Storm Rising by Chris Hauty

Published by ‎ Atria/Emily Bestler Books on May 3, 2022

The “storm” in Storm Rising is a white separatist conspiracy to carve a whites-only nation out of Texas and other states that fall within the Permian Basin. The conspirators expect to gain power by controlling the nation’s largest oil deposits. A congressman, local politicians, a few military leaders, and some cops are orchestrating the scheme. The Storm movement blends white supremacy, nationalism, and hatred of government, the three pillars of far-right extremism. The congressman doesn’t care about hatred or ideology, but he does care about power. He wants to see his face on the dollars minted by the Free States of America.

The story begins with exploding oil storage tanks near Texas oil wells. The bodies of two Spanish-speaking migrants are found at each site. Ignoring the improbability that terrorists would be so inept, the far right immediately claims that drug cartels, or maybe just migrants in general, have declared war on the US. The Texas governor dispatches the Texas Army National Guard to help score a political victory from the mayhem. The real victory that the conspirators hope to achieve is more sinister, although only as a matter of degree. Stoking racial and ethnic hatred hurts the country even if it is not meant to further a civil war.

Hayley Chill is an operative of the “deeper state.” Trained by the military and a proficient mixed martial arts fighter, Chill works for an ambiguously defined entity called Publius. The organization is tasked with “preserving the nation’s constitutional democracy.” These days, that’s a tall order.

This is the third Hayley Chill novel but the first I’ve read. The story mentions that Hayley saved the nation from a president who was a Russian spy, presumably in one of the earlier novels. I can’t imagine where he got that idea (said the reviewer in a comment that drips sarcasm).

Hayley catches wind of the white supremacist conspiracy while digging into the mystery of her father’s death. Hayley is haunted by the memory of finding her father swinging at the end of a rope. She thought he died in Iraq, but she found him dead in the home of his old buddy Charlie Hicks. Did he come back to the US in secrecy and assume Hicks’ identity? Why did he abandon his family? Her only clues suggest that her father (and/or Charlie Hicks) were involved with something called the Storm that will not be good for democracy. She convinces Publius to send her to Texas to investigate.

The thought that insurrectionists could hold their newly acquired nation is far-fetched, but their “ace in the hole” plan to do so is the final component of the conspiracy that Hayley discovers in her investigation. It is the nature of conspiracy plots to be far-fetched but this one has currency, given the number of Americans who supported the overthrow of democracy by overturning a fair election. I give Chris Hauty credit for plugging obvious plot holes, making the conspiracy sufficiently plausible to encourage my willing suspension of disbelief.

Hauty’s prose gives the story a sense of urgency, making this a “just one more chapter before I sleep” book. The action is relentless, but Hauty does not sacrifice characterization as he speeds the novel to a satisfying conclusion. Hauty adds interest to the story by giving capsule descriptions of the lives that minor characters led before they played a role in the novel and/or the lives they will live after the novel ends. He gives heroic roles to people who, like most Americans, care about democracy and resent the idea that a “civil war” would suddenly make them residents of a new country they neither want nor support. White supremacists won’t like this novel, but the majority of thriller fans should find that its combination of action and characterization pushes all the right buttons.

RECOMMENDED