Credit to dutchsinse

The following is merely high octane speculation.

On August 26, two people were killed during a live television interview.

Key themes: race and guns.

The father of one of the victims, Andy Parker, can be seen immediately calling for gun regulation within 24 hours.

Andy Parker is also an actor, known for his role as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables.

Three days after this event, on August 29, a young actor named Kyle Jean-Baptiste plunged to his death from "his mother's fire escape."

Jean-Baptiste was the youngest and first black actor who played the role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables.

"Jean-Baptiste" is French for John the Baptist.

John the Baptist was famously beheaded, and the date associated with his beheading is August 29.

AFAIK, no explanation has been given as to how Kyle Jean-Baptiste managed to plunge to his death from a fire escape on August 29.

As for the novel, The Merchant of Killogue was first released in 1894, and recently republished by Oxford in 2013.

Allegedly, the main character, Sylvester Flanagan, is part of a plot to kill three people to influence a vote.

Vester Flanagan, also an actor, was just the cause of the deaths of 3 people, and there seem to be further calls for certain legislation...

Are they following a script, à la The Wreck of the Titan?

Jean-Baptiste dead on the day of the beheading of John the Baptiste?

Jean Valjean?