The Inner Circle is a 2011 novel written by Brad Meltzer about Beecher White, a young man working in the National Archives.

Hoping to impress Clementine, he takes her to a secret vault which the President uses to review highly classified documents.

While in the vault, they accidentally stumble on a priceless artifact: a 200-year-old dictionary hidden in a secret desk compartment that once belonged to George Washington.

The diary is the spark that ignites an adventure involving Clementine, Beecher and the highest reaches of the national government.

Within the diary is a coded puzzle that hides a dark secret that tracks all the way back to the beginning of the United States.