Son's Fatal Heroin Overdose Prompts Former CNN Editor to Pen Book, "Bullet in the Chamber"

BALTIMORE - Oct. 5, 2016 - PRLog -- In August 2011, John DeDakis was a senior copy editor for CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer."  On the morning of Sunday, August 21^st, John's 22-year-old son Stephen went missing. A week later Stephen's body was found slumped against the steering wheel of John's car in a quiet Washington, D.C. neighborhood next to a Neighborhood Watch sign. Cause of death: heroin intoxication.

According to the CDC, Stephen was one of 4,102 people who died in the U.S. of a heroin overdose that year.  Those numbers have nearly quadrupled since then. "It's a national scourge and an epidemic," DeDakis said, "so I had to write about the grief behind those numbers."  John's fourth novel, Bullet in the Chamber, was released October 1.

"In the book, I fictionalize Stephen's story and pour it into a thriller about drugs, drones, and journalism told from the point of view of my long-time protagonist Lark Chadwick," DeDakis said. Strategic Media Books will release Bullet in the Chamber in a trade paper edition (ISBN: 978-1939-5216-3-7, Trade Paper, 351 pages, $18.95) this week. Bullet in the Chamber will also be available in eBook and audio book editions.

After a 45-year career in journalism (25 years at CNN), DeDakis retired in 2013 to write full time. He also edits people's book-length manuscripts and leads writing workshops around the country and abroad.

About Bullet in the Chamber:  Gutsy White House Correspondent Lark Chadwick is front-row center when the executive mansion is suddenly attacked.  The president is missing, the first lady's life is at risk, and Lark is forced to hit the ground running in her new job as White House correspondent for the Associated Press. Her career may be in high gear, but when the man she loves disappears, Lark's personal life starts to fall apart in this deadline-a-minute thriller.

Tense, taut, timely and topical, Bullet in the Chamber gets high advance praise:

"Lark Chadwick stands out as a protagonist who is at once compelling and compulsively true to form. John DeDakis gets inside the head of a modern-day White House journalist…."  –Josh Lederman, Associated Press White House Reporter

"DeDakis effectively lures us into his professional and personal world." –Carine McCandless, Author of the New York Times Best Seller The Wild Truth

"DeDakis…will keep you turning the pages."  –Susan Page, Washington Bureau Chief, USA TODAY and Past President, White House Correspondents' Association

"Heart-stopping…heartbreaking…harrowing. And always riveting." –Henry Schuster, CBS News "60 Minutes" Producer

About the Author: Award-winning journalist John DeDakis is a former CNN Senior Copy Editor for the Emmy and Peabody-Award winning news program "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." DeDakis, whose journalism career spans nearly four and a half decades, is a former White House correspondent and interviewed such luminaries as Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. DeDakis is a writing coach and taught journalism at The University of Maryland -College Park. DeDakis lives in the Washington, D.C. area. Visit his website at: www.johndedakis.com.

Founded in 2010, Strategic Media Books, LLC (www.strategicmediabooks.com) is an independent U.S. publisher specializing in energetic, hard-hitting true crime stories and high-quality mystery fiction.