Old-School Reporter Gets Revenge in the #MeToo Era in Eric Dezenhall’s “False Light”

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In this episode 226, we visit with Eric Dezenhall, author of “False Light,” in which old-school reporting meets the #MeToo movement against the backdrop of sensationalist modern media.

When Sanford “Fuse” Petty learns that his goddaughter was sexually assaulted by a millennial media mogul on a top social media site, he jumps in to help. Instead of going to the police, he hatches a shady, entertaining, and ultimately satisfying plan for revenge.

Martin Clark, author of “The Substitution Order,” had this to say about the book, “…False Light is a masterwork—smart, funny, unpredictable, freewheeling, and start-to-finish entertaining. The plotting is brilliant, the dialogue always sharp. Better yet, perhaps, this novel is a good-news reminder that we can always find measures of virtue and fairness and hard truth in justice’s difficult alchemy.”

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About the Author:

Eric Dezehall is the author of eleven books, including three non-fiction texts on crisis communications and corporate witch hunts, entitled Damage Control: How to Get the Upper Hand When Your Business is Under Attack (Portfolio, 2007), Nail ‘Em! Confronting High Profile Attacks on Celebrities and Businesses (Prometheus Books, 1999), and Glass Jaw: A Manifesto for Defending Fragile Reputations in an Age of Instant Scandal (Hachette, 2014), which explores how once-powerful people, organizations and brands are easily brought down by the seemingly powerless through the media and internet that feed almost exclusively on destructive information. These books have been widely cited in business, media and academic circles. His most recent fiction work, False Light (Greenleaf, 2021), is a thrilling tale of retribution set against the vibrant backdrop of sensationalist modern media and cancel culture. A  “downsized” investigative reporter embarks on an entertaining and complex plan to exact revenge on a predatory media star in the court of public opinion.

He lives near Washington, D.C., with his family, some being alpacas. Eric has written for publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

Additional Endorsements

“False Light is The Big Chill of the #metoo era—I want the soundtrack of this terrific, timely book! I also want a buddy like the hilarious, loyal Sandy ‘Fuse’ Petty. On probation either because he’s too old or too good, Fuse has the press chops to help his friend’s daughter when her internship with a celebrity goes south. All he wants is justice, and for his teenage daughter to laugh at his jokes.”
—Mary Kay Zuravleff, author of Man Alive!

“Eric Dezenhall combines a wickedly funny take on the demise of journalism and the
fragility of reputation in the Internet era.  A grown-up fantasy for our troubled times.”
—David O. Stewart, author of The Lincoln Deception

“For any parent who spends sleepless nights worrying about what could happen when the universe gets ahold of their child, False Light is an acerbic tale of revenge in the form of reputation obliteration, the only currency a certain type of climber understands. Eric Dezenhall mixes the serious topics of our times with a riotous look at middle-aged crushes, long marriages, insane relatives, and fears of professional obsolescence.”
—Lee Woodruff, author of Those We Love Most

“No one knows the world of damage control better than Eric Dezenhall. His portrait of what a savvy operator can do in a crisis is as real as this vehicle for talking about the battles between good and evil. You’ll feel like you’re reading or watching an exposé on national television—or getting to see the whole truth of what our real world doesn’t tell you. Highly entertaining and informative.”
—James Grady, author of Six Days of the Condor

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