She Treads Softly: Nearshore

Sunday, July 19, 2026

Nearshore

Nearshore by Steve Hawk
8/18/26; 352 pages
Penguin

Nearshore by Steve Hawk is a so-so literary novel about homegrown nuclear terrorism.

It starts when a small homemade nuclear device is set off in West Virginia claiming two lives. Then the action flips to the west coast where lifeguard Jamie Palmer responds to a boating accident where the victim turns out to be his good friend Alex “Boneyard” Bonnard, a Stanford University professor, and surviving is Bonnard's teenage son, Luca. As godfather to Luca, Palmer steps in to care for him as a guardian. This is when he meets Chelsea Wu, a doctoral student, who confides to Palmer, along with Luca who also knew what was going on, that she and the professor uncovered a connection between the founder of a Silicon Valley megacorporation with the bomb. Then a second device is detonated in Nevada, claiming eight lives and...

This is a well-written literary thriller which starts out very strong, shows promise, and then inexplicably the choice is made to ascribe political elements to the billionaire megalomaniac antagonists and their conspiracy. Yet again I need to caution an author to keep their personal political/social views to themselves as it diminishes the novel. It is well documented where the current violence originates, so no obfuscation is needed. FYI, ask any coder, billionaire owners of tech companies are not the ones writing code. They profit off of profit, not anger. Hawk gets an extra star because he can write, but I wouldn't recommend this novel. Thanks to Penguin 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.