Book Review: Deep State by Chris Hauty

Hauty, Chris. Deep State. 2020. New York, NY: Emily Bestler Books (Atria), a division of Simon & Schuster

My customers love political and espionage thrillers. Like LOVE them. I have several who read them faster than I can find them to recommend. So, I am always on the lookout for new ones. I had seen Deep State mentioned on the Twitter account "Atria Mystery Bus" (which is a lot of fun to follow, btw, with all his "live mystery unboxing" shenanigans). When I was at Bouchercon in Dallas in November, I was lucky to come across an ARC of this title and snatched it up.

Deep State is a debut from Chris Hauty, a screenwriter who has worked at all the major movie studios in nearly every genre of film. You would expect someone like that to be able to set a scene and keep the pace moving, and boy, does he. This is a very good debut, with few narrative issues you sometimes encounter with first time authors.

And there are a couple of twists I did not see coming AT ALL, which always pleases me to no end. As an avid reader, I am not often so surprised.

The main character, Hayley Chill ("cool" name!) escaped a tough upbringing in West Virginia by joining the army. When she leaves the military, she winds up as an intern at the White House, working for the Chief of Staff of the current administration. Older, and more mature, than the other interns, she quickly makes a good impression on those in power around her, including the president.

When Hayley discovers the Chief of Staff dead, apparently of a heart attack, only she suspects foul play. Not used to trusting anyone, she keeps the information to herself for a while. And she is proven correct in her reticence when she comes under attack for nosing around the case. With multiple twists that made me say "what?" and enough pace to keep me turning the pages, I ended the book hoping I would see more of Hayley Chill in the future.

If you squint, you will certainly see similarities to the current political realm of the U.S., but the author does a good job of changing characters enough to keep it interesting and not beating the reader over the head with his own ideology, whatever that may be. This is one thing I have to watch out for, because I do not usually know the political inclinations of my customers. The best political thrillers, in my opinion, manage to tell an exciting, page-turning story without preaching. And I believe Chris Hauty has accomplished this.

Deep State is the first book I finished this year, and I have already recommended it to several of my customers. Which makes them happy. And that makes me happy. More like this, please!