Gary Troup is a mystery writer who died in the crash of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815. On 19 November 2005, the LA Times reported that in an upcoming episode of Lost, the MSS of Troup's novel Bad Twin will be found in the wreckage—a revelation that will overlap with the novel's actual publication by Hyperion Books.

The novel is apparently unrelated to the show—that is, it is not some kind of tie-in—but is instead a real novel existing in the real world, and simply happens to have been written by a character in a television show. Hyperion's author blurb for Troup reads: "Bad Twin was delivered to Hyperion just days before Troup boarded Oceanic Flight 815, which was lost in flight from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles in September 2004. He remains missing and is presumed dead."