She Treads Softly: Nash Falls

Saturday, October 25, 2025

Nash Falls

Nash Falls by David Baldacci
11/11/25; 448 pages
Grand Central Publishing
Walter Nash #1

Nash Falls by David Baldacci is a very highly recommended, un-put-downable thriller and the first book in a new series featuring Walter Nash.

As the head of acquisitions for Sybaritic Investments, Walter Nash, 40, works hard and makes a very good living. He, his wife Judith, and daughter Maggie live in an upscale gated community. The night after Walter and his family attended the funeral of his estranged father Vietnam veteran Tiberius (Ty), an FBI agent approaches him. They need him to become a whistleblower and their inside man to expose criminal conduct at Sybaritic by chief executive Rhett Temple. Temple is tied to Victoria Steers, an international criminal that the FBI has sought for years.

Nash will be the fourth man they've had on the inside. The other three died under mysterious circumstances, but Nash has little choice in accepting. He can negotiate the terms, however. Once Nash uncovers the information they need, he is exposed by someone. The tables are turned against him and they try to ruin him and his life. The FBI suddenly can't help but Nash knows who can help him and has other plans in mind.

This extremely well-written, fast-paced, intense thriller held my complete attention throughout. I'll be the first to admit that you need to set some disbelief aside, but I willingly did so because the novel is so compelling and well plotted. It starts out as one novel in which a man helps to uncover crime and transforms into a novel where a man is willing to risk everything to seek justice and revenge.

Walter Nash is portrayed as a fully realized individual with strengths and weaknesses who transforms himself in this novel. As a character driven thriller, Nash is a wonderful man to root for. You will wish him success and some measure of peace, if possible. The secondary characters also come to life, with clear distinctions between protagonists and antagonists.

Nash Falls is a perfect choice for anyone who enjoys fast-paced character driven thrillers. This is the first book in a new series and I must say it is an impressive start. The one drawback is that ends on a cliffhanger and we'll all have to wait for the conclusion of the story. Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.