the Florida-Georgia football game when an active shooter situation suddenly goes down. Pete catches the whole thing on camera—including the exact moment an armed civilian takes out the shooter. The footage goes viral, but Pete quickly realizes that the narrative is totally skewed, dragging him into a dark, twisty conspiracy where nothing is what it seemsRipped from the Headlines: The inciting incident is heavily inspired by the tragic 2022 Indiana mall shooting, where a young armed bystander named Elisjsha Dicken stopped an attacker. While the opening mirrors reality, John promises the rest of the book's conspiracy is fiction.No Politics: The book touches on polarizing, heavy topics like the Second Amendment, gun rights, and veteran suicide. But don't stress. It's not an ideological tale. It’s designed to be a fast-paced, page-turning piece of entertainment that doesn't push any directional agenda.The Romance Arc: To balance the heavy suspense, there’s a romance subplot with Police Lieutenant Rebecca. She also acts as the ultimate plug for explaining police procedures so the story stays super realistic.Awards Season: This debut is already crushing it, winning the 25 Page Turner Award for mystery and landing as a finalist for the Story Trade Book Award.You can support local indie bookstores by buying The Bystander on Bookshop.org, or grab it from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.The Lemaster Files series is officially a trilogy. Book two, ⁠The Pawn⁠, is available now and takes Pete all the way to Singapore after his college buddy "Uncle Scotty" is framed and arrested for drugs.You can find John on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook @byjohndavid. Get exclusive behind-the-scenes content on IG at @letstalkmediava.