Award-Winning Military Journalist Les Carroll Releases Novel Set on Massachusetts' Historic Fishing Coast

GLOUCESTER, MA, UNITED STATES, July 31, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Award-winning journalist, documentary filmmaker, and Air Force veteran Les Carroll has released his third novel with Koehler Books.

Last Day on the Blue Wonder follows Afghanistan veteran Andy Herring as he returns home to Gloucester to captain his family's tuna fishing boat, the Blue Wonder. When he reunites with Amanda, the combat medic who once saved his life on an Afghanistan battlefield, the two attempt to build a future together while confronting the dangerous pasts they thought they had escaped.

After serving 28 years in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard, including two deployments to Afghanistan, Carroll made it his mission to tell the stories of those who serve. His military experiences have shaped much of his writing, including his previous novel This Troubled Ground and his nationally aired public television documentary Bringing the Fallen Home. And while his new novel continues this work, it extends itself into new territory—far from Carroll’s hometown in South Carolina.

While on a trip to New England, Carroll visited in person the town he’d only experienced through one of his favorite TV shows, Wicked Tuna. While in town, he met Captain Bob Cook, who welcomed him aboard one of his fishing charters. According to Carroll, everybody aboard the boat that day became a character in his novel, and Captain Bob even agreed to let him use his real name and the name of his champion boat, the Fat Tuna.

“There’s just something about Gloucester,” Carroll says. “Everyone who visits there feels it. Everyone who lives there—and especially those who grew up there—own it.”

On a Saturday afternoon at Gloucester House, he observed the patrons and visited with the locals, clacking away at his keyboard. Through his interactions with those who understood the area more than anybody, the story began to unfold. “I didn’t have to go looking for characters or the setting. They came to me.”

Blending military fiction with maritime drama, Last Day on the Blue Wonder explores the lasting effects of war, the challenges of rebuilding a life after service, and the healing power of community. Against the backdrop of Gloucester's historic commercial fishing industry, the novel examines what it means to find hope—and home—after trauma.

“Gloucester and its people have experienced triumph and tragedy—like most cities across America. But for me, it provided the perfect location for a story about courage, romance, survival, and second chances.”

For more information about the author and his upcoming novel, visit lescarroll.com.

Hannah Tonsor Burke
Koehler Books
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