Award-winning author Rick Treon signed a one-book deal on Thursday with publisher Black Rose for a novel to be released in 2021.

Black Rose also published Treon’s debut thriller, Deep Background, which won the 2019 Pencraft Award for Literary Excellence in Suspense.

“I’m beyond excited to once again work with the talented team at Black Rose,” Treon said.

Since its release in December 2018, Deep Background has reached more than 26,000 readers combined in paperback, eBook, and audiobook formats, according to Black Rose.

The novel — which is set in the Texas Panhandle and follows the story of two Amarillo reporters covering a brutal small-town murder — has been ranked as high as 16th on Amazon’s U.S. Conspiracy Thrillers chart and peaked at No. 50 on Amazon’s overall Best Sellers list in Canada.

While Deep Background was a suspenseful crime novel, Treon said the new project is more of an action thriller. It’s also set in the near future, he said.

“You might call it a speculative spy thriller,” he said. “It’s The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Man in the High Castle, but written by Brad Taylor.”

That pitch, along with a synopsis and opening pages, sold Black Rose on the novel.

“We are eager to schedule this project on our book calendar,” said Reagan Rothe, publisher at Black Rose, which had a novel nominated for an International Thriller Writers award this year.

A firm release date has not yet been set, and no financial details on the agreement were released.

His deal with Black Rose comes less than three weeks after Treon’s second novel hit bookstore shelves.

Let the Guilty Pay, the first book in the Bartholomew Beck thriller series, was released July 4 by Fawkes Press in Paperback and eBook.

Treon said he’s nearing completion on a sequel to Let the Guilty Pay, which was a BookBub Featured New Release and is in production to be available as an audiobook later this year.

The sequel, which will be the second in a two-book deal Treon signed with Fawkes Press in 2019, is set for release next year.

Fawkes Press also published Treon’s prequel novella to Let the Guilty Pay, titled Live with the Truth, in April.

“For me to have released two titles this year is outstanding, at least to me,” Treon said. “And to know I will have two novels coming out in 2021 feels flat-out amazing.”