Grab your paddle — the Pickleball Club is finally taking the court.

HARBOUR OF LIES hits shelves October 1, 2026, and yes, I know what you're thinking: "Alec, that's not how we spell harbor." Turns out someone beat me to Harbor of Lies, so I borrowed the British spelling instead. Consider it my one act of literary rebellion this year.

Here's the setup: a crew of retired spies — eight of them, alphabet-agency alumni with a serious pickleball habit — settle into the sleepy town of Salmon Bay, WI, expecting nothing more dangerous than a bad backhand. Then, mid-match, they spot flashing lights down the street. A well-known real estate agent has just been fished out of the harbor, and the bloodstains on his shirt suggest he didn't simply trip and fall in. Turns out decades of espionage training translates surprisingly well to small-town murder investigation. This is book one of what's shaping up to be a six-book series — think Thursday Murder Club meets Martini Club, but with a slightly younger cast.

You can preorder HARBOUR OF LIES here —

In other book news: The Jill Quint series is getting a full cover makeover. Right now, lined up on a shelf, they look less like "a series" and more like "sixteen books that showed up to the wrong party." One hasn't been touched since 2013 — practically vintage at this point. I studied a pile of other series covers and I've got a plan to make them look like they actually belong to the same family. Also: Emerald Bay Murder is about to hit audio, so you can now enjoy the mayhem hands-free.

Galena Writing retreat

Personal update: I'm mostly on the other side of two total knee replacements, which means I'm back in exercise class doing jumping jacks like a functioning adult, and I can even kneel on the May knee — a milestone I never thought I'd celebrate this hard. My writing output took a hit while I was busy just trying to concentrate on, well, anything. But a couple weeks ago I drove out to a writers' retreat in Galena, IL, and got the gears turning again. It was a "production, not craft" retreat — 17 writers across every genre imaginable, all just trying to hit word counts rather than debate the finer points of craft, since craft looks wildly different depending on whether you're writing romance, sci-fi, or murder-by-pickleball.

Hope your summer's been great,

Alec