Jon Crunch: Book Review: Hayley Chill Has Quite a "Day" in Hauty's New Novella

“I’m in a zombie movie.” — Hayley Chill in “Insurrection Day”

Thriller writer Chris Hauty surprised fans when his new digital novella “Insurrection Day” dropped at Midnight EST on Jan. 4, 2022.

On a recent episode of “The Crew Reviews Podcast,” Chris Albanese (a writer himself) said Hauty is “the Beyoncé of the thriller universe” for the clever promotional move (referring to the pop star’s fifth solo album — 2013’s self-titled surprise album — which appeared on iTunes in a similar fashion with no announcement or promotion).

While “Insurrection Day” is certainly a timely title as it regards current events, Hayley Chill’s latest adventure is a story all its own.

Here’s the setup...

As the novella begins, it is 9:07 a.m. on a gorgeous June morning in Washington, D.C.

We find Miss Chill exiting George Washington University Hospital, where she has been visiting fellow “deeper state” operative April Wu, who is recovering from injuries sustained in 2021’s "Savage Road" (read my review).

Her attention is on a GW physician who has been attacked by four men on the sidewalk. The men are in town for a demonstration by white nationalists at the National Mall.

Chill had planned to take an Uber to the U.S. Capitol after the hospital visit. She wants to be present for a Senate vote involving legislation to impose crippling sanctions on Russia (for espionage acts committed in “Savage Road”).

She instead walks. She is going to meet up with her friend Connor Thompson, who works as an aid to majority leader Alexander Rittenhouse. All the while, she is concerned about the increasingly agitated state of the protestors.

Not long after her arrival at The Capitol Building, riled up demonstrators breach bike-rack barricades and storm the doors.

Chill — an Army veteran, former White House staffer, and an agent for the secret organization Publius — has nothing more to rely on in the face of danger than “a plastic lanyard and her two fists.”

Earlier, I mentioned Hauty’s interview with “The Crew Reviews Podcast” regarding “Insurrection Day.” The political thriller writer offers insights into his inspiration for the novella, as well as his overall writing philosophy.

“I’m taking real events and messing around with them,” Hauty told the hosts. “I think of it like sci-fi as a genre... I do ‘poli sci-fi’.”

Hauty, a long-time screenwriter, is one of the more unique writers in the thriller world. The genre benefits from his quick-fire prose and engaging “third person, present tense” voice — a style that includes “foreshadowing nuggets” for secondary characters (something I first commented on in my review of 2020’s “Deep State”).

The author has created a compelling female protagonist in Hayley Chill.

As I worked my way through the ~130 pages of “Insurrection Day,” I found it reassuring to have a character with Chill’s “sheer normality and calm countenance” on the scene.

I hope we see Hayley Chill featured in future novellas and short stories — “interstitials” as Hauty’s agent refers to it.

In 2018, I reviewed Lee Child’s “No Middle Name: The Complete Jack Reacher Short Stories” compendium. In that review, I wrote: “As much as you want to gain the bigger picture in a fictional character’s arc — and the arc of a writer’s career — it is the little moments that you live for as a reader.”

It is those little moments that often have the biggest impact. That impact was definitely felt at the conclusion of “Insurrection Day.”

Like a well-oiled action movie, Hauty’s prose chugs along at a brisk pace. Despite the story’s lean length, readers will gain new insights into the mind of Hayley Chill.