Author: Chris Hauty

Publisher: Emily Bestler Books

ISBN: 9781982175856

A deep state operative is on the hunt for information about her late father and stumbles upon a white supremacy plot that will tear the nation apart. As the operative chases down clues about her dad, she discovers his connection to the plot may be more direct than she’s prepared to accept. Author Chris Hauty brings back his whip-smart, self-sufficient protagonist Hayley Chill in the most thoughtful, introspective book in the series, Storm Rising.

Hayley Chill is doing something she never thought she’d do: biding her time. Her job in the White House disappeared the minute she exposed the previous president’s underhanded schemes, and now she’s waiting for her next assignment from the deeper state organization that she was recruited to join. Although Hayley is used to waiting on orders from her superior, she’s also getting a little restless.

The restlessness, she knows, also comes from another source. Ever since discovering her father dead, Hayley has been plagued by questions. Her dad was her hero. As far as she knew, he’d died on tour in Iraq. The fact that he lived close to her was a big enough shock; coming upon his dead body and then learning he’d assumed the identity of a fellow soldier nearly threw her off completely. Why did he do it? What was he hiding?

After discovering secret papers in the house where he lived, Hayley suspects her dad’s death is less a tragedy and more a murder. With the blessing of her handler in the organization, Hayley flies to Texas to track down some leads. The papers her dad left her—because she’s convinced he left them for her to find—are in code. The cipher she needs to crack the code is somewhere in the Lone Star state; so are the answers about why her father had a different identity for so long.

Once Hayley gets on the ground and starts asking questions, it’s clear her father was involved in something frightening. A white supremacist organization has made plans for several states to secede from the country and form their own. Over and over, as Hayley tracks people down, she finds lines drawn from her father back to this organization, but she can’t figure out what role he played. 

Hayley is also dealing with some troubling personal issues. Her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Sam, is currently off again, but Hayley realizes she may not be free from him just yet. She also finds herself reflecting on her place within the organization she works for. Hayley has a deep-seated commitment to the Constitution of the United States, and the covert operation supports—well, mostly—her pursuit of the truth about her father. But as her investigation keeps tangling with her professional life, Hayley realizes the two may be more at odds than she previously understood.

Author Chris Hauty brings back the self-confident Hayley Chill in her most inward-facing adventure yet. While Hayley’s commitment to the Constitution is what kept her going in the two previous books in the series, here readers will find Hayley more conflicted than ever before. She wants to know the truth about her father, yet she has to unearth the truth about the white supremacist organization at the same time and she’s not sure she wants to know where the two intersect. After two full books of Hayley’s unwavering commitment to the operation at hand, watching her doubt herself in this way is a surprise.

Fans of the Hayley Chill series will find everything they love about the protagonist well in place here. Even with all of the uncertainty in her life at the moment, there are still plenty of moments where Hayley has no trouble setting her sights on a person and taking them down within minutes. Her bravado and ability to dig deep when she’s injured, lost, or outnumbered shine once again. Hayley is most definitely a heroine worth cheering.

Her uncertainty might surprise some readers who look forward to Hayley’s self-assurance, and some passages include a little too much background. Hauty undoubtedly included those paragraphs for anyone coming to the book without having read the previous two, but of the three this is the least able to stand on its own. For the full effect and charm of Hayley, readers should read the first two in the series.

Those who enjoy political thrillers that echo current events will want to check this out. Others might need to read the other books first. I recommend that Storm Rising Borders on Bookmarking!