Deep State by Chris Hauty

Hayley Chill is one of the White House's newest interns. Recently discharged from the Army, she seems an unlikely candidate for an internship, especially one with the chief of staff himself. Her resume aside, however, Hayley is incredibly smart, quick witted, and cunning. She's also gifted with an eidetic memory and a tenacious determination that works just as well inside the White House as it has in every other aspect of her life. But her mettle is tested when she finds the chief of staff dead in his home.

The death is initially determined to be due to a heart attack, but Hayley is in possession of evidence that could prove otherwise and those responsible will stop at nothing to ensure their agenda is carried out without complications. 

There's a lot of set up for Hayley. We meet her as she's about to fight, boxing for the army. Then she's discharged and heads to the White House. She meets her fellow interns, she has a chance to endear herself to the chief of staff, winning him over with her accent and her smarts. And then she wins over the president himself. The other interns are jealous, the chief of staff's assistant is jealous, and then Hayley catches the eye of a handsome secret service guy and gains his interest as well.

And all of that happens BEFORE anyone dies.

Hauty also takes the time to include some little asides letting us know, for example, that one of the interns will go on to lead a cult while another becomes a hedge fund manager. And while these asides were amusing, I did have to wonder what it had to to with the main plot. I also had to wonder if Chill is being set up as a series lead, although nothing so far indicates this.

It's pretty clear in the reading, even without seeing Hauty's bio, that he has a background in screenwriting. Scenes within the story are absolutely set up the way a screenwriter would do so. Amazingly, this and the meandering bits mentioned above don't actually hang up the pacing of the story all that much. The story moves quickly and has enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing and amply entertained.

Since I listened to it on audio while my husband was out of town and I was hanging out with my one year old, I should note this is the kind of book where, if you're distracted by a child intent on pulling every item out of your pantry and you realize suddenly that you missed the last few minutes of narrative, you can still easily hold the thread of the story. Which is not a bad thing, except that in a thriller I kind of want some blink and you miss them clues.

Deep State is an entertaining debut, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that I loved it. I wanted it to be smarter—it wasn't a predictable plot but the players were all exactly what I'd expect out of a spy novel.