#1512 The Devil You Know by Chris Hauty

Did you know that each Supreme Court Justice has a protection team (after the most recent confirmation hearings, we shouldn’t be surprised)? Round the clock. Justice Anthony Gibbons lives in Fairfax County, VA. The shift change of the guards has just been done. The day watch is Martin Barnes. Vet, but like all vets, he’s brought back memories better left in hell. He’s been threatened. His family will be tortured beyond comprehension unless he carries out a job. It’s simple. 

Kill Justice Gibbons. Today.

He fights with his inner demons and loses. Strangles Justice Gibbons in the kitchen then turn his service weapon on himself. Media presents it as a cop gone seriously rogue.

Haley Chill’s demons are messing with her too. Back home in nowhere West Virginia for funeral of a school friend who OD’d on opioids. Drowning her misery in tequila shots, she tears up a bar after being hit on by a local. Next day, she awakens to see April Wu sitting in her motel room. Problem is April died (in an earlier book) and now haunts Haley as sort of a ghost of conscious present. And Haley has no recollection of the bar episode last night.

You may recall that Haley Chill is an operative for something called the Deeper State. These are the folks behind so many conspiracy theories. Their goal is to preserve the nation from (mostly) fuckups by elected official. But she’s a mess. In recent books she’s survived a miscarriage, April Wu’s death, the deaths of childhood friends – all instances that have send Haley into a tailspin that ends in the bottom of a bottle.

After the death of Justice Gibbons, the US Marshall’s service has ramped up the Supreme’s protective details. Her Deeper State controller sends Haley to Hawaii where Justice Anita Fisher is vacationing at her vacation home (she’s ‘old money’ wealthy). Haley must don her forged FBI credentials to be an unwelcomed addition to the USMS protective team. Not a bad gig if she’d been welcomed. Haley doesn’t know much about the most recent court appointee. Justice Fisher is not just new, she’s young (mid 40’s), single and due to get married to a best-selling author tomorrow. Small wedding at Justice Fisher’s home, and the USMS says they’ve vetted every invitee and each person working the wedding. It’ll be fine. Unknown to all, Deputy Shaw (the head of Justice Fisher’s USMS team) has received the same phone call Martin Barnes received.

Back up a week or so. A team of 5 Mexican’s has arrived at the Islands. A team leader, a pair of brothers, a guy who lives on killings, and the new addition with dyed blond hair and a history as a surfer. All are highly trained by the Mexican military and since discharged, have been recruited by a drug cartel to handle the messy stuff. Most of them are good family men, love their wives, adore their children. Veritable pillars of their communities . . . until the cartel calls with an assignment. Everything is compartmentalized. They don’t know the full story of why they find themselves in Paradise. They only know their job: kidnap a bus filled with school children and hold them hostage. When the time comes, they may have to kill them all (but the leader devises a plan to further enrichen the team: organ harvesting for the black market). They snatch a bus carrying kids, mostly around 7-14yo, and stash them in an abandoned bomb shelter.

Haley’s job is to help protect Justice Fisher, but she can’t just ignore those children despite what her Deeper State handler says. As you might guess, a number of things kind of coalesce for Haley: the wedding, her fuckup at the reception, the kidnapped kids, Deputy Shaw, Fisher’s husband, one very brave kid, the surfer/kidnapper, and even Justice Fisher. The last half of the book simply flies by.

Haley Chill #5 (somehow we missed Insurrection Day. We’ll get to it. Promise). Hauty again puts Haley Chill in some challenging, but also quite believable circumstances. And the reasons behind why those two sitting Supreme Court justices are targeted will make you even less sympathetic to power brokers doing whatever is necessary to hold onto their power base.

This is the 4^th Haley Chill book we’ve reviewed. And for good reason. See a new title by Chris Hauty? Get it. Get home. Clear your calendar. No need for coffee to help with late night reading. Just get comfortable. You’re gonna be there for quite a while.

Publication date: May 23, 2023.

Thanks to Emily Bestler Books (one of my 2 favorite publishers) and NetGalley for making an advance reviewer copy available.

East Coast Don

 

 

Storm Rising by Chris Hauty

Storm Rising is the third book by Chris Hauty with Hayley Chill as the protagonist. At Men Reading books, we’ve raved about the first two novels, Deep State and Savage Road. See our reviews in this blog of both books. In this third novel, Chill takes on a US based group that wants to secede from the union, and the means of achieving this are carefully hidden through a very clever plot. But, Hayley, a part of an unnamed group that is hell bent on protecting the Constitution, seems to be every where at once, leaving dead bodies in her wake. It’s a disturbing series of events to her own “deeper state” bosses, but even more so to the forces that want to see her dead.

At the outset of this book, I thought there was something cheesy about it, and Hayley reminds me of Dirk Pitt from the Clive Cussler series. I loved Dirk Pitt, but Hayley is more than that. Pitt was always a rather two-dimensional character, and Hayley is portrayed as much more than. She struggles with her dedication to her job and country, and what that commitment means to having any real emotional balance in her life. 

 

I can’t say I didn’t put this book down, but I did read it over the course of a couple days – very eager to see what the author had in store for his characters. I hope Hauty has plans for more Chill stories.

 

Thanks to Emily Bestler Books for the advance reader copy. 

Savage Road by Chris Hauty

 

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Haley Chill. Part 2.

If you took our advice and read Deep State, buckle up. Haley Chill returns. This time, the Army veteran and Deep State asset has jumped up the food chain from White House intern to chief of staff for a Senior Presidential Advisor where her street smarts, guile, ‘eidetic memory’, and political savvy get her the ear of the President.  

The nation is under a series of cyber-attacks directed at utilities and news organizations. Federal response is timid at best mostly due to rival security heads unwilling to put petty jealousies aside for the sake of the nation. One side says it’s Russia. Other side thinks jihadists.

The president is stuck. Our war hero has his own deep secret. He wasn’t born in the US. Actually born in Russia, but political vetting seemed to have missed that minor detail. Despite being raised from infancy in the US, he still clings to his Russian roots to the point of being a mole . . .  and the Deep State knows about him . . . and her handlers have  Haley keeping tabs on the President . . . a President who loyalties seem to be, how shold be say it, fluid. Its Haley’s job to make sure the President stays RedWhite&Blue and not just Red.

The source of the critical hacks is elusive. The hubris of the national security chain borders on childish arguments over who owns the sandbox they play in, forcing Haley to undertake her own off the books investigation.

Let’s get one thing straight. Adding Savage Road to his debut Deep State, Chris Hauty brings a knack for plot twists to the political thriller genre that cannot be denied. Savage Road kicks ass. Clear the calendar, start a fire, get comfortable, gather snacks and beverages, but dont' get too comfortable because Haley will have you on the edge of your favorite reading spot. I think all three of us here at MRB have responded very favorably to Savage Road. Three for three. Can't do much better.

Oh, and did I mention it yet? I know I suggested you all need to pay attention to the publisher. Emily Bestler Books is ground zero for top shelf mysteries and thrillers. Wondering what to read next? Browse the website. Pick one. Trust me. It’ll be a winner. 

Savage Road is brand new. Just released. 

Deep State

 

Savage Road