David Baldacci’s Nash Falls (2025) is the first book of a new crime thriller series featuring protagonist Walter Nash. It’s sequel, Hope Rises, is due to publish in 2026. A prolific author known for his political and legal thrillers, Baldacci often draws on his previous career as a lawyer in Washington, DC, to explore themes of institutional corruption and justice.

The novel follows Walter Nash, a successful but emotionally distant corporate executive whose estranged father, a Vietnam veteran, has just died. Nash’s meticulously controlled life is shattered when an FBI agent coerces him into becoming an informant against his company’s CEO, who is allegedly part of a vast international criminal conspiracy. This recruitment pulls Nash into a violent underworld that threatens not only his life but also the safety of his family. The novel delves into themes including The Deception of Appearances and the Malleability of Identity, The Complex and Enduring Legacy of Fatherhood, and The Hollow Nature of Unearned Wealth and Power.

This guide refers to the 2025 Grand Central Publishing first edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, antigay bias, physical abuse, emotional abuse, child abuse, child sexual abuse, child death, death by suicide, substance use, addiction, sexual content, racism, cursing, illness, and death.

Plot Summary

Walter Nash, a 40-year-old senior executive at Sybaritic Investments, reluctantly prepares for the funeral of his estranged father, Tiberius “Ty” Nash. Nash reflects on his affluent life with his wife, Judith, and their 19-year-old daughter, Maggie, which stands in contrast to his working-class upbringing. He recalls a close childhood bond with Ty, a decorated Vietnam veteran, that shattered when Nash, at 14, chose to play high school tennis instead of football. His father viewed this as a betrayal, and their relationship never recovered, culminating in a failed reconciliation attempt where Ty physically assaulted Nash.

At the funeral, Nash is surprised by the large crowd, which includes Ty’s boisterous motorcycle club, the “Fuck Off” club. He is introduced to Rosie Parker, his father’s live-in girlfriend, whom he didn’t know about. Ty’s best friend, Isaiah “Shock” York, delivers a profane eulogy, during which he publicly insults Nash, calling him a “stuck-up prick” and claiming Ty felt the same (14). After the funeral, while speaking to Nash, Shock implies the estrangement was about more than just sports. Later, at the cemetery, Ty’s attorney, Mort Dickey, informs a stunned Nash that he is the executor and a beneficiary of his father’s will.

That night, Nash gets drunk alone, and when he steps out onto his patio for fresh air, FBI Special Agent Reed Morris steps out of the shadows. Morris reveals that the FBI is investigating Sybaritic Investments and its CEO, Everett “Rhett” Temple, for criminal activity. He attempts to recruit Nash as an informant, implying that refusal could lead to his own implication in the company’s crimes.

The narrative shifts to Rhett, who is berated by his father and Sybaritic’s founder, Barton Temple, for missing the funeral and underestimating Nash’s importance to the company. After the meeting, Rhett visits his half-sister, Angelina “Angie” Temple, who has a developmental disability.

To verify the FBI’s claims, Nash consults his neighbor Hal Rankin, a former FBI agent, under the guise of vetting a movie script. Rankin confirms that the Bureau’s tactics are plausible but warns that informants are sometimes killed. Nash begins his own covert investigation into Sybaritic’s finances and uncovers a sophisticated money-laundering scheme within a subsidiary, involving shell companies and a second set of electronic books. He also discovers that Barton Temple’s business empire was saved from collapse during the 2009 financial crisis by a suspiciously overpriced real estate deal with a Singapore-based firm tied to Chinese interests and a criminal mastermind named Victoria Steers.

The narrative again shifts to Rhett and reveals that he is deeply involved with Steers’s organization. He witnesses the murder of Peter Lombard, a comptroller at a Sybaritic company and suspected mole for the FBI. As punishment for security leaks, Steers’s men carve a long, superficial cut up Rhett’s arm as a mark of ownership.

Nash meets with Mort Dickey and learns the details of Ty’s will. Rosie Parker is granted a life estate in the house, contingent on Nash’s approval. Shock receives a portion of Ty’s cash assets. The bulk of the estate, Ty’s settlement from the government for being exposed to Agent Orange, is divided between Rosie, Shock, and a $350,000 trust for Maggie, managed by Nash. Nash is also granted first choice of his father’s Vietnam war mementos and the personal effects of his mother, who died of breast cancer five years earlier.

Shortly after, Maggie presents Nash with a business proposal to become a social media influencer, funded by her college trust and an extra $300,000 from her parents. Nash harshly rejects it, creating a rift between them. They later reconcile when he informs her of the trust and offers constructive guidance on how to rework her business proposal.

At the office, Rhett tells Nash about Peter Lombard’s apparent death by suicide. Nash connects this death to two others connected to the company, Alexandra Singer and Danielle Cho, realizing that they were likely the FBI’s three previous, failed attempts to recruit an informant. He tries to avoid the situation altogether by moving to another firm, but though he has been sought after in the past, the FBI blocks his efforts.

In Washington, DC, Nash meets with Agent Morris, Agent Amy Braxton, and Deputy Attorney General Bernard Duvall. He presents his findings on the money laundering and Barton’s financial history. They brief him on Victoria Steers’s vast criminal empire, which is backed by the Chinese government and aims to destabilize the US with fentanyl trafficking. Nash agrees to cooperate in exchange for $1.8 billion and security for his family.

While Nash is away on business, Judith comes home late. Maggie confronts Judith about having an affair, though she does not know it is with Rhett. The next day, Nash returns to find Maggie missing and the back door of their home forced open. The police, led by Detectives John Ramos and Carroll Summers, begin their investigation.

Nash begins his own investigation and learns from their gated community’s security guard, Billy Adams, that two fake police officers entered the community on a phony 911 call around the time Maggie vanished. Adams is then killed in a suspicious car accident. A video is posted online in which Maggie accuses Nash of years of sexual abuse.

Believing the video, Judith calls the police, and Nash flees with help from Shock, who had promised Ty that he would help if Nash ever asked. The police find planted evidence, including hair, clothing fibers, and shoe prints, that frame Nash for the abuse, Maggie’s disappearance, and Adams’s death.

Shock takes Nash to his secret training facility. There, Nash reads a letter from his father that reveals the true cause of their estrangement: When he was 14, Nash, embarrassed by his mother, publicly denied knowing her to impress a girl. Ty overheard and never forgave the betrayal, though he expresses deep love and regret in the letter.

Nash asks for Shock’s help to get to the people who took Maggie. He begins an intense, year-long physical and mental training regimen with Shock and his partner, Byron Jackson. Shock also finds out that the leak exposing Nash to Steers came from Agent Braxton’s husband.

During this time, Barton Temple is killed by Rhett and his stepmother, Mindy, who stage it as a death by suicide. Rhett is cut from the will but manipulates Mindy into ceding him guardianship of Angie’s trust, giving him a supermajority of company stock.

Nash’s appearance is completely transformed with new muscle, a shaved head, tattoos, and a broken-and-reset nose. He adopts the identity of Dillon Hope. The news that Maggie’s remains have been found completes his psychological transformation, and he becomes fully committed to the plan.

As Dillon Hope, Nash returns to his hometown. He orchestrates a scenario where he saves Rhett and his new mistress, Elaine Fixx, from thugs, leading Rhett to hire him as his personal bodyguard. Because of his radical transformation, no one recognizes him, and Nash moves into the Temple estate and begins gathering intelligence. Because he is Rhett’s bodyguard, he is privy to confidential conversations.

Detective Ramos reveals that Barton’s death is being investigated as a homicide, and Rhett successfully frames the fugitive Nash for the murder. Steers sends an operative, Lynn Ryder, to pressure Rhett into finding Nash. After learning from Judith that Nash might have contacted Shock, Rhett and his team raid Shock’s training facility but are forced to flee by a fake alarm.

Nash overhears Rhett telling Ryder that Judith now doubts Nash’s guilt. Fearing for Judith’s life, Nash relays the threat to Agent Morris and races to his old home. After he convinces Judith that he is working with the FBI and she is in danger, he saves her from Steers’s assassins, killing all three. Agent Morris arrives, and Nash uses code to alert Morris to his true identity. Nash and Morris agree to fake Judith’s death to ensure her safety. After a tense goodbye with Judith, Nash departs. In a closing comment to Morris, Judith remarks that Dillon Hope’s actions are expectant of an Eagle Scout—a term she’d repeatedly used to describe her husband, Nash.

The novel’s cliffhanger closing comes days later, when Rhett convinces Ryder to allow Nash to accompany him on a mandatory trip to Japan to meet with Victoria Steers. Nash relays this new mission to Morris and asks him to look after Judith, admitting he may not make it back alive. Nash resolves to complete his vendetta against Rhett and Steers: He is Ty Nash’s son and should never be underestimated.