Nash falls

This bone-crunching series launch from Baldacci (To Die For) introduces Walter Nash, an investment banker who transforms into a brutal instrument of vengeance. Nash lives a privileged but uneventful life with his wife, Judith, and teenage daughter, Maggie. Following his estranged father's funeral, Nash is pressured by the FBI to assist in their investigation of his firm's CEO, Everett "Rhett" Temple, who's laundering drug money for Victoria Steers, the ruthless head of a Chinese cartel. Though Nash learns that three of the FBI's previous informants on the Steers investigation were murdered, he agrees to go undercover. After his cover is blown, Victoria's goons kidnap Maggie and frame Nash for child abuse, forcing him to go on the run. Only his father's best friend, Vietnam vet and security expert Isaiah York, can help him punish the people who've torn his family apart. In Baldacci's long list of heroes, Walter Nash is among the most memorable: a truly sympathetic everyman whose gradual hardening into a violent vigilante feels entirely earned. The book's shrewd pacing impresses, even if the narrative ends a touch too abruptly. Wherever Baldacci chooses to take Nash next, readers would be well advised to follow. Agent: Aaron Priest, Aaron M. Priest Literary. (Nov.)

A workaholic's life turns upside-down in Baldacci's new suspense series. Walter Nash has a wife and a college-age daughter, and he spends every day working on deals for an investment company, at the expense of his family life. When his father passes away, he discovers his father's friends despise him. To make matters worse, the FBI informs him that his boss is using the company to launder money and wants him to provide the documentation they can use to dismantle the operation. Nash agrees to assist the FBI, but when his boss discovers his duplicity, the blowback threatens to destroy everything and everyone he loves. Baldacci is, as always, an expert storyteller, and readers will root for Nash as his world falls apart. The storyline and the horror of Nash's experiences are brutal at times, and the novel concludes without a full resolution, suggesting that there is more to his story forthcoming. VERDICT Baldacci ("6:20 Man" novels) has done it again. His new series starter is a worthwhile investment that will have readers eager to follow Nash in his continuing pursuit of justice.--Jeff Ayers