A churning mix of literary suspense and coastal noirwhere the clash between land and sea unearths Silicon Valleys darkest secret, and three people must reckon with all that is at stake in an age shadowed by greed, totalitarianism, and nuclear terror.

Daybreak. West Virginia. A small nuclear bomb detonates beside an Appalachian highway. The weapons explosive yield is meager, the death count blessedly low. And yet: It is historys first act of nuclear terrorism, and it threatens to tilt the world beyond reckoning.

Months later, surfer and lifeguard Jamie Palmer is patrolling his domain, a treacherous stretch of wild California coast, when he responds to a mysterious nearshore boating accident that jettisoned two people overboard. The victims turn out to be Palmers best frienda brilliant, renegade Stanford University professorand the mans teenage son, Luca. The professor drowns, Luca survivesleaving Pa