Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator [Kindle Edition]

Gary Noesner (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Noesner, a former FBI hostage negotiator for 23 years, was the first person to run the bureau's Crisis Negotiation Unit. Looking back, he recalls some major standoffs along with his efforts to understand and interpret the behavior of hostage takers, sometimes finding negotiations thwarted by the actions of his own colleagues. The compelling centerpiece of the book is Noesner's analysis of "what went wrong at Waco" with the Branch Davidians when negotiation and tactical teams were working at cross purposes. After opening with a dramatic account of a man who abducted his estranged common-law wife and their son and was holding a gun to her head, Noesner describes his own "quintessentially American childhood," when he got the idea for his life's work from a segment about the FBI on The Mickey Mouse Club. Drawing on official reports, personal notes, memos, and memories of conversations, he writes with a simple style that nevertheless generates much suspense, recreating past events with a vivid intensity certain to fascinate true crime readers.
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From Booklist

Formerly chief of the FBI’s unit for hostage negotiation, Noesner interlinks principles for talking to cornered desperadoes with cases from his career. Some of those caught nationwide attention, such as the disastrous 1993 siege of religious zealots in Waco, Texas, and here Noesner tells his side of the story. In his discussion of less-well-known incidents, Noesner underlines his core belief that negotiation is more effective in peacefully resolving standoffs than law enforcement’s method of tactical assault. Although professionals are the audience for that debate, true-crime readers have plenty to absorb in Noesner’s accounts, which include several episodes of the husband-abducting-wife-and-kids scenario, a couple of prison riots, three 1990s showdowns between the law and beleaguered fanatics (the Branch Davidians, the Montana Freemen, and the “Republic of Texas”), and a miscellany of terrorism and kidnapping incidents. Working his ideas into the narrative, Noesner reconstructs negotiating dialogue both as a critique of techniques, such as establishing rapport with a hostage taker, and as life-or-death drama. The latter, plus the inside-the-FBI tone, renders Noesner’s recollections a guaranteed attraction in new-books displays. --Gilbert Taylor

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 372 KB
• Publisher: Random House (September 21, 2010)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003EY7JE4
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,961 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Gary Noesner retired from the FBI in 2003 following a 30 year career as an investigator, instructor, and negotiator. A significant focus of his career was directed toward investigating Middle East hijackings in which American citizens were victimized. In addition, he was an FBI hostage negotiator for 23 years of his career, spending the last ten years as the Chief Negotiator for the FBI. He retired as the Chief of the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit, Critical Incident Response Group, the first person to hold that position. In that capacity he was heavily involved in numerous hostage, barricade, and suicide incidents; covering prison riots, right-wing militia standoffs, religious zealot sieges, terrorist embassy takeovers, airplane hijackings, and over 120 overseas kidnapping cases involving American citizens.

Following his retirement from the FBI he became a Senior Vice President with Control Risks, an international risk consultancy, and most recently spent five and a half years working a kidnap case involving three American defense contractors taken hostage by the FARC in Colombia, South America. He continues to do kidnap management consulting work for Control Risks part-time.

He has three grown children and resides in Virginia with his wife Carol.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great storytelling & captivating insights, September 21, 2010

By 

Dave Cullen (Denver) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator (Hardcover)

This was such a rewarding book. I've always been fascinated by that very basic question: when someone is disturbed and irrational enough to actually pick up a gun and take hostages, how on earth do you talk him down?

What was most startling to me was that until very recently in human history--a few decades ago--we didn't know.

The more I learned, the hungrier I got to learn more. How interesting that so much of it amounts to listening.

I had previously learned a great deal about hostage negotiators researching my book COLUMBINE. (The head of the FBI investigation in that case, Dr. Dwayne Fuselier, was a leading negotiator and I spent a great deal of time with him.) Fuselier spoke very highly of Gary Noesner, so I was curious.

I expected to skim through much it, but found myself hanging on every word. There is a great deal to learn here, and it was just as interesting to watch the story of how difficult it was to teach the FBI these ideas. Individuals picked them up rather easily, but making the institution embrace them was a bigger challenge.

My biggest surprise, though, was what a natural storyteller Noesner turned out to be. He has the easy style and readability of a lifelong novelist. It was a gripping and thoroughly enjoyable read.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Inside Story of the FBI's Crisis Management Program, September 24, 2010

By 

Ranger5 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator (Hardcover)

This book is a fair and balanced look inside the FBI's crisis negotiations and crisis management programs. Gary's observations of the process from an operator's view point is priceless and right on point. He writes in a non-critical converational style, pointing out the positives as well as the negatives associated with each incident. Unless you have been where the author has,you cannot understand or appreciate the tension involved in "stalling for time" when human life is at stake. Gary's reasoned approach to negotiations made a tremendous contribution to the rethinking of crisis management within the FBI. The mistakes highlighted in this book are easily made when managers/leaders rush to judgement at a crisis. This book should be required reading for any law enforcement professional. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good read as well!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Read, October 20, 2010

By 

stevevinmo - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator (Hardcover)

From the first chapter, where the unexpected happens to the last page, I was enthralled with the recounts and stories. The authors' descriptions of circumstances and the negotiation processes transports you to the scene and gives a bird's eye view of the events. I not only enjoyed the book thoroughly but learned how the FBI negotiation process has developed over the years and the authors involvement in that process.