Les Carroll sets third novel on Gloucester's fishing coast

Award-winning journalist and Air Force veteran Les Carroll has released his third novel with Koehler Books, setting the story in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Last Day on the Blue Wonder blends military fiction and maritime drama around a returning Afghanistan veteran, a hometown fishing boat and the long shadow of war.

Why it matters: - Last Day on the Blue Wonder connects military service, trauma and coastal working-class life in a single story. - The novel uses Gloucester’s commercial fishing culture as the setting for a postwar reckoning about survival, romance and rebuilding. - Carroll’s latest book extends the themes of service and loss that shaped his earlier work.

What happened: - Award-winning journalist, documentary filmmaker and Air Force veteran Les Carroll released his third novel with Koehler Books. - The novel follows Afghanistan veteran Andy Herring as he returns to Gloucester to captain his family’s tuna fishing boat, the Blue Wonder. - Andy Herring reconnects with Amanda, the combat medic who once saved his life in Afghanistan. - Carroll said the book grew out of his visit to New England and his time in Gloucester. - Carroll met Captain Bob Cook during a fishing charter and later used Cook’s real name and the name of Cook’s boat, the Fat Tuna, in the novel. - Carroll visited Gloucester House on a Saturday afternoon and wrote while observing locals and patrons. - More information is available on Les Carroll’s website.

The details: - Carroll served 28 years in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard. - His service included two deployments to Afghanistan. - Carroll said his mission has been to tell the stories of those who serve. - His previous work includes the novel This Troubled Ground and the nationally aired public television documentary Bringing the Fallen Home. - The novel blends military fiction with maritime drama. - The story examines the lasting effects of war and the challenge of finding hope after trauma. - The book is set against Gloucester’s historic commercial fishing industry. - The novel also focuses on community as part of healing after service.

Between the lines: - Carroll’s move from South Carolina to a New England fishing town gives the book a new regional setting without leaving behind his core subject: life after combat. - The Gloucester setting appears to function as more than backdrop. It becomes part of the story’s emotional structure, especially around identity, belonging and second chances. - Carroll’s comments suggest the novel draws heavily from lived observation rather than distant research.

What's next: - Carroll is directing readers to his website for more information about the author and the upcoming novel. - The release positions Last Day on the Blue Wonder as the next step in Carroll’s ongoing body of work about service, memory and recovery.

The bottom line: - Last Day on the Blue Wonder turns Gloucester’s fishing culture into the setting for a veteran’s search for home, healing and a future.