Customer Reviews

Special Agent: My Life on the Front Lines as a Woman in the FBI

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is the most inspiring book I have read about a woman's career since I became familiar with Ms. Jane Goodall's books about her pioneering work in Africa with chimpanzees.

Many people will see Ms. Candice ("don't call me Candy") De Long as a real-life Clarice Starling (the FBI agent in Hannibal). I think she is more impressive than that. This fascinating book recounts her three lives as a psychiatric nurse who worked with violent patients and did home health care for poor people, an FBI special agent (specializing in profiling of repeated, sexually violent offenders) from 1980 through 2000, and as a divorced mother raising a son alone. Each side of her life is equally impressive, and she is the kind of person we all should admire. She has always done her duty, and we are all the better for that. While many pioneering women in "men's" professions often were given "token" roles, Ms. De Long wanted and went to where the action was. During her career, she rescued a child from a pedophile abductor, captured a terrorist who had murdered three men, and caught a Class A fugitive. She was also present and part of many famous investigations. Her memoir will give you a much better idea about crime and how the FBI and DEA combat it. The book also contains many lessons for how women and children can avoid becoming crime victims.

When J. Edgar Hoover died in 1972, there were no women field agents. By 1980, around 4 percent of the agents were women. At her retirement in 2000, this had risen to 15 percent. Ms. De Long sacrificed a lot to become an agent. She had to leave her young son for 16 weeks for the initial training. She missed a lot of evenings and weekends with him to do surveillance. The training included a lot of harrassment (female and general). For example, she was made to fire a shotgun so often in one day that she developed a permanent injury that kept her from being able to use that shoulder for firing a shotgun again. Another time, she had to box a large man who knocked her out cold. Her starting salary was half what she had made as a nurse. She could accept that. "I wanted to lead a heroic life." She certainly did succeed in that objective. She took the men on at their own game, and was proud of being called one of the "b_____s with badges." Her signature was the fedora she always wore at the Bureau.

Some of the famous cases she worked on included the Tylenol tampering, being part of the surveillance team on the Unabomber leading up to the arrest of Ted Kaczynski, and the brothel closings in Chicago.

She correctly says relatively little about her personal life. But some of the anecdotes will keep you laughing for days. When she was asked to be a hot dog mother in her son's third grade class, the children noticed that she was packing. She got a lot more respect after that, and was invited back to talk about her work. Another time, she accidentally noticed a surveillance suspect while driving around and tailed her. The team had lost the suspect. Only well into the chase did she realize that her son was in the back seat. She kept him safe while her eye was peeled on the suspect.

The profiling work will intrigue you. You will learn about all of the different kinds of creeps who victimize women and children. It was amazing how well the profiles predicted who the guilty party was. Using the profiles allowed the FBI and local police to find the suspects much faster than would otherwise have occurred. Since these are repeat offenders, lives were saved and injuries were avoided as a result. Part of the worst of this was that many times the women could have been saved if someone had called the police. "If you are ever assaulted, never count on help."

The stories of the harrassment she endured from insecure males in the FBI will amaze you. She indicates that conditions improved over time. One of the most ridiculous examples was when she was sent to the home of an informant to babysit his child while the bust went down. She put up with this only because the safety of an innocent child was involved.

I was even more impressed by her work as a psychiatric nurse. Shooting tranquilizers into writhing, distrubed patients being held down by 7 orderlies was probably more dangerous than any of the arrests she did for the FBI. There she had a gun and usually lots of backup.

Her courage was most impressive. When she arrested the terrorist, she kept waiting for her partner to put the cuffs on while she had the drop on the suspect. Eventually, she looked around and realized that her partner was sheepishly waiting in the car calling for back-up. In her haste to make the bust, she didn't take time to put on her bullet-proof vest. Fortunately, the error did not lead to harm, but she took a grave risk in the process. She was astonished to find that the terrorist was more frightened of her than she was of him.

Money problems eventually caused to need to moonlight as a nurse. The moonlighting stories are very entertaining. At first, she kept bumping into agents while she was working the wards. To avoid this, she started doing home nursing in the poorest neighborhoods. This dual career eventually led to her needing to retire in the middle of administrative hearings about whether she was being unprofessional in her moonlighting. Someone should have cut her more slack.

I was impressed by her courage, her idealism, her persistence, and her commitment to doing the right thing. I hope that all young women (and their parents) who are thinking about taking on a dangerous career will read this book. You will be very inspired.

My hat's off to you, Ms. De Long! You're way more than a five star person.

Ms. De Long and Ms. Petrini have done a fine job of writing about this fascinating life, and you will enjoy what they have to say.

After you finish reading this book, I suggest that you rethink your ideas about what women and men can and cannot do. This book once again proves that anyone can do anything, if they want to badly enough.

Live up to your potential to serve others!

Read this along with the memoir, Seductive Poison and found both quite eye opening. Although the two women authors, DeLong and Layton of Seducitve Poison were on opposite sides of the barrel, so to speak, both tell a riveting story of life on the inside of an all-consuming organization. DeLong on the side of the law and Layton running from it, then back into its cradle.

I'm even MORE paranoid than I was before now that I've finished Candice DeLong's book. Her tales of the cases she's been involved with are truly intriguing and often chilling. However, if you're looking for an inside scoop on the FBI, you certainly won't find it here. DeLong doesn't offer any suprising revelations about the hardships of being a woman in this blue-suit environment, nor does she give her reader any critical analysis of the inner workings of the FBI. But, it is a very entertaining (if unsettling) read. At the end of the book, DeLong offers some tips on lessening your chances of becoming a crime victim, but the overall message of the book seems to be a rather doomed one: crime happens, and it happens to people like you and me for no real reason at all.

From 1980-2000, Candace DeLong was a highly respected agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Now retired from the agency, DeLong no longer has to abide by confidentiality rules. Teamed up with Elisa Pedrini, DeLong chronicles her career as a woman in the FBI.

Candace joined the agency at a time when few women were considered for the job. Sexism and harassment were the accepted norm back then. Like many women in male-dominated occupations, DeLong had to work twice as hard as male rookies to earn the respect of her superiors.

In "Special Agent," DeLong describes many of the cases on which she worked including the Tylenol tampering case of Chicago. She was also on the front-line as profiling became a valid tool in crime solving. In fact, one editorial quote on Amazon compares her to Thomas Harris' popular character, Clarice Starling.

DeLong doesn't discuss much of her private life, yet she is very candid about her work experiences, both praising and criticizing those within the Bureau. I figured there would be a lot of camaraderie, but I was also surprised to read how petty and competitive the agents can be as well.

My favorite portion of "Special Agent" discusses DeLong's involvement in the Unabomber case. She was part of the surveillance team in Montana and was responsible for detaining Ted Kaczynski while other agents searched his shack. The dialogue and interaction between the two described here is completely fascinating.

The details and pacing of the book held my attention the entire time. The subject matter may be tough for some. However, these are true stories within the FBI, and can't be sugarcoated.

"Special Agent: My Life on the Front Lines as a Woman in the FBI" is an interesting book. Readers will be fascinated by the lenient glance into the files of the FBI. DeLong is an incredibly brave woman and her story is worth your time.

Candice Delong's experiences as head nurse in a maximum security psychiatric ward and, ultimately, as a member of the FBI have made this a top-notch book. For most of us, "The Silence of the Lambs" makes for an interesting read, but for Candice Delong the world is full of real-life "Hannibal Lecters", rapists, child molesters, serial killers and a wide assortment of other criminals. Needless to say, Candice has tread where many women would dare not go. Through the pages of this book, the reader will get a first hand experience of what it is actually like to walk in the shoes of one "who has been there and done that."

From her experiences at Quantico to real life in an imperfect world, the reader is left with an overwhelming respect for this woman's inspiration, dauntless courage and endless determination to make the world a better place. As a former street counsellor who worked on the streets of a Canadian city, I can attest to the fact that one is forever watching over their shoulder. There is no shortage of con artists, rapists, child molesters and serial killers in society, no matter where one lives. They live in affluential homes and in the recesses of the darker corners of the world. Some criminals are the typical "nice guy next door" - the Ted Bundy's of the world; others prefer to blend in among the homeless where they feel less conspicuous.

Candice Delong's account of life inside the FBI, particularly as a woman, is a real eye-opener. At the time she became a member of the FBI women had not been among the ranks for a very long time. This is a true-life story worth reading, deserving of a five star rating and highly recommended.

This isn't the best book I've ever read but it's a fun and interesting read about her career in the FBI. She wisely chose stories from her career (which must have been difficult with so many years of experience) and always included down-to-earth humor and humility when appropriate. When she entered, the FBI was still adjusting to having women agents but she remained strong, taking the high road on many occasions when she was not treated fairly. As a result, her career flourished and her life is a story worth hearing. She is truly a trailblazer. Just nobody call her Candy.

I bought this book because I happened to see it on a library shelf and thumbed through it. I could hardly put it down, but it wasn't my local library, so I couldn't check it out that day. I was so intrigued by it I just clicked into Amazon.com and bought it immediately.

It's written in a wonderful flowing style that takes you right into her world. I'm also in a similar occupation and have been doing it since 1989, so I related well to her problems. But it was more than that, it's just a plain good read!

Warning: it can be a bit graphic at times, about PG 13 level.

This book focuses on two major points: a woman trying to suceed in a man's profession (at that time) and the daily life of a FBI agent. Special Agent Delong obviously had a very interesting career and this book seeks to capture that. But this book also gives insight into the daily politics of life and the FBI--that is, it shows the daily struggle of one person in corporate like world which in this case is the FBI. For anyone interested in the FBI or one agent's view I highly recommend this book. After reading this you will know the sacrifices each FBI agent goes through every day of their career.

This book was simply captivating, plus it reminded me how hard it was to be treated with respect in the early 80's as a working woman. Not that Special Agent DeLong whines about it at all - she merely states it like it was, and sometimes still is. The cases on which she worked were of such interest and variety that I couldn't put this book down. Even those with a passing interest in law enforcement would do well to read this book. Ms. DeLong is the kind of lady you'd like to have as a friend and a neighbor. She is a great example of a courageous single mom and working woman. This would be a great book for young women, late high school to college age, who are trying to figure out what they want to do professionally.

A good read. Everyone I've ever known in law enforcement always had great stories to tell, but Candice seems to have had a particularly good run. I was fortunate enough to have worked with her at the beginning of her career when she volunteered to work surveillances on the terrorist organization FALN. In a time when there were few females in the FBI, (or law enforcement), her femininity was an asset and her enthusiasm a delight. She not only volunteered her own time to work surveillances but recruited several other young agents, male and female, to participate in surveillances that required scores of people and were extremely sensitive. Her selflessness paid off when, by chance, she became the pivotal agent surveilling the main terrorist target in downtown pedestrian traffic and on public transportation. Her recounting of what she did to win at the "cat and mouse" game of surveillance is more than entertaining. Her stories have the insight of someone who's been there and should serve as encouragement to anyone who wants to pursue a career in law enforcement.

Rick Hahn

Special Agent - FBI - 32 yrs