At the start of Chris Hauty's tense thriller Deep State, scrappy army boxer Hayley Chill abruptly exits the military to become a White House intern under President Richard Monroe, a divisive, Russia-loving blowhard. She receives a hostile reception from the other interns, who all come from money and Ivy League-educations and mistake her West Virginia twang for a lack of intelligence.
But Chief of Staff Peter Hall and President Monroe view her as a cut above the rest of the wannabes within her department, after witnessing Hayley's quick thinking during a staff meeting. Before either of them can fast-track her career, however, Hall is found dead at home one morning while awaiting a brief to be delivered by Hayley. Since she discovers the body, Hayley is questioned by an FBI agent who suspects her of withholding information.
And she is. Hayley has discovered a CIA-led plot to assassinate the president. The people behind the plot see President Monroe as a major threat to democracy, but Hayley sets out to stop them.
On the surface, Hayley seems to be a wide-eyed true believer of the president's absolute power. But first-time novelist Hauty makes her a formidable, cagey adversary to anyone who stands in her way. Jealous of attention paid to Hayley by Hall and Monroe, the other interns and staff repeatedly try to sabotage her but fail miserably. When the mercenaries hired to carry out the assassination come after her to stop her meddling, she always manages to elude them. Deep State lets readers think they know what's going on, right up until a jaw-dropping finale. --Paul Dinh-McCrillis, freelance reviewer